Montessori: A Modern Approach, Chapter 5

 As I was observing in the Montessori school today, I began wondering more about the modern adaptations that I was seeing in the work that the children were doing; children creating crystal snowflakes using a microwave to heat the water and how Maria Montessori might feel or think about that.  I assumed, in my notes, that surely she would have had to account for the evolution of new skills that would need to be learned as technologies developed beyond what she would have known during her time.  I wondered who gets to be the "official" one person to decide how modern day life gets translated into work for the children. 

Enter, chapter 5 that I began reading when I arrived home today.  The first page of chapter 5 gave me the answer to a question, I had not considered until today. Chapter 5 opens by speaking to Montessori's desires to avoid pre-determined work for each child, a prescribed list of work that each child should be able to accomplish.  

    "Hoping to avoid the all-too-human tendency to freeze methods used in the classroom into a rigid form, Montessori decided her teachers must each write their own textbook based on their individual understanding of Montessori education.  The manual each Montessori teacher develops during her training is her/his own personal guidebook to refer to, revise, and add to throughout her teaching career."

This is such a powerful idea, one that I wish that public school teachers would be carry out and trusted to develop.  Why are we not able to engage in the observation of our students and develop work and lessons for them that engages them in the next step they need, rather than teaching to the masses.  I could go on and on about this, however, that is for another discussion.  

Chapter 5 focuses on Writing and Reading in the Montessori methods and begins by restating that there is no Montessori defined or devised writing and reading curriculum for teachers to follow, in fact, the process is so ambiguous that many teachers and children often do not remember being taught HOW to read, it was the collection of all the work together that allowed the child to read.  

It was fascinating to read about Montessori's writing and reading methods in light of the current state of literacy teaching and learning.  I found Montessori's methods to make sense and be introduced in a logical order.  Children are first exposed to the daily living exercises that develop hand-eye coordination.  Moving items from one container to another is the first step in helping a child develop pre-writing skills.  Children then use the sensorial materials to continue to develop pre-writing skills; stacking, sorting, using small knobs to lift things, and finger tracing the inside of shapes and stencils.  Language development happens alongside these activities, adults introducing the appropriate names for items and objects as children explore with them and use them in their world. Many picture-card matching activities help develop the vocabulary as well. Large motor development helps to develop pre-writing skills, so children begin to feel the movements that letters make.  

Once all four of these areas are introduced; daily living, sensorial materials, language development, and motor development before a teacher would introduce any activities or lessons related to written language.  A teacher would begin by bringing attention to the sounds in words and then after a few introductions, the teacher would introduce the sandpaper letter symbol that matches. Children are given the symbol for the letter, but not the name of the letter (when they are 3 years old).  It is fascinating that the sandpaper letters help a child form each letter symbol, giving their finger sensory clues as they trace the form of the letter.  If a child's finger leaves the sandpaper part of the letter, they feel the smooth surface of the card and can begin to practice better find motor control. All Montessori letters are in cursive and the children learn to write in cursive as the lines are more flowing than with scripted letters. Children are introduced to one letter symbol at a time to encourage the learning of that one letter without being overwhelmed by other letters.  Once a child has learned 8-10 letters this way, the moveable alphabet is introduced.  Children are able to use the letters from the alphabet to put symbols to the letter sounds and create words. This activity is used to encourage the manual production of words (and later phrases).  Montessori stresses that at this point, the child is NOT being asked to put the symbols together at this point to attempt reading, that task is still too difficult for a child at this point. Next a child would be introduced to the Metal Insets that will help them continue to develop more pre-writing skills.  When the child shows interest in not wanting to put their story away (putting the moveable alphabet letters away), then it is time to introduce writing. Children can preserve their stories on paper permanently once they learn how to write.  

This chapter has opened my eyes to some new methods to try with my students and also has me thinking about how I have been taught to introduce phonics, writing, and reading simultaneously and how Montessori goes about teaching letters and sounds so very differently.  I wish I could talk with her now! I have always wondered why many of my students are able to produce oral language skills sooner than written language and after reading this chapter, I have some thoughts on the ways in which I will now teach letters to my students.  What an interesting place we are in currently in the US regarding literacy instruction and how much more developmentally appropriate Montessori's methods are for children.  I could get on a soap box about that.  Each chapter I have read in this book has encouraged me to create some lists of potential works for my students, thinking about ways I could change what I am doing to increase independence and letter symbol/sound work BEFORE attempting to introduce writing.