ACE Montessori Enriched Home Preschool, Cobourg
---- Where Independence and Character are Nurtured----
Language
In Language, children are given opportunities to further explore vocabulary and language, which will lead to a mastery of writing and reading.
In Montessori education, writing is introduced before reading. Reading is taught phonetically through hands-on lessons.
There are many indirect writing preparations that are introduced at any early age such as The Metal Insets, Listening Games, Sandpaper Letters and the Large Moveable Alphabet.
Examples of Practical Life Activities& their Importance in Child Development
Sandpaper Letters:
This work helps children to learn the phonetic sound of each letter, the shape of the letters in the alphabet, to obtain muscular memory as they trace the sandpaper letter, to enhance listening and speaking skills and helps to prepare a child for reading.(Language Album 16)
A child of three and a half and upwards can be introduced to this concept. This is a teacher directed activity in which the phonetic sounds of the alphabet are taught in Three Period Lessons.
This is a Preparation for Reading and Writing Exercise.
The Inset for Design (also known as The Metal Insets):
This work helps children prepare the hand for writing as the child learns how to gain control of the pencil.(Language Album 16)
A child of three and upwards is shown how to trace the metal inset frame and then fill the shape with curved serpentine lines. Further exercises involve making designs with more than one shape, shading the shapes from darkest to lightest, etc.
This is a Preparation for Writing Exercise.
Pink Phonetic Reading Material:
This series of seven works helps children learn how to read three letter phonetic words.(Language Album 25)
A child of four and upwards is shown how to identify each object then find the word card that corresponds to the object. The child is encouraged to read each box out loud to his or her friends and the teacher.
After completing the Pink Series, the child moves on to the Blue Phonetic Reading Material Series, which consists of a series of nine exercises involving four or more letter phonetic words. Later, a child will move on to the Green Phonogram Reading boxes, which contain a series of eight exercises designed to teach children how to read non-phonetic words.
Pictured to the right is Pink Objects and Word Cards.
Small Moveable Alphabet:
This work enables the chid to build non-phonetic words as well as helping with spelling. (Language Album 44)
To complete this activity the child identifies the picture card, with the assistance of the teacher, and then uses the Small Moveable Alphabet to build the word. The phonogram is in red, the other letters are in blue.
A child of five years and older is shown this work.
The Logical Adjective Game:
This work helps a child to understand what an adjective is, helps to grow his or her vocabulary and continue to practice reading. (Language Album 51)
To do this work, the teacher lays out the black noun cards in a vertical order and the child is asked to randomly place the blue adjective cards to the left of the noun cards. The child is asked to read the different combinations and see if they make sense. If they do, you continue to read the combinations, if not, the child is asked to find a new adjective that makes more sense.
A child of five and a half and older is shown this work.
Relevant Current Scientific Research & how it validates Dr. Montessori's principles
In their 2006 landmark study, entitled " Evaluating Montessori Education" researchers Angeline Lillard and Nicole Else-Quest compared children aged five and twelve in Montessori and non-Montessori education settings on a variety of cognitive, academic, social and behavioural measures.
Their research found that there were significant differences that favoured the Montessori group of five year old children, such as academic skills in Language, namely letter-word identification and phonological decoding ability, important skills for reading readiness.
For twelve year olds, the Montessori student essays were rated significantly more creative and as using significantly more sophisticated sentence structures.