Teach Grammar Montessori Way

S. Rekha Reddy www.vidyanjali.in www.rekhareddy.com Page 1

Teach Grammar Montessori Way -‐ S. Rekha Reddy

Vidyanjali Academy for Learning

2011

Generally people think grammar is a difficult subject. This is because grammar is seen

as a separate entity that should be learnt in the classroom and should be forgotten after

writing exams. We often hear students and even adults saying grammar was “the toughest” in

school. Many even feel that as grammar is difficult and of no use for the students, and has to

be removed from the school curriculum, or make it as simple as possible. All this is because

of the way the grammar is taught and the age it is taught.

Dr Maria Montessori has a very different approach to grammar which is still working

and logical even to date. The child of 2 ½ years when he starts schooling he already has a

language. He can express himself clearly in his mother tongue without any grammatical

mistakes to a certain extent.

The language program in the Montessori classroom has three objectives apart from

enriching his vocabulary:

1. Phonetic analysis: help him understand that his language is made up of sounds,

symbols for the sounds, expressing himself graphically which is writing, and

interpret what others have written which is not mere reading.

2. Grammatical Analysis: Every word he uses in the language has a function, what

those functions are

3. Logical Analysis: There is a logical structure for words in the language

The child is helped in all these areas parallel to each other. The grammatical analysis

comprises of parts of speech. The child is presented with the word origin of each “parts of

speech”.

Ex: The Noun. Noun is derived from the Latin word “nomen” which means “a name”.

The child is asked to bring some things in the classroom

Bring me a pen


Bring me a pencil

Bring me a plant.

Bring me a book.

What did you bring?

Pen, pencil, plant, book

All these are names. These names are called nouns.

Everything, seen and unseen, touched or not touched has a name. Most part of

language is made up of nouns. Try to count how many nouns we use in a day.

Then we introduce the symbol for the noun, which is a black square pyramid.

Pyramids stand majestically as a symbol of human creation since 5000 years. There is no

wind strong enough no flood big enough to destroy the pyramids. Just like pyramids noun is a

human creation. The pyramid used for symbolizing nouns are black like coal, which formed

during Carboniferous period.

What about Article? Article is a small limb that is attached to the noun. The Article

tells us whether we have a choice. For example, If we had a choice of many nouns and had to

choose one among many then we use the article ‘a’, when we do not have any choice and

there is only one noun then the article ‘the’ is used.

Adjective is something which adds on to noun. While teaching an adjective the

teacher says to the child, “Bring me a pencil”

The child goes and gets a lead pencil. The teacher says, “Not this one”. The child goes

and brings a colour pencil. The teacher says, “Not this one dear” the child again goes and

brings some other colour pencil, the teacher goes on saying not this one and finally the child

reaches a point where he/she asks “What kind of pencil do you want?” It is then that the

teacher says, “I want a small pink pencil.” The child goes and gets the small pink pencil. The

teacher summarises, “You could not bring the pencil I wanted because I did not give you

enough information about the pencil. The words big, small, red, blue, thick, thin, one, two

etc. add information about the name. These are called ‘adjectives’.


Noun family: article, adjective and noun belong to the noun family. While noun is

symbolized as mother, the article is the baby and adjective is the big sister. The baby (article)

cannot live without the mother. So it is always with mother. The adjective is like a big sister

although it needs the support of the mother it is not as dependent on the mother as the article.

Thus the noun holds adjective, adjective hold the hand of the article. It denotes the way they

appear in English, first article followed by adjective and then noun.

Dr Montessori’s greatness lies in her explanation of verb. It is presented in this manner.

The teacher asks a child,

“Smell the flower” the child smells it.

“Pour the water in the glass” the child pours the water.

The teacher asks, “Where is the flower”. The child shows the flower.

“Where is smell” the child wonders and starts thinking about it.

“Where is glass” the child shows the glass.

“Where is water” the child shows the water

“Where is pour?”

The child becomes aware that there are words which tell us to do something. All these

pour smell etc. tell us to do an action. These action words are called verbs. The word verb is

derived from a Latin word Verbum which means “a word”. The verb gives energy to the

noun. It completes the thought that started from the noun.

The symbol of the verb is “red sphere”. It is like the sun. Sun is a symbol of energy. It

gives life to earth. As sun gives life to earth verb gives life to noun. Compared to the stable

noun, verb is fluid and rotates around the noun.

Now let us look at the class hunt the action. Can you see any action going on in the

class? Reading! Who is reading Ajith is reading. Anything else do you see? “Thinking”.

“Who is it that thinking?” “Bhavyata is thinking”. The child can hunt the actions in the

classroom. He writes the sentences and symbolizes with the symbols.


Preposition – a bridge which connects two nouns. The symbol is primitive green

hanging bridge.

Adverb – orange sphere - derived from ‘adverbium’ means close to the verb.

Pronoun – purple pyramid of same height as the black pyramid but the base is smaller

– Derived from the Latin word ‘pronomen’ which means in the place of noun.

Conjunction – pink strip – Derived from the Latin word ‘conjugere’ which mean to

join together.

Interjection – combination of pyramid and sphere – ‘interjecto’ which means to throw

between – these are the words which are thrown in between to express more emotion or

emphasis.

Every time a parts of speech is taught the child is helped to apply it to a miniature

environment or a doll house then to the real environment like classroom. The child is helped

to know the transposition in each “parts of speech”. Transposition is changing the place of the

words. Sometimes the meaning of the sentence is completely changed when the places of the

words are changed, sometimes they sound absurd. For ex:

Book on the table

Table on the book

On the book table

Table book on the

The first one is the sentence which has the intended meaning. The next two are grammatically

correct but distort what intended meaning. The last one has no meaning.

Each “parts of speech” has a command box. The command boxes have command

cards which help the child become aware of the minute difference between different parts of

speech. For example for verb we have a command card which reads,

“Ask one of your friends to listen carefully to what you say. Murmur a short

sentence as though you were speaking to yourself. Mutter the same words in a louder voice

and see whether he understands. Whisper the same words in his ear. Grumble the same


words and watch how your friend looks at you. Speak the same words aloud and as distinctly

as you can.”

“Take a book and a large piece of cloth. Lay the book on your table and cover it with

the cloth. Take the cloth and wrap it around the book so that the book cannot be seen. Tie a

string around the cloth, so that the book will not fall out. Undo the bundle and return each

object to the place where you found it.”

(Advanced Montessori Method Vol. II)

The child literally has to perform these actions and experience the difference. Then

there is a material which is called “Grammar boxes”. Grammar boxes help the child to

consolidate his knowledge regarding parts of speech and their position. A word, which is an

adjective in one sentence, would be a pronoun in other sentence.

All these activities are repeatedly presented in first, second and third standard. That

means the lesson is attended by a child who is very new to this concept, a child who has

heard of it last year, the one who has heard and understood and has been working at higher

level.

Like grammatical analysis which deals with the function of words there is Logical

Analysis which is of the structure of the sentence, structure of words in a sentence.

Logical analysis is taught after the presentation of verb. All the words revolve around

the “Verb”.

Mary sings a song for her brother

Which is verb in this sentence?

Sings

Who is it that sings?

Mary

Mary sings what?

A song

For whom does she sing?


For her brother

The word which answers the question who is it that or what is it that for the verb is

“subject”, the word which answers the question “What” and “Whom” for the verb is the

“Direct Object”, the word which answers the question “for whom” for the verb is the indirect

object.

The logical analysis helps the child who can understand English and are not confident

enough to speak. The students are motivated to form similar sentences and sometimes try the

words at different places and discover how some sentences have objects and some sentences

do not, which will lead to the lesson on transitive and intransitive verbs.

Thus the presentation of grammar in the Montessori environment is interesting,

innovative and productive. It doesn’t restrict the grammar learning to the four wall of of the

classroom but help the child discover grammar in their own language. It stimulates learning

and the learning goes on, not for writing examinations but for the urge of making one’s own

discoveries.

Reference

Rigg, P. Z. (2004). Language Arts Mannual, San Leandro: Montessori Research and

Development Mannuals

Gupta, R. (N.Y). Language. Bangalore: Indian Montessori Association

Education

Teach Grammar Montessori Way