Every few years we hear that a school district or state educational commission is following a phonics-based approach and then a few years later we hear that they recommend a whole language approach. These concepts swing in and out like a pendulum. Both of these concepts are valuable and necessary. The Montessori approach teaches both, but it teaches phonetics first. Why? It follows predictable rules and children love rules. They are drawn to find the logic and order within our world. The sensitive period for order and precision is very strong in the young child and the phonetic half of English is systematic and predictable. There are rules that, when followed, hold the key to cracking the code of English.
We begin by teaching children these rules. We teach them the sounds of each letter and of key phonograms. We encourage them to build phonetic words, and later, when they are ready, to read phonetic words. This process slowly builds the children’s confidence. It lays out the patterns of English. It presents the rules the children love to follow and gives them opportunities to practice applying those rules, to practice hearing the sounds in words, saying the sounds of each letter, writing letters, using those letters to build words, and reading phonetic words. Once the children have confidence, once the children believe they can crack the code of English, we slowly reveal the non-phonetic half of English … the words that don’t follow any rules at all. What? Words that don’t follow any rules at all? That’s interesting! And learning follows interest.
Phonemic awareness begins with the children’s knowledge of sounds. The children must be able to hear the sounds in words. We can help children hear individual sounds by articulating slowly and carefully, encouraging the children to speak and pronounce words, repeating new words, singing songs, reading books, reciting poetry and playing sound games like I Spy!
Once the children master the beginning sounds in words, we move on to ending sounds and, finally, middle sounds (the hardest to hear). We do this by adding in details. The point is to help the children hear all of the sounds in words. Once they have some success with beginning and ending sounds, add middle sounds. Once they have success with this third level, you can ask them to notice all the sounds in longer words. Only after they succeed with this stage of sound work are they ready to take on movable alphabet work.
LETTERS: THE SYMBOLS OF LANGUAGE
In Montessori classrooms, there are two primary pedagogical materials used to teach children the sounds that each letter makes and how you can put those letters/sounds together to create words: the sandpaper letters and the movable alphabet. The sandpaper letters allow children to physically trace the shape of each letter while they say its sound, not its name. The movable alphabet allows them to then put those symbols/sounds together to create words even before their hand can hold a pencil.
So it is at this stage that we directly teach children the sounds and symbols of our language. This is where we demonstrate that spoken language is directly linked to written/printed language. This is where we make language concrete. What follows is practice. Once the children can associate sound with symbol, they need opportunities and inspiration to practice using that knowledge.
