Reggio Emilia is a program that started in Italy after WWII. The program started with Loris Malaguzz, a young philoshper-journalist, and the parents in the surrounding community. Since the town of Emilia-Romagna, Italy was destroy the community decided they would rebuild the schools. The parents wanted to have a say in how the school would work.
In Italy law 444 was passed in 1968, it stated that all children have the right to a high-quality pre-primary early childhood experience, including innovations and experimentation in communities, schools and classrooms about how best to encourage young children's early learning.
Another fact that sets this program apart from any other program is that in Italy about 30% of the tuition is paid for by the community.
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| In the 1940's the first Reggio Emilia school started. |
The Fundamental Process
There are three main roles in this process, image of the child, interdependence, and the teacher. The image of the child is important because it acknowledges children's creative, intellectual and communicative potentials. The interdependence is about the well-being of teaches and families. Lastly you have the teachers who dedicate themselves to learning about and with the children they are teaching.
Successful Curriculum
According to the Reggio Emilia Approach you need to have the merits of children's and teacher's questions. It is important for the teacher to ask the student questions in order to get to know them and to be understand them. The value of multiple languages as knowledge construction and knowledge of representation. When I say multiple languages I do not mean another language like Italian, French or Spanish, I mean symbolic language. The way the children express themselves through symbolic language is by drawing, sculptures, writing, and dramatic play. Lastly we have the value of documentation. I found documentation to be very interesting because the teacher documents everything, not just hanging up a picture in the classroom but by talking to the child and asking them to explain what they did. I feel that this is a great step because they are able to understand how the child is understanding the material being taught.
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| The boy in the picture is using his creativity because he is using the ball as fire ball. Him and his brother were playing a game and they were pretending fireball were coming after them. |
The parents are very involved in this program. They help hire the staff; help the cook decide what to put on the menu, and the parents are involved in the classroom. The teachers get to know the parents and child before the child is in the classroom. Which I think is different than most other programs. The teachers get to learn the child's interest ahead of time to help them be better prepared for when the child is put into the class.
The Environment
In the Reggio Emilia approach the environment as seen as another teacher. The students learn to be creative with the natural resources given by the environment such as sticks from a tree. Most of the teachers try to bring the outside in the classroom. In most classrooms the teachers don't use the lights they use the natural sunlight that shines through the windows. Mirrors can surround the floors and walls to capture adults and children's attention, as well as photographs of the children's artwork or just of the children themselves.
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Sometime the teacher will take their students outside to explore the environment and base the class lesson on what is around them. |
The video below is another great resource to use if you want to see more pictures and here about how one particular school uses the Reggio Emilia approach.
For more information you can email me at blancaam89@yahoo.com and/or visit the links below.
If you live in the Austin area here is a list of a couple schools that use the Reggio Emilia approach:
