Montessori a Growing Trend for Middle Schools

When students attending Northwest Montessori Middle School, near Woodland Park Zoo in Seattle, arrive on Monday morning, they assemble for a community meeting. Cynthia Yost, classroom co-teacher, greets the 10 students in the class and outlines the integrated subjects they will study during the week.

Working individually and cooperatively, the students will continue studying the Early Americans – from the first human migrations 20,000 years ago to the first encounters with European explorers and settlers. This is the thematic topic for the year in science and social studies.

This week the students are focused on the Paleolithic or Stone Age period. For earth science, they will learn about the mechanisms of cave formations. For social studies, they will take a trip to the nearby zoo to identify a spirit animal as the cave dwellers did. And for art, the students will mix animal fats with earth pigments and paint their spirit animal on a surface that mimics limestone caves. Writing a spirit animal legend, reading and research about the Paleolithic period, and ongoing study in mathematics will round out the week.

While much learning will be accomplished, the middle school students will not use a textbook to do it. Instead, they will answer questions in as many ways as possible and employ many different types of thinking in the process.