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How do kids in Montessori schools learn how to read?
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Anonymous
| I am just now looking into Montessori schools for my preschooler. He wouldn't start until he is 5 or kindergarten age. I have scheduled a few tours/observations at schools and have been reading a bit about the Montessori approach. Can anyone tell me how a child at a Montessori school learns how to read? I know most of what is learned at school is self-directed. So does that mean a child actually teaches themselves how to read? How does that work? I learned how to read by being taught the old fashioned way through phonics in a teacher directed reading group. Any info would be appreciated. |
Anonymous
| my son is 4 and at a Montessori school. this is his first year. They seem to have a series of things that teach the kids to read. They start with learning the letter sounds and then do this thing called the moveable alphabet. Not sure what comes after that but its truly amazing how much my son has learned in general. I wouldnt say the learning is completely self-directed at least not at my sons school. Hope this helps. |
Anonymous
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I'm not a big fan of the Montessori method in general, just so you know!
But their reading philosphy seems exactly right to me. They teach the sounds of the letters, not the letter names, an duse a moveable alphabet to help children learn both one-to-one correspondance ( This is "p" as in "pot", not this is the letter "pee" ..."pee" says "p"). Kids move the letters around to build two and three phoneme words according to a picture. So the teacher gives them a picture of a pot, and the chidlren select the letters, p,o and t. The letters have little puzzle edges on them that match up to the puzzle edges on the picture of the pot. So they can tell by themselves if they spelled the word right. |
Anonymous
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My DS is in Montessori now and is learning to read there. The program is good, IMO. If you are visiting programs, ask them to show you these specific materials. There are exercises to associate the letters with their sounds. Then kids move on to building words, using the movable alphabet and reading books built on specific letter sounds and word patterns. The books are good, IMO, and become increasingly complex.
All activities require that the teacher introduce them. After that, they kids may work by themselves to some degree, but the materials are usually self-correcting in some way, or the teacher participates. Teachers are definitely working thru books w/ my son. My son's progress is good. I know he doesn't "like" to read, although he loves books and loves being read to, so I'm sure he doesn't choose to do this work often by himself. I think sometimes the teacher asks him to work in the language area, giving him some choices there. I think the main reason he doesn't "like" reading himself yet, is that he is not yet sufficiently fluent to enjoy it. He is about to turn 5 and is still at that painful in between stage where he can read many 3 or 4 letter words, but a book made entirely of these is not so interesting. He can sound out longer or more complex words, but that is still "work" for him. Nonetheless, his reading performance is above level for his age, so I do not push him in this area. There are also many writing activities, which I believe help reinforce the reading. He is #2 child, and having visited many local preKs and Ks, I can tell that he is getting a more complex level of reading instruction than he would in public PreK or K. Also, the teacher basically gives him personalized instruction. The flip side of this is that in a local public K program, he would be forced to do a daily block of literacy activities (at least an hour), but they would sometimes be too easy for him and there seemed to be more room there to goof off. Just my experience with our particular comparative K programs. For this reason, we will likely keep him in Montessori for his K year even though it will cost us a lot of money which is worrisome in this bad economy. |
Anonymous
| OP here. Thanks for the info. Here is another question. What kind of choice do kids have in the classroom? What if they choose to do one activity the entire time? What if they never show any interest in reading? Does the teacher wait for this interest? Or at some point does she introduce letters, sounds, etc to each child? |
Anonymous
| I was originally not a fan of Montessori, but I never could have told you why. We found a program I was very intrigued by and decided to try it. My son started just shy of his 3rd birthday and I am now a HUGE fan. He has learned so much and is so proud of himself when he learns and then masters a new lesson. They have the freedom to choose the lessons they work on each day (as PP said, once a lesson is introduced by a teacher, it can be part of their repetoire). Many of the lessons 'grow' with the child, so rarely does my son tire of a lesson. In my experience the teachers do 'monitor' which lessons are being chosen so none of the children get in a rut. My son's vocabularly is very robust. Each week they concentrate on a letter and the respective sounds. Listening to a 3 YO tell you that the letter C makes different sounds because of the next letter (cat vs. chair) is pretty cool. Definitely ask to see specific lessons. Also, some programs still include circle time and group activites. My son's program certainly still uses group learning too. |
Anonymous
If you child is beginning at 5 yr old. he may not show a great interest in reading. Montessori works best in a three year cycle. Thar way the teacher know the child, knows what he has learned, knows how he best learns. If you are only planning on Montessori for one year, than save your money. |
Anonymous
| I don't know how the Montessori program did it, but by the time my daughter was 4, she was not only reading but also keeping a journal and writing poetry and plays, as well as making daily entries. It was entirely phonetic; no correction of spelling was done because they don't want to discourage the writing. |
Anonymous
That strikes me as a very broad and unscientific assertion. You've visited some local preKs (generously assuming a half-hour in the classroom) and based on those observations (probably 1/2 a dozen schools?) you're confident that he's getting a more complex level of reading instruction? This isn't much of a methodology, I'm sorry to tell you. And by way of proof, I can offer my 3-year old (also a 2nd child) who is not only learning to read & write, learning phonics, AND is genuinely liking it, too. You really need to back off some of your generalizations. They're flat out wrong. |
Anonymous
| I am the OP. I am looking at schools that go through middle school. Would it still be too late to start him at age 5 in a Mont. schools that goes through middle school? He is currently in a preschool that we love so I don't want to move him before K. Has anyone started a child in a Mont. school at age 5? Why would that be too late if it goes through middle school? |
Anonymous
I don't know where the "three year myth" came from nor the reason behind it. Most kids go to Montessori schools only for two years and then switch to a public school. Is "two year" the main reason that most kids do not benefit from a Montessori education? "three year" seems a good excuse. |
Anonymous
| "you benefit only if you stay three years" is a proof that Montessori does not out-perform other education methods for most kids |
Anonymous
| I'll be honest. The "you need 3 years to receive the benefit" always sounded like a snake-oil sales-pitch to me. Guess I'm just another Montessori skeptic. |
Anonymous
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OP, my son will be 5 in November. I will put him in Montessori because his current preschool will not be academic enough for him as an "older" child. He will be there for one year.
It can't hurt. |
Anonymous
| 14:30, please calm down. This is just a nice little discussion about Montessori. That's all. |