Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Learning Environments Question about Montessori and amount of writing.

Ds6 started a first grade class (skipped KG, but that just put him where he should be chronologically, although he is on the young side of 1st gr) January 5 at a Montessori school. Ds says the work is challenging enough, but every learning activity requires writing. Because they do not use text books and try to avoid excessive use of worksheets, the students instead read material from literature or from maniplative-type material (timelines, puzzle pieces, laminated cards, etc.), and then the students must transfer (write) that information into a notebook. For one, writing is a chore for ds. Two, he skipped KG so he has not had to do a lot of writing prior to beginning Montessori school, other than writing short words, his name, etc. I'm not sure if what is required of him at Montessori is really developmentally appropriate for a 6 year old. Has anyone else found this to be an issue, particularly in a Montessori setting? It's causing ds to dislike ALL subjects when he used to just dislike writing.

Writing a lot was a big deal for me during my accelerations.

I can recall a 10th grade teacher (I was 7th grade age) who just worked me over every day because I did not take notes well and she would review our notebooks once a week. It was not until December that I had it down. Ditto for the other classes - especially biology and algebra.

Taking very good notes and then keeping that material organized is a key skill for a lifelong learner. Sooner or later, to play at the highest levels, it is a skill that must be mastered.

Montessori emphasizes writing for this reason, among others.

I think he will just have to man up and dive in. This may be his first lesson in doing something hard.

Maybe others will have suggestions on how to motivate him.

Thanks Austin. I've really been hoping that all he needs is practice and to get through his first dose of hard work. He's certainly not been challenged before beginning Montessori. It just kills me to hear how he doesn't like school and doesn't want to go, especially since this is a kid who absolutely loves and craves learning. When I got there to pick him up today (they called me to pick him up early because he has a runny nose), he was sitting in a group writing the names of polygons in his notebook with silent tears trickling down his face. Once we were in the car he explained how he has a hard time looking up at the board or book and then back down to his paper to write. He loses track of where he is or what he's writing because he's so focused on forming the letters correctly. He also said when he tries to write from memory or by using phonics rules, he often ends up writing it incorrectly and having to erase and rewrite the entire word. He still reverses some of his letters and spacing is still difficult, but it's gotten better in jus the 3 weeks he's been at the Montessori school. Hopefully this will continue, and I'll look back and be glad he was forced to work through this. I know he has to learn to work hard, and that often comes from overcoming a challenge or struggle. I just don't want him to lose his love for learning.

Is it an AMI or AMS Montessori school? What you are describing sounds a little extreme to me. The works I've seen used don't require writing to be used successfully, although typically children will keep a log of their work. Does your child write in cursive? Is this required?

Jane, Our school is an AMI Montessori school. Ds does not write in cursive, but he is learning the "italic print," or at least that's what it seems like from his description. He likes to write like this better than using the Zaner-Bloser method by which he was taught to print. Regardless, he is still a very reluctant writer, and having to write in every academic area makes ds just dread school. I think it's necessary at some point; I'm just not sure exactly what is developmentally appropriate for a 6 year old.

Ds says his notebook (that I described above) is his way of showing what he did each day (i.e., a log of his work). It isn't just a matter of jotting down one or two words to describe a lesson, though. It's more like writing a few sentences for each lesson or lists of words. Maybe he's just delayed in writing development. The teacher did say she tries to involve him in determining how much he is able to write, but he's a perfectionist. If he knows he's SUPPOSED to write the full paragraph, he'll shoot for that. The problem is he becomes very frustrated with the effort required.

The teacher knows I am concerned about his writing, but she wants to give it another week or so before we jump to any concusions. They do have an OT who can evaluate him to make sure there's no physical issue. I'm not sure if the OT can evaluate visual processing issues too, but I guess that's always a possibility. Hopefully, it's just a matter of needing more practice.

Most Montessori schools have kids using manipulatives from 18 months to build the muscles in their hands specifically for writing so I'm not suprised that his classmates are writing a great deal. However, I would be very surprised if this were such an essential part of his classroom work that it couldn't be ammended to suit his development level.

Have you discussed it with the teacher? Perhaps, he can do 50% and she'll transcribe the other half for him or be willing to make some other type of comprimise to eliminate the self-doubt and stress.

I have a poor writer in an AMI Montessori school and this is not an issue. In fact, sometimes I wish he were forced to write a little more.

I have a lot of confidence in my children's teacher, but I know there are other children in the classroom who are not producing perfect written work either, especially not the first years.

I would try to determine how much of your son's standards are self-imposed. Perhaps he is just writing too much by choice or his is unclear about expectations, or he was given an older mentor who writes a lot and drew the wrong conclusion..... He's in first grade, it's no biggie if he just writes, "I did the bead frame." He doesn't need to describe the process and analyze his conclusions. If it were my son I would give him a list of canned sentences for each type of work and have him practice writing them at home in the same type of notebook. Then he has a fallback when he gets overwhelmed. He's motivated to write so let him take a shortcut for a little while until he gets up to speed. He'll elaborate more as he develops. Yes, it's a crutch but I think it's OK. The task is not as hard as he thinks and this would be a way of demonstrating that.

I'd also try to get a look at that notebook and confirm the expectations in terms of cursive/italic and how much he's supposed to be writing. I would be very interested if it were more than just a list of what he did. That just doesn't seem age-appropriate.

P.S. I agree with your son that looking at the board and transferring the words to the notebook is hard.

From what my son has said, and from what I've observed in the classroom, he's doing a lot of copying written material. For example, today, he had to list all of the polygons they learned. There were quite a few, and of course, those are very long words. He has to check, double-check, and triple-check his spelling on each word and often loses track looking up and down from the board to his notebook. Although, he was quite proud that he spelled one of them correctly without looking. ; )

Another example is a historical timeline puzzle about US presidents. He had to put the puzzle together in order, write the title in his notebook, and then write all the information provided on one of the presidents. (i.e., Goerge Washington was the first US president. He lived....) I trust his teacher, and I just can't imagine that she's having him write an excessive amount. She told me she gives him the instructions, and if he resists, she asks him how much he thinks he can write. Once he tells her, she has him write that and asks for just a little more but not the whole thing. To him, it seems like all he does is write all day. He is a perfectionist, so maybe some of this is self imposed.

I did talk to the teacher to see if she thinks there's a problem with writing, but she wanted to give it a little while to see if it's just a matter of adjustment. He reads books that are 3rd-5th grade level, but handwriting is difficult. Spelling is ok, but certainly not near the reading level-not even sure if he's on grade level with spelling. He can verbally create amazing, detailed stories with lots of character and plot development. His vocabulary blows us away. If he has to put his thoughts into writing, it goes downhill and turns into tears. I am planning to spend some more time talking with the teacher to get a firm grasp of what is expected. He's been there less than 3 weeks, so I wanted to give him some time to adjust. I didn't forsee this level of stress already. My underlying fear is that we've found yet another poor school fit, but I don't to make any snap judgements.

I don't guess this will help with things like listing all the polygons or copying information down from puzzles and such, but in his daily journal could he/you work out a deal with the teacher wherein he writes two sentences and then dictates more to his teacher after that if he feels like it? That way he could get the practice of writing more than is easy for him but then will also have the satisfaction of getting down all the details that are important to him. Eventually as his muscles get more used to the writing, he could move up to writing three sentences on his own, and then later four sentences on his own. I agree that all that writing is a lot for most 6 year olds. Surely the teacher can see that he shouldn't be so frustrated so young. Do you think the teacher would go for such a plan?

This is one of the aspects of Montessori that drove my son crazy. He was in a Montessori Preschool from ages 2-5. His last year he was mastering all the lessons so quickly and wanting more, more, more but he was VERY frustrated because of all the writing. He has dyspraxia which makes handwriting just a hate of his.....I would see lots of writing work come home and for him it was all copy work...nothing original. The thing that irked him the most was when he would do the Math bead chains - he loves doing the 1000's chain where he would count out the beads/chains and place them completely around the room up to 1000. He would place all the beads and then the little teeny tiny number tags next to where they each belonged and then the teacher would make him sit there with a clipboard and roll of adding machine paper and make him write out every single number that was on all of the number tags. He was SO determined to complete the 1000's chain that it took him almost a week just to write out all the numbers. I could never, ever figure out the point of why she made them do that!