Portledge School is known for the Reggio-Emilia inspired learning model they have in place at the Lower School. Division head Alan Cohen and his faculty were able to share some techniques with Efleda P. Tolentino and her class from the Long Island University Graduate School of Education at C.W. Post.
Tolentino’s class has been studying how classroom spaces can create opportunities that springboard learning, a primary component of the Reggio-Emilia philosophy that Portledge has put into practice. Tolentino’s students come from many different undergraduate backgrounds, ranging from forensic psychology to early childhood special education, but all were eager to explore the Reggio-inspired approach that Cohen describes as “making the ordinary extraordinary.”
A Reggio-inspired classroom supports the interests of the children who are at the center of learning. Based on careful observation and reflection, materials intended to provoke exploration are colorful, orderly and kept at child level and accessible so students may have the opportunity to investigate independently.
The result is that even young children not only answer questions, but also pose questions, hypothesize and test answers as a group. It is the beginning of project-based collaborations that these students will revisit throughout their education at Portledge and beyond.
Last May, Portledge hosted an international symposium entitled “Shifting the Paradigm” which featured Lella Gandini, the Reggio children liaison in the U.S. for the dissemination of the Reggio approach. It is no wonder then that Tolentino turned to Portledge School as a local authority on this type of education model.
