Language Arts in Orientation (15 months – 3 years old)
Dr. Montessori believed that the sensitive period for language begins at birth and continues until about six years of age. During this time, children learn best through human interaction, absorbing the sounds and speech patterns of the family and home environment. In the Orientation classroom, students focus on learning vocabulary by naming pictures or objects and having a clear, simple conversation with the teacher. A three-period lesson on the word and concept of a “cow” may progress by naming the animal (introduction), recognizing the animal (identification), and remembering the name of the animal (cognition). The teacher may take the child further, sounding out the phonetics of c-o-w, to prepare the child to read in Primary.
Language Arts in Primary (3 – 6 years old)
In Primary, teachers introduce handwriting in tandem with reading, employing sandpaper letters, the movable alphabet, and other tactile manipulatives to make visible the transformation of sounds to letters to words to sentences to paragraphs to simple stories. The three-finger grasp developed in Orientation is used to hold a pencil in Primary and begin writing.
The lined paper of a Primary child shows the sky as the top line, the fence as the dotted middle line, and the grass as the bottom line (often decorated with a whimsical flower).
The student’s voice is given space for written and pictorial expression on paper that includes a dedicated area for illustration followed by lines for text. Primary students may write and illustrate stories about their family, their friends, what they know, and what they imagine, creating a delightful window into the mind and soul of a young student. Kindergarten students read their stories to their friends and family at an annual Authors’ Night, a tradition that will continue into Upper Elementary.
Language Arts in Lower Elementary (1st – 3rd grade)
In Lower Elementary, students begin to analyze more abstract concepts of language: the how, the why, and the from where? Students explore handwriting, spelling, word study, and grammar (parts of speech, nouns, pronouns, articles, adjectives, conjunctions, prepositions, verbs, adverbs, sentence analysis). With strong reading comprehension skills and a library of great literature at their fingertips, Lower Elementary students will progress from “learning to read” to “reading to learn.”
In addition to studying how we write today, Lower Elementary students take a trip back in time in the Montessori Fourth Great Lesson to explore the history of language. A holistic and cosmic exploration of early people, how they communicated, how they developed written language, and how written language evolved over the centuries, the Fourth Great Lessons captures the attention and imagination of young learners and inspires them to tell their own stories.
Language Arts in Upper Elementary and Middle Years (4th – 8th grade)
Upper Elementary students continue to use distinct symbols to represent each part of speech. This tool allows students to study grammar at the word level and the sentence level. Students explore the meaning and function of words and the syntax of how they go together to create a meaningful sentence.
Empowered and equipped to read, Upper Elementary students enjoy efferent reading, which is reading (usually nonfiction) to find information, and aesthetic reading, which is reading (usually fiction) for enjoyment and to appreciate the literature. The teacher guides students to a deeper understanding of fiction and literature (plot and setting, character, vocabulary and figurative language, themes and ideas) as well as of nonfiction and information (main idea, key details, vocabulary, text features). Students explore literature together in classroom book clubs.
The writing curriculum in Upper Elementary, which parallels the reading curriculum, focuses on the three main purposes of writing — narrative writing, informational writing, and persuasive writing. Students work through a similar hierarchy of skills in developing their writing, including composing with pictures, engagement, generating ideas, focus, organization/structure, and drafting (elaboration, word choice, spelling, grammar, and punctuation). Writing projects are diverse and run the gamut from research papers to found poems to persuasive infomercials.
The Language Arts curriculum at St. Stephen’s focuses on creating thoughtful and discerning communicators; the curriculum features the purposeful progression from concrete (Orientation and Primary) to abstract (Lower Elementary) to analytical (Upper Elementary) to expressive (Middle Years). English Language Arts in Middle Years facilitates academic growth in reading, writing, listening, speaking, discussion, reflection, and analysis. Through the examination of fiction, nonfiction, and poetry, students hone their reading strategies, critical thinking skills, and vocabulary. The focus of the writing curriculum is narrative, expository, and persuasive, and students maintain a blog throughout their time in Middle Years to chart their progress as writers.
Language Arts in the Fine Arts
Everyone has a story to tell. Stories define who we are and who we want to be. St. Stephen’s Fine Arts Program is built around magnifying the voices of our young storytellers. Exploring avenues of expression in music, visual arts, and film, St. Stephen’s students create and represent their individual and collective narratives.
The music program at St. Stephen’s strives to support a lifelong love of creating, performing, and appreciating music from the earliest levels. The youngest students focus on developing pitch and rhythm through seasonal songs, games, stories, and playing instruments. Starting in Kindergarten, students continue to build their aural training and begin their journey into music notation, utilizing Kodály-influenced materials. In the upper levels, the students gain a deeper understanding of music history and theory.
Through visual arts courses beginning in Kindergarten, St. Stephens students are offered a full range of creative studio art opportunities, from drawing and photography to multimedia and sculpture projects. Budding artists learn art history in the art room and experience it firsthand through visiting museums and collaborating with guest artists. Students speak about their work, process, and influences at art shows and exhibitions.
Students create and tell their stories in St. Stephen’s film class. Each filmmaker is responsible for writing, producing, directing, and editing a short film, shown at our annual film festival. Students form their production teams and learn all aspects of filmmaking, from camera operation to film editing and scriptwriting. Through active participation in this year-long, project-based course, students develop artistic and technical skills as well as organizational and time-management skills.
Preparing for Reading and Writing
One of the many ways toddlers prepare for reading and writing is by developing strong hand-eye coordination. This builds strong fine motor skills for writing, and it helps develop eye muscle control for visual tracking and reading.
Sandpaper Letters
The Sandpaper Letters are the first concrete representation of a sound-symbol association. They give the child a visual representation, as well as a tactile impression of each letter symbol. The child says the phonetic sound of the letter as they trace it, helping to prepare them for handwriting.
Movable Alphabet
In Montessori, we start by learning the phonetic sounds of letters before letter names. This allows students to sound out words and build words using the movable alphabet. In Primary, students use the movable alphabet for reading, writing and spelling. It’s a great tool to help students express their thoughts and work on story writing.
Montessori Grammar
The story goes that Maria Montessori was traveling in Ireland and was walking *over* one of the mossy green bridges when she came up with the symbol for the preposition. Children use different symbols to represent each part of speech.
Lower Elementary Authors’ Night
It is such a great joy to listen to our talented authors share their creative stories. Our authors celebrated their successes and the achievements of their friends.
Upper Elementary Authors’ Night
What a wonderful evening of prose and poetry at our Upper El Authors’ Night! Students shared their favorite piece of original writing with family and friends. We laughed, held our collective breath in suspense, gathered knowledge, and most of all enjoyed our time in community with our Upper El family.
Found Poem
To practice close reading, students are learning to write a “Found Poem” where they take different words from a passage and weave them together to create an original piece of writing. This creates an authentic situation for students to look closely at language to see how it creates meaning and poetry. Each student chose a different nonfiction passage as inspiration.
The Joy of Cursive Writing
In Upper Elementary, we want every student to discover the joy of cursive writing. Did you know that retention is increased if notes are taken in cursive? Some researchers theorize that the flow of the script may help connect ideas together. Even though typing has been a key skill this year, we continue to provide cursive lessons in class.
Outstanding Literature
Hearing outstanding literature and discussing the author’s intentions exposes children to literary devices and strategies which they can incorporate into their own writing. Children can also see themselves in the character of a book or learn about a world outside their own.
Research
Research is an integral part of the Montessori Elementary classroom. Students start as first graders with guided short research and leave as third graders writing multiple paragraph essays. As a first grader, this child received a lesson on the parts of a mammal, and has now come full circle in learning about the internal functions of a mammal.
Sentence Structure
Just as a biologist may dissect an animal to better understand its parts and then its whole, so can grammarians dissect a sentence for the same purpose. Mastering the complexity of sentence structure enables children to become better writers and thus better communicators.
Term Projects
Reading to learn is the cornerstone of our history curriculum. The 2nd year Upper Elementary students are beginning their ancient civilization term projects. Students spent a month researching and gaining extensive knowledge about the ancient civilization of their choice. They also create a concept map, outline, and term paper with illustrations and a bibliography along with an artistic representation of an artifact.