The Third Teacher

     Last week I wrote an overview of the Reggio Emilia approach and how it relates to literacy in early childhood and the primary grades. I touched briefly on Reggio's idea of the learning environment, but I think it's so interesting and inspiring that I'm going to devote this week's entry solely to the Reggio classroom.

     The Reggio Emilia approach refers to environment as the "third teacher," after parents and teachers. This means that the learning environment should be constructed in such a way that it is not just a container in which learning occurs, but is a space that inspires and facilitates learning in all students. Teresa Strong-Wilson and Julia Ellis collaborated on Children and Place: Reggio Emilia's Environment as Third Teacher (Theory Into Practice, 2007), a wonderfully written article that explores the concept and effectiveness of the Reggio learning environment.

     Strong-Wilson and Ellis identify eight principles that guide the construction of a Reggio Emilia classroom: aesthetics, transparency, active learning, flexibility, collaboration, reciprocity, bringing the outdoors in, and relationships. The Reggio Emilia approach looks at the learning environment from the child's perspective. Strong-Wilson and Ellis contrast the environments of a typical kindergarten classroom (visually busy, and full of commercially-produced, stereotyped images that may "silence the actual lived experiences of those individuals learning together") with an environment that inspires inquiry by utilizing natural light:

"Because it was located where the undergrowth was thickest, the classroom was often enveloped in a greenish light. Topics rich in local anecdote and story, like the sasquatch, could come alive. The filtered greenish light also reminded her of her "deep down" image of the child and those "secret spaces of childhood" where she used to play hide-and-seek with other children in the neighborhood."

      Reggio Emilia encourages teachers to look closely at their classrooms to envision ways that it could "speak" to the children and invite investigation and inquiry. Examples provided by Strong-Wilson and Ellis include placing small mirrors around the classroom, positioning easels in naturally lit areas, and introducing provocations--carefully selected items in the environment that may spark discussion and imagination, such as a pencil and paper in the block corner or a pizza box in the kitchen center. Other strategies for enlivening the learning environment include introducing realistic objects for play (real pasta in the play kitchen) and storing materials in transparent containers so that children are inspired to sort, organize, and recognize patterns of color and texture. Such changes, assert the authors, "animate the environment" for children, foster care for their surroundings, and encourage them to think inventively about materials.

     Following the eight principles identified in the article, Reggio Emilia classrooms have many common elements, including flexible, open arrangements that promote social interaction, neutral spaces with limited visual distractions, use of natural and authentic materials (baskets made of wicker instead of plastic), natural light, plants, and other "outdoor" elements, easy access to materials, and documentary displays of student work. Have a look at some truly inspiring Reggio Emilia classrooms:

     I can hear you saying, "Wow! Those are really amazing spaces. If only we could all work in a dedicated Reggio environment with custom-built furniture!" But don't dismay. For those of us who work in traditional classrooms but would like to integrate Reggio methods, there are plenty of resources out there to make a space more Reggio-friendly. One blog I especially like is The Third Teacher, an educator from Canada who works to integrate Reggio Emilia methods in her classrooms. In one of her posts, she gets some feedback from an experienced Reggio educator who makes the following suggestions:

• move the group carpet out of the corner to the center of the room. This created a welcome focus and allowed for centers to branch of from the carpet and make use of the walls.

• hang all the poems written on chart paper in one low and accessible place (the side of the filing cabinet). The poems were previously spread out in all areas of the classroom and added to the visual distraction. The children actually used them more by reading them and lifting them like a hanging book for reference.

• remove the alphabetized word wall off the display boards and replace with a usable clear pocket chart. The children then found the word they needed and could take the word (on card stock) to any centre in the room, then return it.

• cover busy patterns or unappealing surfaces with felt – to soften the dividers used for a reading area.

• add a sheer curtain over a reading area to define the space and filter the light from the window. This change enhanced the reading center and made it more inviting to the children.

• remove a shelf that blocked a view of the carpet area when entering the classroom to the side of the room as a divider between two learning centers.

• remove the yellow and red bins.

You can see the difference before and after makes in this space!

The Hundred Languages of Children

 As you know, I am a self-professed Waldorf fanatic. I love most everything about Waldorf Education: the aesthetic, the warmth, the slow pace, the integration of art, music, and movement, the focus on rhythm, the respect for nature...I'll stop myself there, but I could wax poetic about Waldorf for many hours. There is one place that I have found Waldorf to be lacking, though: curriculum. Waldorf follows a very structured, prescribed curriculum through the grades. The content is based on Rudolf Steiner's philosophy of child development, and while I do think that some children live a path parallel to the Waldorf curriculum, many do not. Not all children grow or develop at the same pace, and not all children in seventh grade will be interested in the voyages of explorers (even if those children are embarking on the great voyage of adolescence).

Better and more inspiring in my eyes is the flexible, inquiry-based approach to curriculum found in Reggio Emilia schools. I find myself drawn back again and again to the amazing projects completed by Reggio students, and I decided to read more on the topic for this week's blog post. Jean Anne Clyde, a professor of education at University of Louisville, partnered with a group of elementary and early childhood educators to write the article, Teachers and Children Inquire into Reggio Emilia (published in Language Arts and accessible here). Clyde et al identify five distinctive characteristics of Reggio Emilia education:

          1. Children as Protagonists of Their Own Learning
              Howard Gardner describes Reggio's vision of children as "active, engaged, exploring young
              spirits capable of remaining with questions and themes for many weeks, able to work
              alongside peers and adults, welcoming the opportunity to express themselves in many
              languages, to create new ones, and to apprehend and enter into those modes of expression
              that are fashioned by their age mates."

          2. The Hundred Languages of Children
              This phrase, seemingly synonymous with Reggio, comes from a poem written by its
              founder, Loris Malaguzzi. Malaguzzi describes children as possessing a hundred different
              means to express their ideas and questions. In our literary context, I think we may rephrase
              this as children having "a hundred literacies." Reggio students are encouraged to use a
              multitude of media to describe their thinking, including (but definitely not limited to)
              writing, drawing, photography, sculpting, and acting. Aligning with Gardner's theory of
              multiple intelligences, different students will prefer different means of communicating. Part
              of the Reggio teacher's duty is ensuring that students have easy access to the materials they
              need, and the classroom becomes an atelier (studio).

          3. Inquiry-Based, Long-Term Projects as Vehicles for Learning
              As briefly explained above, Reggio Emilia does not operate on a curriculum, but allows
              students to develop large, long-term projects based on their inquiry. Usually an inquiry topic
              is followed by a whole class, and comes from student questions, often after observing a
              spontaneous event, like a milkweed pod bursting into seed. The Reggio teacher helps guide
              student inquiry through open-ended questions, but students take the reigns for how the
              project progresses. Clyde et al write that "investigations result in real-life problem solving
              among peers, and numerous opportunities for creative thinking and exploration."

          4. Documentation as Communication: "Making Learning Visible"
              One of the most time- and work-intensive responsibilities for a Reggio teacher is
              documenting the process of student learning. As the students go about investigating and
              exploring, the teacher collects physical artifacts of their learning (drawings, writing, etc),
              and documents non-physical work through photographs, videos, and audio transcripts. All
              of this information is then compiled into documentation panels, poster displays that work as
              a timeline of student learning and documentation of the project's evolution. Documentation
              panels can be viewed by administration, other teachers and students, parents, and--most
              importantly--the students themselves, who often form new questions and ideas when
              reviewing their previous work.

          5. Teachers as Researchers and Collaborators
              Reggio teachers are both guides and co-learners. They keep up with student questions and
              ideas, and work to anticipate possible paths that projects could take. They work as
              mediators, helping children to ask meaningful questions and develop goals for their
              learning. They plan experiences that may trigger student inquiry, and they collaborate with
              other teachers to build deeper understanding of students as learners and teachers.

(please note: If I were to make this list, I would also include a sixth characteristic: The Classroom as the Third Teacher. Reggio Emilia places great emphasis on the need for aesthetically pleasing, flexible spaces that allow students to freely explore their inquiry projects and enhance their ability to learn.)

     Much like the situated literacy project The Donut House, Reggio Emilia projects treat literacy as a tool for investigation--a means to getting to the end, which is understanding and communication. Clyde et al describe an investigation by a first grade class into the mystery of an empty pond on the school grounds: "[The students] learned to read informational texts, use the index and table of contents, present information using various modes, and assert hypotheses. Their use of diagrams, labels, and drama to support their hypotheses was an efficient and effective way to apply principles of summarizing, analyzing, and accommodating information." For the students in a Reggio Emilia classroom, writing, math, and art are not subjects to be studied, but just a few of the hundred languages that students utilize when exploring their world.

The more I learn about the Reggio Emilia approach to education, the more inspired I become. I still have many questions to answer: What is the place of more traditional literacy instruction in Reggio? What does Reggio look like for older children? Like the students in Reggio schools, I will continue to strive to understand, and I'm sure I'll form many more questions on the way. But I do know that I am very excited by the notion of these Hundred Languages. I'm ready to listen.