 Italy is a country with a long tradition of appreciating beauty, art, food, family, and communication.

 Of utmost importance in Italian culture is the celebration of the family as the core of any community.

 New ideas about education emerged after World War II in the small, wealthy, northern Italian town of Emila Romagna (Reggio Emilia).

 In this area of Italy, the people value their culture and traditions. Both parents and the community work together in the

education process.

 The approach has inspirations from Vygotsky, Dewey, and Piaget.

 Loris Malaguzzi (1920-1944) , is the theorist and innovative educator who is considered to be the founder of the Reggio Emilia approach.

 Malaguzzi, along with some parents, came together to create a publically funded school for young children.

 The program started to provide care for children after the war while their mothers went back to work. It is now a well respected and developed program all over the world.

 They have a project approach to curriculum where subjects are not separated. The curriculum is integrated.

 The focus of the curriculum is in-depth project work emerging from the interests of the children.

 It’s a child initiated approach where they are free to explore and investigate projects. They can do their own research through internet, guest speakers, field trips, parents, people in the community, etc.

 Projects emerge from children’s ideas and/or interests.

 Projects should be long enough to develop over time, to discuss new ideas, to revisit and see progress.

 They should be personal from real experiences and important to the children. (ie: The topic would not be the rainforest if you live in Los Angeles!) A goal is to expose children to real life contexts.

“This had lots of layers and a lot of people live inside there. It has windows for them to look out. See it’s a apartment!”

 They are encouraged to use their natural curiosity to explore their environment and make discoveries independently.

 The child’s interests and curiosity lead the curriculum of the classroom. Teachers observe and identify these interests and develop projects and activities to reinforce concepts.

 The teachers role is more consultative than instructional. They serve as facilitator.

 “Scaffolding” (ACTIVE facilitation)

 Teachers listen, observe, and document children’s work.

 Documentation is a vital part of the Reggio Emilia approach.

 Documentation allows parents/visitors to see what the children have been doing, as well as gives the children the opportunity to reflect upon their experiences.

 Pictures, audio and video tap, transcripts, notes, and other products of children’s work are all considered documentation.

Documentation

Documentation Panels

 School honors children’s rights to have a beautiful, functional space in which to work and play.

 The classroom environment is seen as the “third teacher” because children construct knowledge through their interactions with it. They carefully organized space and arrange materials.

 The layout of the classroom’s physical space encourages encounters, communication, and relationships.

 The arrangement of structures, objects and activities encourage choices, problem solving, and discoveries in the process of learning.

 Children’s work is prominently displayed.

 Art is important to Italian culture.

 Reggio Emilia schools typically have a studio (Atelier) which is filled with materials such as clay, paint, and writing instruments.

 Children use these materials to represent concepts that they are learning in a hands on way.

 The hundred languages is a key principle of the Reggio-inspired approach. It refers to communication and emphasizes the importance of providing children with one hundred ways to share their thinking of the world around them.

 This is a common concept in Reggio Emilia classrooms. These “languages” refer to the way that students think and learn about ideas, like innovation, construction, fantasy, art, music, dance, building, writing, talking, etc. These ideas help children construct an understanding of their environment.

The Hundred Languages

No way. The hundred is there.

The child

is made of one hundred.

The child has

a hundred languages

a hundred hands

a hundred thoughts

a hundred ways of thinking

of playing, of speaking.

A hundred always a hundred

ways of listening

of marveling, of loving

a hundred joys

for singing and understanding

a hundred worlds

to discover

a hundred worlds

to invent

a hundred worlds

to dream.

The child has

a hundred languages

(and a hundred hundred hundred more)

but they steal ninety-nine.

The school and the culture

separate the head from the body.

They tell the child:

to think without hands

to do without head

to listen and not to speak

to understand without joy

to love and to marvel

only by the holidays.

They tell the child:

to discover the world already there

and of the hundred

they steal ninety-nine.

They tell the child:

that work and play

reality and fantasy

science and imagination

sky and earth

reason and dream

are things

that do not belong together.

And thus they tell the child

that the hundred is not there.

The child says:

No way. The hundred is there.

Loris Malaguzzi

Reggio Emilia Founder

(translated by Lella Gandini)