Speaking, Writing, and Reading
This blog posts contains excerpts from these two books.
CLICK: The Joyful Child: Montessori, Global Wisdom for Birth to Three+
CLICK: Child of the World: Montessori Global Education for Age 3-12+
At all ages, the adults and older children are the most important models for the young person’s developing language. Do we speak well and clearly and with good manners and joy to each other? Do we understand what might be the result of modeling cell phone use rather than reading books? Do we actually read and enjoy fiction and non-fiction books? Do we go to a library regularly? Are we writing with pens and pencils in the presence of young children who are going to want to imitate everything they see going on around them—in the home and in the community—as soon as they are able? Learning to be a good language model like this is part of becoming a Montessori teacher, and it is something we can provide at home.
The shell cards seen in the above picture are available here: CLICK: CARDS
LANGUAGE FROM 0-3
We can feed the child’s intense interest in language and prepare for later spoken language, by speaking clearly, by not raising our voice to the unnatural pitch often reserved for speaking to pets, and not oversimplifying language in the presence of the child. Even for the infant we can support language by talking about what we are doing, “Now I am washing your feet, rubbing each toe to get it really clean” and enjoy ourselves in this important communication. We can listen: to music, to silence, and to each other.
An adult can engage in a conversation with even an infant in the following way: when the child makes a sound, imitate it—the pitch and the length of the sound: baby “maaaa ga” adult “maaaa ga,” etc. One often gets an amazing response from the child the first time this happens, as if he is saying, “At last, someone understands and speaks my language!” After several of these exchanges many children will purposefully begin to make sounds for us to imitate, and eventually will try to imitate the adult’s sound. This is a very exciting first communication for both parties. It is not baby talk; it is real communication.
Later we can consciously use more vocabulary by naming the objects in the environment, and the actions we are carrying. “Let us set the table; we need a placemat for each person, forks and spoons and napkins and here is the cupboard where all of these are kept.”
We can tell funny and interesting stories of our lives, recite favorite poems and sing songs.
Books that present real life (not talking animals) in pictures and few words are interesting all through these first three years. We can share even adult books that have beautiful pictures of flowers, furniture, clothing, and so on. Vocabulary cards like the shell cards above give a child practice in pronunciation, expanded knowledge of the world, and an ever-increasing vocabulary. Children in the first three year have an unquenchable thirst for language.
LANGUAGE FROM 3-6It was very hard for me to learn how to read. It did not seem logical for the letter “m” to be called “em,” and yet with some vowel following it you did not say “ema” but “ma.” It was impossible for me to read that way. At last, last, when I went to the Montessori school, the teacher did not teach me the names of the consonants but their sounds. In this way I could read the first book I found in a dusty chest in the storeroom of the house. It was tattered and incomplete, but it involved me in so intense a way that Sara’s fiancé had a terrifying premonition as he walked by: “Damn! This kid’s going to be a writer.”
—Gabriel Gárcia Márquez, Nobel Prize for literature
The main influence on the development of a child’s spoken and written language is the family. If the adult speaks clearly and precisely to the child, and in a normal tone of voice that one would use with a friend, spouse, or colleague, the child will do the same. If the child is exposed to more than one language in the home or school it is very important that he be able to associate each language with one person. So, for example, one adult should speak only English to the child, and the second adult should speak only Spanish to him. This will help the child sort out the difference and become fluent in both.
Reading aloud to a child gives the message that reading is fun, introduces vocabulary that would not usually come up in spoken language, and demonstrates beauty and variety of expression.
Reading and writing are not “taught,” in the traditional way one thinks of in learning literacy, to a child before age six or seven. Rather, the environment is prepared with sensorial experiences that will enable the child to teach himself. In traditional preschools it is common for the teacher to read a book to the whole group, but I found, when I was teaching this age, that almost all day each child was busily concentrating on work of his or her choice, so I usually read a book (or sing, or look at poetry cards or vocabulary cards) to one child at a time. Sometimes another child would join us, and sometimes even a “working” child would comment on the story. As a result it was very common to see an older child reading to a younger one, or even teaching the vocabulary cards.
Sometimes practical life work is undervalued as preparation for language. But the large muscle and then small muscle development, the logic of the order of steps, the resulting deep concentration on a task at hand, all contribute to later writing and reading, and learning of all kinds. Writing and reading occur naturally, along with other physical and mental skills and all are related.
Here is a quote from Dr. Montessori about her experience in the first casa dei bambini, “house of children,” in Rome in the beginning of the 20th century:
Ours was a house for children, rather than a real school. We had prepared a place for children where a diffused culture could be assimilated from the environment, without any need for direct instruction. Yet these children learned to read and write before they were five, and no one had given them any lessons. At that time it seemed miraculous that children of four and a half should be able to write, and that they should have learned without the feeling of having been taught.
LANGUAGE FROM 6-12
As the child is learning about the history of humans on earth, about the history of civilizations, in the geography and history areas, it is quite natural that this interest flows into the study of languages. Through stories, pictures and beautiful carefully chosen books, we enable the child to begin to understand:
—The path traced by language, the growth, and development of language—through exploration, colonization, commerce, changing weather pattern, etc.
—How humans have given a name to everything found or made and how this process continues
—How language constantly changes and why
—How language expresses the creative force of humanity
At this age children in many ways are repeating the history of humans on earth in their own lives. They want to cook, sew, garden, and begin to learn all of the skills of adults. Children and adults alike find it fascinating to trace the development of the language, to realize that in the past only a few people, sometimes only priests, knew how to read and write. They find the connection betwee the migrations and other contacts between groups of people and the many different languages on earth. And they are amazed the even today there are millions of children all over the world who cannot read and write and because of this are severely limited in what choices they will have in their lives. This makes children appreciate their own good fortune in being able to learn.
I never asked a child in my 6-12 classes to write unless he or she could do it in such a way as to be satisfied with the results. Having a child continue to write badly just teaches the brain that this is the way it should be done—and reinforces an action that is difficult to change. It is a bit like having a child repeat a piece of music on the piano over and over, continuing to make the same mistake again and again, hoping that by magic someday he will stumble on the correct notes. It is better to teach the correct notes in a way appropriate to the child’s ability at the beginning so he practice them correctly. Often, with writing, that mean teaching a new script—italics if the child was writing cursively badly, or print, or different artistic fonts, copying pithy says that have been beautifully written with colored inks, and so on. This allowed the child to slow down and see writing as an art, and to master writing as a skill. And then writing became enjoyable.
ALL AGES: TELLING/READING STORIES COMPARED TO LISTENING TO RECORDED BOOKS
Adults and children curling up together to read together, or to share stories, has many benefits. When an adult is telling or reading a story, true or fiction, the child observes a person enjoying language. This is vital. The child in this situation can ask questions and interact. And there is a model in this situation for a child who will then be able to tell, and make up, stories. When a child is reading a book he or she can stop and think about what was just read or ask someone what the meaning of as unknown word is, this this is the active use of language and books. But when a child is listening to an audio book this is passive. There is no conversation with another human, no way to ask about the meaning of a word or an idea, and one cannot pause and process and think and create. Children often space out for several reasons and then it is confusing to begin to listen again.
Learning to gather and order one’s thoughts, tell and write stories, and to read, is far more successful when the language model is an in-person adult, not a recording.
Blessings,
Susan
Home page, CLICK: Susan