Lately, I’ve been interested in how Montessori schools teach
reading and writing. One promising approach is outlined in a
NAMTA (North American Montessori Teachers’ Association) Journal
article by Muriel I. Dwyer called “A Path for the Exploration of
Any Language Leading to Writing and Reading”. The article can be
purchased from NAMTA for $7.00 plus shipping here. Also, a good
summary of this approach can be found for free at the Kingdom of
the Pink Princesses blog here. At the core of the Dwyer approach
is phonemic awareness, which is the ability to hear, identify
and manipulate the smallest units of sound. In her article,
Dwyer provides 40 key sounds for English and suggests exposing
children first to just one graphical representation for each
sound. For example, her approach would start children off using
the letter ‘a’ to represent the sound of short a and the letter
team ‘ai’ to represent the sound of long a. This allows children
to form any word, even before they can read. For example, a
child could for