Language in the Montessori Primary Classroom
Language in the Montessori classroom begins with the use of words to communicate needs, feelings and ideas. There are many activities designed to increase vocabulary and the use of language to communicate. Some of the basic activities are the telling of true stories, the commands or “say and do” game, pictures on the wall, picture cards, singing and reading stories. Preparation for reading begins with auditory training. One of the activities for training the ear is the “I Spy” sound game designed to train the ear to isolate the beginning, middle and ending sounds in words.
Children learn to identify the cursive sandpaper letters by the sound that they make. This helps your child to eventually become successful sounding out words and building them using the moveable alphabet. In the Montessori classroom, we teach the cursive letters first. Children are introduced to print letters when they begin to read. The names of the letters are introduced later.
However, the process of decoding sounds into words is a long one. Each child develops the ability to successfully blend sounds together and recognize their meaning at their own pace. Help from home supports this process. Reinforcement at home helps children to reach this readiness point. The following provides an overview of the language progression in the Montessori primary classroom.
In the child's third year, Reading Workshop and Writers' Workshop takes place with the goal to introduce reading and writing strategies. Our school meets the Montessori standards as well as the Connecticut Core standards.
TESTING
Student progress is monitored in a variety of ways. Daily teacher observation is a foundational way that Montessori teachers track progress. This is the most important method for giving "just right" lessons to each individual child and to identify children who may need intervention.
Formal tests are also given.
In the first year, three-year olds are tested for vocabulary. We use the Peabody Picture Inventory.
In their second year, children are tested using the Literacy Profile Test.
In the third year, children's language and reading skills are tested using the Literacy Profile Test and the DRA reading test.
Children learn to identify the cursive sandpaper letters by the sound that they make. This helps your child to eventually become successful sounding out words and building them using the moveable alphabet. In the Montessori classroom, we teach the cursive letters first. Children are introduced to print letters when they begin to read. The names of the letters are introduced later.
However, the process of decoding sounds into words is a long one. Each child develops the ability to successfully blend sounds together and recognize their meaning at their own pace. Help from home supports this process. Reinforcement at home helps children to reach this readiness point. The following provides an overview of the language progression in the Montessori primary classroom.
- Use of language to get needs and ideas understood
- Vocabulary
- Reading literacy
- Letter-sound correspondence, sandpaper letters
- Blending sounds
- Moveable alphabet
- Metal Insets (training of the hand for writing)
- Recording process (writing cursive letters and connecting letters to form words)
- Phonetic and sight words, phonograms
- Matching objects to word labels
- Phrase reading
- Sentence and book reading
- Function of the word: article, noun, adjective, verb, adverb, preposition, conjunction with use of the grammar symbols
- Suffix/prefix rules
- Sight words, compound words, synonyms and antonyms
- Reading Comprehension
- Mechanics: capitalization
- Punctuation: period, question mark, exclamation mark, apostrophe, comma, quotation marks
- Creative writing
- Book reports
- Spelling and penmanship
- Dictionary skills
- Poetry
In the child's third year, Reading Workshop and Writers' Workshop takes place with the goal to introduce reading and writing strategies. Our school meets the Montessori standards as well as the Connecticut Core standards.
TESTING
Student progress is monitored in a variety of ways. Daily teacher observation is a foundational way that Montessori teachers track progress. This is the most important method for giving "just right" lessons to each individual child and to identify children who may need intervention.
Formal tests are also given.
In the first year, three-year olds are tested for vocabulary. We use the Peabody Picture Inventory.
In their second year, children are tested using the Literacy Profile Test.
In the third year, children's language and reading skills are tested using the Literacy Profile Test and the DRA reading test.