Página 1 de 3

How Your Child Develops Writing Skills in a Montessori

Classroom
By: Arborland Montessori Children's Academy and Education Center
Posted: 2009-08-18 06:13:10

Language is the greatest achievement of human beings. Having been

developed over thousands of years, it is also one of the characteristics that
differentiate humans from animals. It is through language we communicate
ideas, emotions and desires. From earliest times, language became a function
of society, an agreement of sounds and order. It is an important tool of
culture, and as such, children need to be given the correct introduction to all
aspects of language from a very early age. In a Montessori classroom, both
primary and elementary, the children are presented with the whole approach
to language. Reading, spelling, vocabulary, comprehension, creative writing
and compositions are all presented in connection with each other and not as
isolated subjects. It is important for the child to read with comprehension and
write with correct grammar, spelling and vocabulary. None of this
knowledge would be any good if we did not also teach the child to translate
knowledge gained in written form so others could understand it. If we did not
teach the children to express themselves with written words, all the reading,
spelling, and grammar would not be of any use to the child. All these are
tools for self expression and communication. It is the lessons in the writing
process that helps the child to bring it all together and communicate. Here I
would like to explain briefly, how this process is achieved in the Arborland
Montessori classroom.
A spoken word disappears as soon as it is uttered, while only written words
can remain. The words the child writes help to show the expansion of his
mind and level of understanding. Writing is a creative art and needs to be
presented as joyful means of self expression. I often tell the children that
words can be used to paint pictures in the exact same way paints and crayons
do. This is a taught art and will not happen without correct guidance. In the
first century A.D. the Roman Rhetorician, Quintillion, set a standard for
precision of language when he declared, "One should not aim at being
possible to understand, but at being impossible to misunderstand." This is
what our writing lessons are designed to do, help the child express himself
clearly, precisely so the writing is clear and easy to understand.
Creative writing cannot happen in a vacuum. The child needs to be exposed
to experiences he can write about. Educators need to provide the subject
matter for increasing knowledge and intelligence. The more we give the child
the more knowledge is gained, and therefore there is more for the child to
express in his writing. In our Montessori environment, this giving of subject
matter starts from the first day the child walks into the primary classroom.
During the primary years the child is given the keys to his world. The child
generally arrives speaking his own language with a reasonable vocabulary,
and is also in the sensitive period for acquiring language. The primary
teacher capitalizes on this window of opportunity to show the child there are
more words than he already knows. Enrichment of vocabulary goes on
throughout the primary years. Objects, furnishings, sensorial language, all the
nomenclature for biology, geography, and music is all given at this level. The
more vocabulary the child acquires here, the better prepared he is for the
elementary level. The next set of exercises to help vocabulary is the language
training, oral work, stories, poems, conversations. The second discovery that
goes along side the enrichment of vocabulary is that language can be made

http://press.abc-directory.com/print/5030 10/08/2010
 Página 2 de 3

visible by using those twenty-six marks, the letters of the alphabet. This is
where the child first realizes he can use the letters to write his thoughts, and
let others know what is going on his mind. It is a powerful discovery and
happens spontaneously at the primary level. There are exercises that prepare
the child's hand to use writing tools, while his mind is being given
information he may record. At this level, the child also discovers that words
carry different functions, and are grouped in a certain order. Function and
order express a thought. Grammar is presented very naturally through
function of the word and reading analysis. There is no formal name given to
parts of speech, but the child quickly learns words do different jobs by
placing colorful symbols on them. A naming word is given a big black
triangle, an action word is given a red circle, a describing word is given a
small blue triangle, and so on. It is at this level also that the child is
encouraged to write simple short stories and illustrate them. There are other
exercises that present rules of spelling without the forced need for
memorization. It is a slow process without immediate tangible results, which
is sometimes very difficult for the parent to understand. At times it may
appear the child is not learning anything as there is no solid paperwork to
take home! It is an internal process and the adult needs to be patient. Dr.
Montessori believed that the child learns more during the first six years of
life than during any other school years.
The child arrives at the elementary level with a wealth of information, where
the important work of the acquisition of language continues. Now the child is
introduced to formal grammar lessons, first through manipulative materials
and later through grammar books. The child already knows how to express
himself, and the lessons now are geared to help the child express thoughts
properly, grammatically, with correct spelling and an expanded vocabulary.
The expansion of the mind continues as the child is given keys to the
universe through cosmic education. Language, mathematics, history, science,
and music are presented showing the interconnection of everything in the
universe. It is now necessary to show the child that creative writing, to be
coherent, needs to follow some rules. This is done by introducing the child to
different types of writing in literature. We start with reading for pleasure. If
the child is able to read for pleasure, he gets into the reading habit, and will
use this habit in reading to learn a subject.
At the elementary level all aspects of language are presented parallel to each
other. For example, if the child's reading anthology is biography, the
vocabulary, spelling, grammar and writing lessons relate to the story being
read. All the lessons are woven in, not isolated one from the other. Slowly
the child begins to see the need to use correct grammar, vocabulary, spelling
to be able to understand the story. Eventually, the child has a reading-writing
workshop where he is encouraged to write a biography. The same pattern is
used to present all types of writing. The child is encouraged to read the
literature from an anthology, and all the other work follows. What is started
as a presentation of literature by reading for pleasure, eventually leads to
reading to learn different important aspects of language. These lessons start
from the first year lower elementary level and continue to the final sixth year
of upper elementary level. Again it is a slow process which sometimes
frustrates the parent as there is no immediate tangible result to assess. The
seeds of correct language are being sown, the child's imagination is being
inflamed, and the adult needs to trust the child at this stage. As Dr.
Montessori used to say, once a seed is planted, it needs to be nurtured. We do
not need to keep digging it up to see if the roots have taken hold!

Trackback url: http://press.abc-directory.com/press/5030

http://press.abc-directory.com/print/5030 10/08/2010
 Página 3 de 3

http://press.abc-directory.com/print/5030 10/08/2010