Today I'd like to introduce you to the moveable alphabet, one of my absolute favorite Montessori materials, and such a great idea I can't believe that it has never come into more common practice. Seriously, once the purposes and uses of this material were pointed out to me I couldn't believe I never used one in school myself.
The moveable alphabet is a language material introduced to children when they are around age 4 to 4.5 and have demonstrated a solid knowledge of the sandpaper letters. Once the child can recognize the individual letters and recall the sound each makes they are shown the moveable alphabet. The letters of the alphabet are usually cut out from wood and colored pink (for consonants) and blue (for vowels). Ideally the letters are in cursive, though print ones are also made by companies.
The moveable alphabet provides a way for the child to write words BEFORE they can really control a pencil enough to write legibly. Dr. Montessori found that young children were more than capable of writing: they knew that words were made up of individual sounds, that each letter had a sound, and that they had ideas of their own that they wanted to write. The only thing really holding them back was the inability to control a pencil with enough precision to produce legible letters. So Maria Montessori designed a tool for writing that only required children to know the sound they needed and to recognize its unique shape. They could now write before they built up the hand strength to control a pencil.
When the teacher first presents the material she shows the child how to carry the rather large box to a mat and how to open it. The child is asked to get their favorite sandpaper letter and bring it to the mat. The teacher then assists the child in finding that letter in the alphabet box, and lets them know that each sound they have learned with the sandpaper letters is in this box. Together the adult and child come up with a phonetic word (such as 'plant') and the teacher assists the child in identifying each sound in the word and then finding it in the box. This is repeated several times, with the student being encouraged to think of their own words.
Later the children are shown how to write short phrases (like 'the red rods') and eventually short stories. For the latter they are shown a much smaller alphabet where the letters are simply printed on plastic tiles or laminated paper and not cut out into their shape.
All the writing is done phonetically, and the directress does not worry about the child's spelling at this point. Often the child may spell cat with a 'k' instead of 'c' but as long as it is clear that they are listening to all the sounds in a word the spelling does not matter. This work is designed simply to introduce children to a new way of expressing themselves using written words. Focusing on abstract concepts like spelling can frustrate the child and potentially dissuade them from wanting to write.
Did you notice that nowhere in this article did I talk about reading with the moveable alphabet? That wasn't an oversight, but done purposefully. In a montessori classroom writing comes before reading. Amazingly when you step back and think about it writing is actually an easier process than reading. Writing requires taking a known idea, analyzing the sounds in a word, attaching the sound to its symbol, and transcribing the symbol with some sort of tool. Meanwhile reading is almost the reverse process. An unknown idea is presented, the symbol needs to be identified and the sound attached, then the sounds need to be blended together to create meaning/understanding.
Because of this Montessori children are first taught writing, then reading; the reverse of what is done in most elementary schools. Reading usually comes about 6 months after writing and hopefully from the spontaneous understanding/connection of the child between their own writing and other written words. But it's all in the preparation, and it's a long road to get there!
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