Montessori and the Science of Reading is the Curriculum Settled?
When Maria Montessori formed her curriculum, she did so by observing children and finding out their natural rhythms and, related to what we are talking about today, listening to the desires of her parent community. It was from one of her communities that she learned that the parents wished for their children to learn to read and write. We read about this in her seminal work The Montessori Method. As you may be aware, Italian, the language that was her mother tongue and the language her students were learning, is substantially more phonetic than English which has a complex orthography. English has a complex orthography, which means that sound–letter relationships are less predictable than in languages such as Italian. This increases the need for explicit instruction for many learners.
Maria Montessori used the most up-to-date research of her time and learned from other scholars, educators and scientists about what worked for children. Examples include Itard, Seguin and Darwin.
Montessori's method of teaching reading integrates aspects of whole-word teaching along with a firm phonetic base. Undoubtedly, though, many of us who have been teaching for a while have found that even if one follows the traditional manuals and lesson sequences, some children do not fly into reading and need additional lessons and adaptations. Montessori as designed works beautifully under certain conditions, but in modern classrooms we often meet children whose developmental pathways require more explicit support.
In New Zealand, where I teach, we had an intervention called Reading Recovery that has now gone out of popularity, where children who had not reached certain milestones were referred to around the age of six. This programme was also used widely in countries such as the US but has been taken out of schools as the 'Science of Reading' has become more vocal and said by many to be the definitive way of teaching one to read. One catalyst in my teaching was when I taught a child who had been through Montessori preschool, Reading Recovery for more than the allocated time, as well as a similar intervention, and he still did not know the letters of the alphabet. This child had profound dyslexia. This was when I immersed myself in other ways to help him. Cue the Science of Reading.
Before I go any further, I will say that I don't think all children 'need' a Science of Reading approach. There are a percentage of children who do naturally pick up reading; although it isn't as high as we may think! However, the Science of Reading is an invaluable tool and should be at our fingertips so that we can best serve all children, it is also important to learn and discern about current pedagogy so that we can best serve the child in front of us. Like all pedagogies, there are people who take the Science of Reading to fundamentalist proportions, with rote teaching, strict procedures and a lack of consideration of a child's culture.
Dr Louisa Moats says that
- ~40% of children learn to read relatively easily
- ~30–40% need explicit instruction to succeed
- ~20–30% struggle significantly and require intensive support
This means there is a substantial need for SoR or structured literacy in our classrooms as many children need explicit teaching so that learning is not left to chance.
So what makes up the Science of Reading (SOR)?
The Science of Reading uses a broad body of interdisciplinary research (from psychology, neuroscience, linguistics, and education) about how people learn to read and what teaching methods work, it proposes that reading is not natural and because of this reading teaching needs explicit, systematic teaching modelled by the teacher who can give direct and immediate feedback. SOR is very helpful for children with learning delays and disabilities such as Dyslexia, some Autistic students and Developmental Language Disorders or Intellectual Disability.
SoR is not just phonics, nor is it about having all children doing the same thing at the same time. It is not a call to remove rich language experiences, 3 part cards, our Montessori curriculum, storytelling or cultural context. Rather, it provides a framework to ensure that foundational skills are explicitly taught where needed
- Phonological awareness. Teach students to recognise and manipulate the sounds within words.
- Phonics and word recognition. Teach letter sounds and sound-spelling patterns explicitly and systematically. The first set of letters and sounds taught is usually s,a,t,i,p,n or a variation on this so that students can quickly start blending these sounds together to make words e.g. sat/pin/tap. Reading is taught alongside writing so the child learns to read the word 'floss' alongside learning to write the word 'floss' while likely reading a book which also includes the word 'floss'
- Fluency. Include frequent chances for students to read and re-read a variety of text while developing expression and automatic recongition of words.
- Vocabulary and oral language comprehension. Include high-quality, language-rich interactions in instruction. This can include read alouds with children which are often read many days in a row so that the child learns vocabulary and can be used as the place to learn about morphemes.
- Text comprehension. Even before young students can read on their own, teach from rich texts via read-alouds and scaffolded reading so children can learn how a text is constructed.
reading = decoding × language comprehension.
Where do tensions arise?
Montessorians are likely to agree that if a child has experienced a 3–6 Montessori environment and had all the early language experiences such as nomenclature, storytelling, vocabulary presented through sensorial lessons and so on, they are much more likely to acquire reading ability, although some of this learning is indirect.
SoR has a much more structured scope and sequence that does not always naturally align with how we teach reading and writing. Indeed, in SoR, reading can come before writing, which is different to the explosion into writing Montessori talks about in her books and which many of us have been trained in.
SoR can also look like a language lesson which covers a variety of concepts in one setting. For example, a five-year-old would have:
- Quick Skills Warm-Up (Phonics and fluency)
- Reading Grade/Age-Level Text (Teacher-supported reading)
- Making Meaning of the Text (Comprehension)
- Responding to the Text (Writing)
When can we incorporate SOR in Montessori?
Not all children learn to read and write the same way. Some children may well learn the traditional Montessori way as seen in our manuals. Through my observations I work out which 'way' works best for each individual child at age 5 or 6.
SOR if the child answers 'yes' to the majority of these
-Family history of Dyslexia or similar (I ask this on the enrolment form)
-Child has a diagnosed Speech Language Disability or is a late talker, has limited vocabulary, mixes up similar sounding words.
Child shows dyslexic tendencies (though they may not have a diagnosis)
-Cannot rhyme even after they have had many lessons on it
-Cannot identify the beginning sound of words even after many Montessori language activities e.g. may say dog starts with s
-Difficulty sequencing e.g. first, second, third this could be with a life cycle or days of the week or even what happened in the child's day.
-Difficulty recognising their own name even when presented in a variety of ways.
-Slower progress compared to peers in reading and the work is taking substantially more effort from the child.
What are some practical things I can do tomorrow in my class?
This depends on the age and stage of your students but these are some ideas.
-When reading a book discuss vocabulary as you go, pick out some key vocabulary and look at the morphology
-Help students segment a word into phonemes use your fingers to show what you are doing and have students do this alongside you e.g. the word year is made up of the sound y/ and then ear/ zoo is z/ and then oo/
- When introducing word study such as prefixes or suffixes do so in groups of similar suffixes or prefixes so that students can see the pattern and you can explain the meaning of particular suffixes or prefixes.
Finding resources to teach SOR in Montessori
My Montessori Science of Reading Bundle is a comprehensive bundle of SOR resources that can be used at home or school to teach in a way that combines both pedagogies together.
The items are also available individually but the whole bundle includes a scope and sequence along with lesson plans making it an invaluable resource. These are some of the resources:
Not all children learn the same way, which is why we need multiple tools. As Montessori practitioners, we know that observation and responsiveness to the child in front of us is at the heart of our philosophy. The Science of Reading does not replace this—it strengthens our ability to respond when children need something more explicit.
Further reading