Listening, Speaking, Reading & Writing (LSRW) skills learnt in synergy together develop Linguistic skills. Language skills, being an important pillar of learning of Global Montessori Plus pedagogy, is introduced to students in a sequential pattern. The lessons include- introduction of alphabets or numbers to relative words, learning to spell and identify each word and eventually constructing short sentences and expressions as per their age group.

To familiarise parents with this learning framework, a workshop on Phonics and language was organized for parents of GIIS Noida campus. The objective of this workshop was to educate parents on the phonics-approach to learning language, so that they can incorporate its techniques to teach their children at home.

The workshop started with a small discussion by Ms. Nandita Dasgupta - Principal, GIIS Noida, where she talked about the impact of language on human life and how early days of schooling are crucial for children developing language and writing skills. Carrying the thought forward, Ms. Rachna Jain - Academic Coordinator, Pre-Primary Section, talked about distinctive approaches that teachers adapt at the pre-primary level. She emphasized on various aspects of language learning while sharing some real life case studies with parents. She explained how phonics can help a child recognize words and carve their reading skills. She also suggested some tips and tricks to help children understand and form a strong basis of the language while being at home.

Moving further, couple of teachers from the pre-primary section demonstrated through tasks like the phonics song to explain the sounds associated with each alphabet, explaining how these sounds must be spelt for children to understand the difference between various sounds of a single alphabet. Since a few alphabets have more than one sound, the distinguishing difference became all the more necessary to demonstrate. Another teacher explained how teachers engage children and make them learn through role play. She demonstrated how a story is told using phonics technique and how children are kept hooked to the narration till the end. She explained the use of various objects like flash cards, interactive boards, colourful storybooks and book characters as props to help children understand phonics, learn to speak and read.

The core objective of the workshop for parents, as partners in the education process of their child, was to make them aware of the various ways of teaching language to their child and how they could continue this process of conceptual learning in non-schooling hours. At the end of the workshop, parents were happy and satisfied as they got an opportunity to know and learn about Phonics as a language development skill which they can use to compliment classroom learning in the child’s home environment.