Fresia Monterrubio Montessori Foundation Course Ghana Montessori International Accra December 3 2010 "The Three Period Lesson"

The "Three Period Lesson" was developed by Edouard Seguin (French psychiatrist known for his educational work with children having cognitive impairments). At this respect, Dr Montessori advised that the Three Period Lesson is to be introduced after the child had much experienced distinguishing trough the use of the sensorial material. The purpose of the Three Period Lesson is to provide the child the vocabulary related to the material he/she has been using. Depending on the material the child will learn names of objects (i.e. geometric shapes) or the names of the qualities (colors) of the material. The periods are the following: Step 1: Naming Period After the child had experienced with the material the teacher presents to the child two objects of contrast, isolating them from the rest of the material. Isolating the objects will allow the child to concentrate and provide a better experience. Depending on the child experience the teacher can ask the child if he/she knows the names of any of the objects shown in the material. In the case the child knows already some objects names the teacher will select then the ones he/she is not familiar with. The teacher will point in a concise manner each object separately and will give the name (i.e. "this is red" or "this is a circle"). If the purpose is to help him/her to recognize geometric shapes and associate their stereognostic sense with the new concept the teacher can ask the child to trace with his finger the shape while repeating the new word. For example "Would you like to trace square", "This is square". The teacher will need to repeat more than once the naming for the two objects.

Step 2 Recognition Period

In this period the teacher has the opportunity to review the vocabulary and see the connections the child is making. This step will allow the teacher to evaluate if the child makes the name-object association successfully. For that purpose the teacher can ask the child to point the name or characteristic of one of the objects. For example "Show me red", "Show me circle". This process has to be repeated several times until the teacher feels the child has acquired the association of the new vocabulary. If the child makes a mistake during the

association process he /she does not need to be correct but it shows that he/she was not ready yet for this step and the teacher should rather demonstrate again in a near future. It is not necessary in this case to continue with the third period, since the purpose of the exercise it s to accomplish the child full success. Step 3: Remembering Period

The purpose of this step is to ask the child to remember the name corresponding to the pointed object. The teacher will point the object and ask: What is this?" "Which is this? The child should be able to remember the names of the objects by him/her self. If there is a failure is the teacher who did not feel the child was not ready to do this step, and it is need to be done in the future. Additional step that can be introduced is "Making the association with the child environment". (Step 4)

The teacher can ask the child to look for the name of the object in the classroom, i.e. "Do you see something blue in the room?" "Do you see any circle in the room?" This step will contribute to the child expansion of his /her knowledge. For example the child will notice that the clock looks like a circle. Additional Notes

The "Three Period Lesson" does not need to be presented all in one day. The second step is the most decisive period and should last the longest. It is

important to keep in mind that every time the child acquire a new knowledge, his/her self esteem is becoming stronger, because he/ she feels more independent and would like to learn more, becoming more and more an inquirer .