The Three Period Lesson

Montessori took the idea of the Three Period Lesson from the work of Edouard Seguin. He divided the lesson into three stages in order to obtain an association between an object and its corresponding name when he was working with his special needs children.

The First Period consists in pronouncing the necessary noun or adjective connected with the object very clearly, without adding any other information e.g 'This is smooth (help child to feel object), this is rough'. "Since the lesson in terminology should consist in establishing an association between a name and its object or with the abstract concept of the name itself, both object and name should strike the child's understanding at the same time, but only the name itself, and not some other word, should be pronounced. (The Discovery of the Child p 156, Chap 11).

The Second period begins a few moments later and is there to ascertain whether the child had managed to make the correct associations. The teacher asks the child questions very slowly and distinctly, using only the noun or adjective that has been taught e.g. "Which one is smooth? Which one is rough?" The child will be asked to point his finger at the relevant object and the teacher knows whether or not he has understood. This stage is the most important one of the three and comprises the real lesson and assistance to the associative memory.

When the teacher sees that the child understands she can repeat the question a number of times to confirm the relationship and fix it in his mind. If, however, she sees that he has been unable to do so she does not correct him, but suspends the exercise without letting the child feel in any way uncomfortable, and delays it until another day.

The third period is a rapid verification of the first one and consists of the teacher asking the child "What is this?" and the child replying appropriately "It is smooth" etc. Again this stage can be repeated a few times to aid the association. Montessori saw that this technique could be introduced to all areas of the curriculum where a child needed to make a particular association. What was important was that the teacher was sensitive to the developmental levels of the child. Should she discover that he was not ready to make the appropriate mental step, she should not in any way coerce or correct him, but should be content to wait for another opportunity.

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