The Mechanics of Writing, Alison’s Montessori

Language Arts, 6-12

The Montessori language arts curriculum is certainly rich in grammar, and vocabulary enrichment. If elementary language arts is not new to you, please scroll through the pictures to have an overview of the materials. If Mechanics of Writing is new to you, I will take you through the steps of introducing this material effectively.

I follow the manuals from Montessori Research and Development, which are my primary source for learning the pedagogy and its methodical application.

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The Mechanics of Writing from Alison’s Montessori is a perfect solution for applying the curriculum Montessori Research and Development Language Arts Volume 2, elementary I. Usually, manuals provide the science and scripted presentations, but you need to provide the materials. You can decide to do it yourself, but grammar work is usually something you’d rather buy (hundreds, thousands of pieces).

Materials

The Mechanics of Writing from Alison’s Montessori consists of:

• 6 pages of instructions (format A5)
• 32 pages pages of materials, 400 cards (format A5)
• 5 reproductible workbooks for each studied component + answer keys (all colorful)

How it works

Because we have manuals, I use them in conjunction with the Mechanics of Writing. I use the manuals to present the Key Experiences, which help present and hook the child to the learning. For our first lesson on capitalization, I used a red pencil and and black pencil. I wrote a statement in red “Proper nouns are capitalized.” We reviewed the definitions for common nouns vs. proper nouns. I then wrote a phrase on a piece of paper, “likes grapes” and placed it below my statement label. I asked the children’s names and wrote them using red for the first capital letter, and black for the rest of the name in lowercase. I handed them their names. They placed them in front of the phrase to create a sentence. I asked them a series of questions “what’s your pet name?” to have them understand what is a proper name, and we wrote them, and capitalized the first letters of the names in red, the rest of the names in black.

The children filled out a questionnaire that can be found in the manual. It was asking many questions that require proper name responses (your country? Your mother’s name?…) .

Finally, they were ready to choose work from the box of drawers where they would work using the organized cards. The first work, TP1, was about Capitalization. Children had to sort different groups of proper nouns (cities, streets, states, holidays, names, places…). There are 8 different works on capitalization alone. This exercise is to be sorted and copied in a notebook. This helps children internalize the knowledge, but also to learn spelling of uncommon terms.

Later, we will be learning and working with other mechanics of writing. The following mechanics are extensively covered:

• Capitalization
• Sentences vs. Phrases
• Punctuation (period, coma, exclamation point, question mark, quotes)
• Abbreviations (Dr. , Ms., Jan., PhD. , NJ…)
• Appositives

I found the instructions from the materials very helpful in setting up the materials quickly, and effectively. Children are going to confidently continue this work until they reach the end of a series. The cards and drawers are coded, so they know to ask for a lesson when done with a complete set. In the meantime, they have been encouraged to use their workbook if done with the materials, but that is on a voluntary basis.

Another work I will do in parallel is Word Study. Please subscribe to receive notifications of my next post on the topic! I will do my best to illustrate the work and provide visual details; so that you can make informed decisions.

Disclosure: this experience was made possible thanks to Alison’s Montessori for having the confidence in their house-made products, and letting us try Mechanics of Writing at no cost, with no requirement on my part. I do write unbiased honest reviews, because I only write about products that work for us.

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