How Your Child Develops Writing Skills in a Montessori Classroom 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 languag
News-Antique.com - Aug 18,2009 - 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
