The goal of our language arts curriculum is to prepare our children to be life-long learners who
- gain pleasure and fulfillment from reading, writing, speaking, and listening
- are able to use the art of language as a means of gaining insight into and reflecting upon their own and others’ lives
- absorb knowledge, perspective, and understanding through the medium of language
- are able to read, write, and reflect on texts from multiple perspectives
- develop an appreciation of the diverse social, historical, and cultural dimensions of spoken and written language
- extract and distill necessary information from written text and apply the information to problem solving situations
- use language effectively to communicate thoughts and ideas
Language Arts
The language arts curriculum paves the way to life-long learning by teaching children to absorb knowledge, perspective, and understanding through the medium of language. It builds self-esteem by enabling them to communicate their thoughts, observations, and feelings with confidence. It creates self-motivated learners by helping them to find pleasure and fulfillment in the regular habits of reading, writing, speaking, and listening.
Early Program
Beginning in the Early Program, the language arts program instills in the children a love for literature and provides them with readiness skills in preparation for reading and writing. In the Montessori approach, the teaching of writing precedes the teaching of reading (the process of encoding precedes the process of decoding). Writing is an extension of spoken language, it is a visual communication of the children’s thoughts. Montessori felt that children were more naturally inclined to communicate their own thoughts through symbols, than to decipher the thoughts of others.
The Early Program classes have a language arts area with materials that enable the children to explore letter sounds and experience writing. The children are encouraged to use their developing language skills in all areas of the classroom, including sharing thoughts and ideas, initiating activities with one another, and solving social concerns on their own. Each child develops language at a pace that is comfortable for him or her. The love for literature and the development of social and communication skills are of greater importance at this level than the acquisition of discrete reading and writing skills. It is only when the children demonstrate the ability and interest to learn such skills that they are introduced.
Elementary Program
Starting in Kindergarten, the classroom is designed as a “language rich” environment. The teaching of reading and writing is part of every activity the children pursue. Children entering Kindergarten are at different stages in their acquisition of reading skills.
At each level, the children build on their skills, working with a wide variety of age-appropriate, thought provoking literature. They learn to relate the content of their reading to their own experience. Regular discussion of their personal thoughts and opinions eventually leads to in-depth literary analysis.
Part of each day is dedicated to instruction in small groups. The children are continually observed, allowing the teachers to individualize the work assigned and complement lessons with extension activities. Different groupings allow the children to benefit from one another’s learning styles and creative gifts. They write throughout the day, in their individual journals, literary responses, math explanations, or longer assignments, such as research, book reports, stories, etc.
Spelling is a continual exercise that begins with “invented spelling” and progresses toward conventional usage, in order to protect the child’s freedom of expression from the constraints of correctness. D.E.A.R. (Drop Everything And Read) is a time set aside so that everyone, including the teachers, simply shares the joy of reading for their own pleasure. Teachers also meet individually with each child for weekly conferences.
