EXAMPLE The history of written School

The history of written language is spread out, awaiting the students who will get to experience it! Artifacts are lined up in chronological order, along with cards that offer information about a key step in the development of written language.

These objects illustrate Sumerian writing. The box behind has wet clay, ready for the teacher to demonstrate how these tablets were made--and for the students to experiment with after the Great Story.

Lower elementary students (usually ages first through third grade) are ready for bigger stories. Their imagination helps them envision distance places and times, especially when supported with such an array of intriguing materials!

Cave paintings-pictographs--were the first written communications.

"Do we still use pictographs today?" After the children respond that today, we use letters, the teachers brought out a few pictographs we do, in fact, still use today, such as caution signs. They discussed how pictographs help get very specific information across at a glance--but aren't great at telling complex stories.

How did we get from pictograms to abstract symbols in written language?" As adults we may or may not have ever contemplated this questions! Through the Great Stories, Montessori elementary students learn that it's great to ask questions like that, and that with research and science (like archeologists who discover historical artifacts) we can answer these types of questions!

"Would you be able to write quickly if you had to draw an elaborate picture for each letter?"

Here, the teachers discuss Egyptian hieroglyphs, which can stand for entire words, or for sounds--and the development of a simplified, abstract script that makes writing easier.

A replica of the Rosetta Stone, which helped modern man to decipher Egyptian hieroglyphs.

With each culture, the teachers introduce the setting, and some of that culture's contribution to civilization - beyond just the written language. The Phoenicians loved to sail and travel, for example, as illustrated by an elaborate ship.

Artifacts - like these chosen to represent ancient Greece - bring the cultures that contribute to the development of language to life.

This wax book was used in Roman times to carry messages around. Words could be written with a stylus, and then erased, to make the book reusable.

These materials illustrate the invention of printing in China. The teachers discussed how printing made written language and books so much more accessible in the last few centuries than during the rest of recorded history.

Moveable type, combined with an alphabet with just a few dozen letters, brought the ability to mass-produce books. Whereas ancient libraries may have had a few hundred books, now a school can have a library of thousands of books!

After the lesson, the children have the opportunity to explore the materials, to draw and write about what they had learned.

Reflection.