In order to help children become fluent readers with a love for the written word, we can guide them through the Montessori progression of Total Reading.
In the Montessori classroom, the child is exposed to the three strands of Total Reading at the same time:
mechanical (decoding)
interpretation (meaning)
appreciation
The child works with materials and activities that isolate these strands (although there is some crossover). These three strands will ultimately come together to form Total Reading.
The first strand of Total Reading is mechanical, when the child learns to decode the written word. In order to read, the child must learn to break down a word into separate letter sounds, then fuse those sounds to form a word.
The child gains experience in decoding through early language materials and oral language games, like Sound Games (learning to isolate each sound in a word), Sandpaper Letters (learning the sound each letter makes), and the Moveable Alphabet (learning to put letters together to form words).
The second strand of Total Reading is interpretation, when the child begins to read for meaning.
Pre-reading activities that support this include stories, poems, songs and rich conversations with real, complicated words, enriching the child’s vocabulary.
Once the child has begun the decoding phase and is able to fuse letters together to form words, they can move on to early reading activities like the easy reader books, classified reading cards to match a word with an image, and action cards, which tell the child an action to perform – like “jump”!
The third strand of Total Reading is appreciation.
Reading to a child from infancy can instill a love for books. In addition to decoding sounds and reading for meaning, we want the child to read with excitement and love for the written word.
We want children to be able to interpret everything the author is trying to say, including the tone and intention, so that the written word becomes a tool of expression, not just functional communication.
We want to instill a lifelong love of reading and writing in young children. We want them to develop a passion for language, a voracious appetite for reading, and an eagerness to express themselves through writing.
We hope that this appreciation for the written word will stay with them throughout their lives!
