My Montessori Language Curriculum

Language is an integral part of society. We use language to communicate and function individually as well as together. Language carries a lot of cultural weight: as English speakers, we have decided that there are 26 letters of the alphabet. Five are vowels and twenty-one are consonants. We have agreed on how words are spelled and what they mean. The words we use follow a set pattern and (mostly) adhere to grammatical rules.

A child begins to acquire language before birth. In the womb, a child is able to hear the thumping of mother's heart, the swooshing of mother's blood as well as mommy's & daddy's voices. At this early stage of course, the child's brain is unable to do anything to interpret the incoming audio information: the child merely experiences it. After birth, the familiar sound of mother's heart beat and voice provide an anchor for the child whose whole world has been abruptly turned upside down. A newborn is capable of recognizing songs My own daughter was calmed by "Alloute", a song my class practiced repeatedly for a performance while I was pregnant.

A child is born programmed to learn to communicate. Maria Montessori discovered that during the first six years of life, children are particularly sensitive to learning language. language can be learned after age six, but not as easily. This can be seen with those who have experienced hearing problems. Helen Keller learned to communicate despite being deaf and blind, but it took a lot of time and a lot of hard work to get to that point. Even more extreme cases include the Wild Boy of Aveyron, a child who was out of civilization for at least seven years and never caught up linguistically to his peers.

Language is spoken and it is heard, it is written as well as read. A child listens to us speak and eventually figures out how to use sounds that have meaning. A child sees writing and eventually figures out how to attach meaning to the squiggles and marks on a page. A little more work and the child can figure out how to produce marks and squiggles that other's can understand. The materials in the Montessori classroom are considered "aids to the imagination". The materials are designed to help the child develop the skills they need to learn. Basically, children teach themselves to read and write.

Reading begins with listening activities. We practice listening by following directions during line activities (circle time). We practice being silent. We practice differentiating between a pin dropping and paper rustling. We practice closing our eyes and identifying which direction the bell sound is coming from. We listen to stories and we sing songs. We listen to the sounds that letters make. Finally, we play the game "Snap Clap Slap": listening to a sequence of sounds in order to identify what happens first, last and in between. This practice leads directly into the child identifying the sounds heard in a word.

Reading continues with visual activities. We practice matching objects. Then we match objects to their pictures, then finally we match pictures to pictures. Next we have a story to tell with the pictures, and the pictures go in a specific sequence in order to retell the story from beginning to end. Pictures are an important step and shouldn't be skipped. A picture of a rock is not the same as the rock itself: it is a symbol of the rock. Similarly, letters are symbols of the sounds we make. Words are letters put together in a specific sequence.

Next in the language sequence are the sand paper letters. They are presented nonverbally at first so the child can familiarize themselves with the shapes of the letters. After the child becomes familiar with the shapes, we go on to learn the sounds that the letters make. At this point, learning the sounds is like naming an old friend. We also use objects to identify initial sounds. Then the moveable alphabet (wooden letters grouped together which can be pulled out individually as needed) is introduced. We practice mathcing the moveable alphabet to the sand paper letters. Then we go on to building words. Phonetic objects (small items that can be spelled phonetically) are used and we put listening skills to work: What sound did you hear first? What did you hear next? What sound was last? Next we go on to matching pictures to word cards. Finally, we are ready to read our first set of simple books. After that, it is primer time!

Primers are beginning reading books and are used to practice phonetic words (words that can be figured out by the sound of the letters) and for practicing sight words (words that need to be memorized because there are no set rules for why they are spelled the way they are.) But we all know that English is not a language known for simple rules. Therefore we also work with phonograms (letter combinations that follow a common non-phonetic pattern). Knowing phonograms helps us reading bigger and more impressive words. We end reading by studying the functions of words, otherwise known as grammar.

Writing is also a part of language, but it is taught independently from reading: it is our way of isolating the difficulty of language work. Sand paper letters are traced to learn the shape of the letters. We practice tracing letter shapes first in sand, then on a chalk board. We also practice a series of shapes on the chalkboard that prepares the hand for future writing. Similarly, tracing the metal insets and frames also prepares the hand muscles for writing.

So much of the work in the Montessori classroom prepares the child for literacy. Practical life activities teach the child coordination, concentration, develop a sense of order and independence. Sensorial work trains the eyes and the ears. The language work on our shelves are guides for the children to use to teach themselves how to read and write. And as my instructors used to tell me, "They all learn to read and write in spite of what we adults teach them!"

I've done the Montessori Certification and I appreciated all the help I could get! Click here for a PDF copy of my Introduction to the Montessori Language Curriculum. All I will ask in return is that you visit my other Montessori lenses. Check back as I will be adding more work that you can use in your albums. Good luck!


Introduction to Language in the Montessori Curriculum by Candace Reed is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.

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