The Montessori
Phonics
Visitors came from all over the world to see Maria
Montessori's "miracle children," the children in her first Casa dei Bambini in Rome. The miracle which
attracted public attention was that children of illiterate families had begun to write and to read
spontaneously after working with very simple materials: the Sandpaper Letters, which gave them the shape of
the letters; the Movable Alphabet, which allowed them to arrange these letters to form words; and the Metal
Insets, which made it possible for the children to control a writing instrument.
The Language Materials have some essential points in
common with the Sensorial Materials. Most outstanding is their simplicity and the fact that they provide
keys for the children to discover something that is beyond what lies on the surface.
When the children come to the Montessori environment at
around three years of age, their spoken language is developed. Their vocabulary is quite extensive and the
grammatical structures of their speech are well established. They have a boundless capacity to expand and
enrich their language and, as a natural consequence, the desire to
write and read.
write and read.
The educator, who is aware of language as a vital human
expression, knows that language is not something taught by another, but something created by the children
themselves. It is the educator's task to facilitate the process of creation by providing rich, precise and
abundant language for the children. The educator provides language which is intelligent and has the content for expressing human
sentiment. With this background the Montessori Language Materials become significant for the child because
their function is to isolate certain universal elements, common to all languages.
As an example, all words are composed of sounds which
can be made visible with written signs; in all languages different words have different functions and
sentences have structures that make the action the nucleus of the sentence.
These keys bring to the children an awareness of their
mother tongue, which is such an essential part of their being. They lead to effortless integration of common
facets underlying the universal phenomenon that is language and provide potential ease and interest in
acquiring other languages.
There is little to be taught on the part of the teacher,
yet there is unlimited scope for exploration on the part of the children. The Montessori Language Materials
provide the keys to the fascinating world of language and are highly effective in their simplicity.
Contents covered:
- Sound Recognition
- Three-letter Phonetic Words
- Spelling and Reading
- Consonants and Vowels
- Digraphs
- Blends and Special Letters Combination
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