Montessori Writing Method

The categories of language activities in a Montessori classroom are language acquisition, mechanical writing, composition, reading, speech, and ______.

Early Language The acquisition of language “…is not the result of conscious work, but takes place in the deepest layer of the sub-conscious of the child. He begins this work in the darkness of the sub-conscious and it is there that it develops and fixes itself as a permanent ______.” (Montessori, pg. 95, 2014)

Regarding this unseen work, Montessori posits, “Certain it is that some mechanism does exist, (whether I have made a good comparison or not) so that this understanding of language may be ______.” (Montessori, pg. 95, 2014)

Nativists claim that children are born with an innate ability to acquire language because they do have language innately. The Universal Grammar [UG] is hard-wired in the brain, which contains a language acquisition device [LAD]. UG is the grammar of the human language, that is, the universal principles of organizing all languages. This is the reason children can accomplish cognitively a very challenging task of language acquisition even though they are still unable to do some simpler, cognitively less demanding ______.

Montessori describes the relationship between the two psychic centers for receptive and expressive language and the senses and physiological components necessary for communication as evolving as the child acquires more facility with the language. She distinguishes between two periods in the child’s development of ______.

The Montessori classroom offers a language-rich environment with a robust assortment of written materials and opportunities for ______.

The Montessori material must exhibit seven qualities for use in the classroom: it must aid in the development of the child, be limited in quantity, lend itself to action, isolate one quality, progress from simple to complex and concrete to abstract, contain a built-in control of error, and be ______ gratifying.

Preparation for the mechanical writing lessons begins with practical life and sensorial exercises that, among other important things, help the child develop a capable ______ grip.

Montessori prepares little cards made from ordinary writing-paper with well-known words to aid the process of ______

The Orton-Gillingham Approach has become popular among Montessori educators, particularly in helping students with ______

Montessori guides should pronounce words correctly to help the child correct imperfections that have arisen from an effort on his part to imitate the careless speech of persons about him, by caring for the development of language in the 'Children's Houses'; that is, in the very age in which language is being established in the child.” (Montessori, pg. 232, 2022) Here, we must differentiate between speech imperfections. Montessori calls speech imperfections arising from immaturity “______.”

Montessori believes that in the schools of the future, the conception will disappear of ‘correcting in the elementary schools ‘ the defects of language; and will be replaced by the more rational one of avoiding them by caring for the development of language in the 'Children's Houses’; that is, in the very age in which language is being established in the child.” (Montessori, pg. 232, 2022) Montessori calls normal defects of child language due to the fact that the complicated muscular agencies of the organs of articulate language do not yet function well and are consequently incapable of reproducing the sound which was the sensory stimulus of a certain innate movement “______.”

Montessori observed that reproducing cursive letters is easier for the child. "The first steps should be the easiest, and the up and down stroke, is, on the contrary, one of the most difficult of all the pen movements. Only a professional penman could fill a whole page and preserve the regularity of such strokes, but a person who writes only moderately well would be able to complete a page of presentable writing." (Montessori, pg. 186, 2022) Also, Montessori noted that the child is more eager to write when they can complete an entire letter because the work takes on greater ______.

Montessori explains that the sensorial materials, particularly the metal insets, have prepared students in the Children’s House to acquire writing skills. Thus, the child discovers that they are more capable than they realize once they have been thoroughly, yet indirectly, ______.

Montessori also explains that the ______ materials, particularly the metal insets, have prepared students in the Children’s House to acquire writing skills.

Montessori says that reproducing cursive letters is easier for the child. "The first steps should be the easiest, and the up and down stroke, is, on the contrary, one of the most difficult of all the pen movements. Only a professional penman could fill a whole page and preserve the regularity of such strokes, but a person who writes only moderately well would be able to complete a page of presentable writing." (Montessori, pg. 186, 2022) Also, Montessori noted that the child is more eager to write when they can complete an entire letter because the work takes on greater ______.

Montessori describes the first of three periods of lessons given to the student using these materials: “The directress presents to the child two of the cards upon which vowels are mounted (or two of the consonants, as the case may be). Let us suppose that we present the letters ______ and ______, saying, 'This is i. This is o.' As soon as we have given the sound of a letter, we have the child trace it, taking care to show him how to trace it, and if necessary guiding the index finger of his right hand over the sandpaper letter in the sense of writing.” (Montessori, pg. 199, 2022)

Montessori describes the second period: “The directress asks the child, for example, 'Give me o.–Give me i.' If the child does not recognise the letters by looking at them, she invites him to trace them, but if he still does 4 not recognise them, the lesson is ended, and may be resumed another day.” (Montessori, pg. 200, 2022) And, here she describes the third period: “Allowing the letters to lie for some instants upon the table, the directress asks the child, ‘What is this.’ and he should respond, ______, ______.” (Montessori, pg. 200, 2022)

Montessori writes: “The directress pronounces very clearly a word; for example, ‘______,’ brings out the sound of the m very distinctly, repeating the sounds a number of times. Almost always the little one with an impulsive movement seizes an m and places it upon the table. The directress repeats ‘ma–ma.’ The child selects the a and places it near the m. He then composes the other syllable very easily.” (Montessori, pg. 203, 2022) About this decoding lesson, Montessori writes: “The importance of these exercises is very complex. The child analyses, perfects, fixes his own spoken language,–placing an object in correspondence to every sound which he utters. The composition of the word furnishes him with substantial proof of the necessity for clear and forceful enunciation.” (Montessori, pg. 203, 2022) About these exercises using the metal insets, sandpaper letters, and the moveable alphabet, Montessori says: “These three periods contain the entire method for the acquisition of written language. The significance of such a method is clear. The psycho-physiological acts which unite to establish reading and writing are prepared separately and carefully. The muscular movements peculiar to the making of the signs or letters are prepared apart, and the same is true of the manipulation of the instrument of writing. The composition of the words, 5 also, is reduced to a psychic mechanism of association between images heard and seen.” (Montessori, pg. 205, 2022)

Montessori reports that many children begin writing spontaneously after mastering these three materials. (Montessori, 2022) However, for students that do not dive right in, she recommends that guides first offer to help by “ruling the blackboard, so that the child may be led to maintain regularity and proper dimensions in his writing.” (Montessori, pg. 209, 2022) If the child still hesitates, she suggests “…repeat[ing] the tracing of the sandpaper letters. She should do this instead of directly correcting his actual writing, for the child does not perfect himself by repeating the act of writing, but by repeating the acts preparatory to writing.” (Montessori, pg. 209, 2022) Montessori says that students continue to repeat these exercises well after they have mastered them. (Montessori, 2022) “As the soul of the mystic perfects itself through prayer, even so in our little ones, that highest expression of civilisation, written language, is acquired and improved through exercises which are akin to, but which are not, writing.” (Montessori, pg. 209, 2022)