More Reading Development

When going through our reading process, children will do a lot of moveable alphabet.  We have the children do one vowel at a time, then, as they learn new vowel sounds, do those isolated as well. When we see they are solid with a vowel sound, then we can have them do two vowel sounds at a time etc.  The goal is to help support them as they become solid in discriminating vowel sounds-being able to tell the word pin from pen and knowing which has an /e/ and which has an /i/.  It's somewhere during this process that children begin (on their own) decoding-this is an exciting time!  They move from encoding (writing the words w/sounds they know) to actually reading the word.  In Montessori, the 'sounding out' part (so to speak) comes while children are writing, not while they are reading.  We want to build a solid foundation so they will look at words as total words, not sounds that need to be sounded out.  When a child is given their first book in a Montessori classroom, they are reading.  The goal is for children to read with understanding.  If they are sounding out every word, then it can be a painful, frustrating process.  When a teacher determines a child is decoding, we will introduce the work called "The First Reading Lesson".  This work is done like this:  There are several consonant/vowel/consonant objects that include all vowel sounds (hat, pin, jet, mop etc).  We lay them out and have the child name them.  Then, we say, "I'm going to write you a special message and I want you to put it next to the correct object".  The teacher then begins writing each word one at a time and the gives it to the child to 'read'.  If the child can 'read' all the messages (words), then they are ready to be moved into our reading materials.  As they move into the reading materials, the moveable alphabet continues to be used.  We use it to introduce digraphs, blends, long vowels, phrases, sentences etc.   They will go through the process of writing words as they are introduced to one of those new word groups.  For example, we may write all words starting in the sound /sh/-they will write ship, shop, shut etc. Or we may write phrases to introduce sight words-the big dog, a hot sun, the wet hen etc.  More later.....have a great day!

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