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GAGUINE MASTER’S PORTFOLIO

Language arts

Content Knowledge: The Candidate demonstrates understanding of the central concepts,

tools of inquiry, and structures of the discipline(s) he or she teaches and creates learning
experiences that make these aspects of the discipline accessible and meaningful for learners
to assure mastery of the content in the areas below. Candidates demonstrate and apply
understandings of the elements of literacy critical for purposeful oral, print, and digital
communication.

People’s ability to communicate with each other in the way we do is one of the biggest

aspects of our species that sets us apart from other animals. Our ability to learn language, and

communicate in detail our wants and needs, has allowed us to work together and learn from one

another. This learning of language is hardwired into our brains. Even before we are born, we are

beginning to hear sounds and recognize the voices of people who will be our caregivers

(Freemen & Freemen, 2014).

Language development in Montessori education consists of four parts, called by

Montessori educators the four discoveries of the child (Becka, 2018). The first discovery focuses

on oral language acquisition, the second on the ability to write language, the third on the

discovery of reading and the fourth on the rules of language (grammar). “[T]he development of

language is part of the development of the personality, for words are the natural means of

expressing thoughts and establishing understanding between men.” (Montessori, 1996, p.72).

Because language and literacy are so important to surviving in our society, language arts

are one of the most important skills taught in elementary school. We need to help children learn

to communicate their thoughts and needs comfortably and fluently. Because of this, I have

chosen to embark on a self-directed project of creating an in depth scope and sequence plan for

language instruction for all three years that the same children will be in my classroom. My scope

and sequence plan incorporates all the language lessons from my Montessori albums, as well as
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skills needed beforehand for students who may not be reading or writing fluently. It also

incorporates reading comprehension and writing skills that I felt would most benefit the children

in my class.

The first focus is building a skill orally. This is because the child’s first discovery of

language is that “There are more words than I know” (Becka, 2018). This starts from the very

beginning of a child’s life, when they start to hear the words from their caregivers’ mouths and

their brains start to rewire to those particular set of sounds (Kuhl, 2010). They eventually begin

to reproduce those sounds, “Parents hang on every sound infants make. They marvel at how

quickly their child learns to understand and speak. The parents aren’t really surprised at the

development of language in their child because most children accomplish this incredible feat.”

(Freeman & Freeman, 2014, p.22).

In order to eventually be able to spell and read these words, we have to know the words

to begin with! That is why my scope and sequence plan focuses on verbally telling stories, using

images for story brainstorming, “Writing from the Heart”, and focusing on individual phoneme

teaching (for the students who need it). By building up the ability to communicate verbally the

child’s thoughts, I am helping them to build confidence and practice skills necessary for reading

and writing.

Children develop the ability to understand and produce language because language is
essential for social interaction. Hearing children develop the ability to talk, and deaf
children develop the ability to sign. The modality is not important. What is important is
the capacity for communication. In fact, children don't simply learn the grammar and
vocabulary of a language, they learn how to use language appropriately in different social
settings. (Freeman & Freeman, 2014, p. 32)

Up until this point, most children may not have much experience in crafting a story or

communicating to people other than their caregivers. Starting the language curriculum in my
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class focusing on appropriate ways to communicate with peers, and building up skills in fictional

storytelling and factual storytelling (the beginning of research), I’m allowing for a scaffolded

approach to the more concrete language curriculum to come.

This leads us to the next discovery the child makes around language, “I can make my

language available to others.” (Becka, 2018). This is the discovery of writing. Once children can

associate a letter with a sound, they are capable of writing.

Isn’t it amazing how spelling, sound, and meaning work together to allow human beings
to read? At some point, speech sounds are associated with squiggles. We learn these
squiggles are letters that represent sounds. When we put letters together in a specific way,
we create a word that has meaning. In time, this word can be read by sight. Next, words
are strung together to convey a thought, idea, or feeling. Then, before you know it, the
world is bursting with sentences, paragraphs, and pages that communicate beauty, anger,
joy, despair, adventure, deception, truth, and love. Wow. If that isn’t exciting, I don’t
know what is. (Gentry & Ouellette, 2019, p. xi)

In my Montessori classroom, we have numerous movable alphabets, so even if a child is not

developmentally ready to hold a pencil and make steady marks on paper, they can still write. By

allowing children to create words this way, we allow them to really embody the rules of phonics.

Gentry and Ouellette call this “spelling to read”. “This process [spell to read] both activates and

promotes phonological awareness and engages students in a deep, self-directed analytical

process. Brain regions known to be critical for reading are also activated and become integrated

in the process.” (Gentry & Ouellette, 2019, p.4). Writing is not separate from reading. They are

tied together.

It is imperative that we allow children the freedom to write in the early years without too

much editing.

[W]hen children begin to write, they often invent spellings of words. Over time, they
modify their inventions to match social conventions so that others can read what they
write more easily. If teachers insist on correct spelling from the beginning, they may
discourage children from trying to write. However, if teachers never correct children’s
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spelling, then others will have trouble reading what children write. When children use
writing for authentic communication, when it is important to them that their readers
understand their message, they begin to use spellings that are more conventional.
(Freeman & Freeman, 2014, p. 37)

My scope and sequence plan also has built in a way to eventually encourage peer-editing and

self-editing. In the beginning, it is teacher editing, and that editing will focus on only one or two

aspects. This is because we want to encourage students in their experimentation of message and

voice:

We have to keep in mind that our youngest writers are still experimenting with spelling,
sentence structure, and punctuation. This means that we sometimes have to “read
through” the conventions to get to the message. This is important because while
conventions matter, this trait isn’t about conventions. It’s about what the writer has to
say. (Spandel, 2012, p.40)

By allowing a child the chance to freely express themselves in writing, I hope to be able to

deepen their love of writing and help them find their own unique voice.

The next discovery of language is, “I can interpret the thoughts of others, even when they

aren’t present.” (Becka, 2018). This is the act of reading. Encoding (spelling/writing) and

decoding (reading) are two sides of the same coin. If the students in your class are working on

their writing and spelling skills, they are also learning how to read. The rules of our language are

being written into their brains as they create. But reading is more than just decoding words.

Reading comprehension needs to be happening as well.

Yet, as children become more adept at reading, they begin to recognize more words
rapidly and with seemingly little conscious effort. When spelling, they can reproduce
syllable and word patterns just as easily. There thus seems to be a transition on the
pathway to literacy, generally toward the end of first grade, where children progress from
sounding out words letter by letter to being able to more readily recognize and spell
printed text, a transition where the reading routes come and a shift is made from one to
the other. Reading is often described as becoming more automatic, more fluent, and
taking far less effort. This in turn frees cognitive resources by reducing the memory load,
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allowing the child to focus on higher-level functions such as comprehension.” (Gentry,
Ouellette, 2019, p.22)

I would argue that reading comprehension does not need to wait for fluency. I would

agree with Debbie Miller, who believes that “the surface structure systems – those skills and

strategies that help readers identify words and read fluently, and the deeper structure systems –

those skills and strategies that help readers comprehend – are best taught side by side.” (Miller,

2013, p.46). Children do not need to be fluent readers in order to start reading comprehension

instruction. With thoughtful read alouds and encouraging in depth discussion, we can be teaching

reading comprehension to children who are pre-literate. That is why I have an entire set of lesson

plans, one building off of another, to help students with reading comprehension specifically:

starting with mini-lessons on what readers do, and what makes someone a reader, all the way to

breaking down voice and message in a book.

Children need to be given the choice of what they read. I have often heard the term, “just

right book,” as a way to make sure children are not picking books that are too easy, or books that

are too hard. But as Miller points out, there can be a lot of different aspects of a text that

influence what makes it a “just right book:”

Much of the word on the street has to do with matching kids with books based on such
features of text as vocabulary load, sentence length, amount of print on a page, and
predictability…In my years of teaching children how to make thoughtful and appropriate
choices, however, I’ve learned that there’s more to book selection than being able to read
the words. If we mean it when we say we want children to become lifelong readers, if we
mean it when we say we want children to actively engage in text for a variety of purposes
and for increasingly long periods of time, we can’t teach them to make book selections
based on words alone. If we really mean it, we also need to teach children to pay
attention to content schema…myself as a reader schema…motivation…variety and
purpose.” (Miller, 2013, p.53)
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Children’s love of reading is a major focus for me in language instruction. By letting

children follow their passions around reading, and hosting reading and writing workshops that

encourage discussion, reading, and writing together, I hope to instill in my students a passion for

the written word and a joy in communicating about books and ideas.

The final discovery of language that the child makes is that “words, whether spoken or

written, carry out a particular purpose and function.” (Becka, 2018). Grammar is often

considered a boring and dry subject. But if children are really into what they’re writing about or

reading about, they are going to have a deeper desire to make their thoughts clearer to

understand. In the Montessori classroom we have a systematic way of teaching grammar and

doing word study. Grammar is taught in a fun and engaging way, and my scope and sequence

plan continues on in this tradition. “Grammar was actually lived by the children, who became

deeply interested and in it.” (Montessori, 2007, p.39). Mad libs, a grammar pencil and paper

grammar game that produces ridiculous sentences, are also something I plan on using heavily in

my class because it is fun and helps children understand the rules of our language.

In conclusion, teaching children to read and write is a huge undertaking that requires

flexibility and a plan. By designing my scope and sequence plan, I was able to take an

overwhelming amount of information from two different graduate programs and create an outline

that will allow me to deliver as much information to the children in my class as possible. By

working with the natural discoveries of language with the children, I am aiding their

development as readers and writers.

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References:

Becka, M. (2018) Lecture on introduction to language. Montessori Northwest, Portland, OR.

Freeman & Freeman (2014). Essential linguistics: What teachers need to know to teach ESL,
reading, spelling, grammar. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.

Gentry, R., & Ouellette, G. (2019). Brain words : How the science of reading informs
teaching. Portsmouth, NH: Stenhouse Publishers.

Kuhl, P. (2010, October) The linguistic genius of babies. [Video File] Retrieved from
https://www.ted.com/talks/patricia_kuhl_the_linguistic_genius_of_babies?language=en

Miller, D. (2013) Reading with meaning: Teaching comprehension in the primary grades.
Portland, ME: Stenhouse Publishers.

Montessori, M. (1984) The absorbent mind. New York, NY: Dell Publishing.

Montessori, M. (1996) From childhood to adolescence. Amsterdam: Montessori-Pierson

Publishing Company.

Montessori, M. (2007) The advanced Montessori method II. Amsterdam: Publisher.

Spandel, V. (2012) Creating young writers: Using the six traits to enrich writing process in
primary classrooms. Boston, MA: Pearson.