Nomenclature

The nomenclature lesson presentation is for showing the child a relationship between specific words and their corresponding concept or physical attribute in the environment. Most importantly, it is used for showing letter-sound knowledge and blending them together in the process of learning to read. This lesson is also known as the three-period lesson, which Dr. Montessori employed from the prior work and experiments of Dr. Eduard Seguin. The Seguin three-period lesson can be used to show the relationship between many concepts and objects throughout the whole range of academic subject matter.

The nomenclature lesson presentation is essentially a three-step sequence: (1) “This is…”, (2) “Show me…”, and (3) “What is this?”  With color tablets, for example, the method begins by showing red, blue, and yellow in a row: (1) Show one object by itself saying, “this is…(red)”  The second step (2) has the three objects in a row in front of the child, and the teacher says, “Show me …(blue)”.   During this stage, the teacher mixes up the objects and repeats the question until the child can point to each one correctly every time.  Finally, in step (3), the teacher prompts the child to verbalize the distinction by asking, “What is this?”

With letter-sound knowledge, the teacher takes out individual letters, and lays them in front of the child, one at a time.  Traditionally, the letters are made of sandpaper glued on heavy paper to facilitate tracing of the letter shapes with the child’s fingers.  The letters “c”, “u” and “p” are especially good to begin with because they readily form together to make simple phonetic words, such as “up” and “cup”.

Phonetic Words
With sandpaper letters, the steps are (1) “This is…”, (2) “Show me…” and (3) “What is this?”  Use the common phonetic sounds of each letter, instead of their name.  Then, at the end of step 3, lay out the letters to make the phonetic word “up” and prompt the child to say the individual letter sounds in order, and finally blend them together by saying “faster” and ‘smoother” until the child verbalized the word “up” to recognize its meaning.  Once the child acquires the basic concept that letters make sounds, and sounds together make words, he normally advances quickly on his own.

Written Symbols
With some children, just a single lesson may be enough to start the child learning more about reading and writing on his own.   However, you can also help the child’s further learning by adding various other exercises in letter-sound knowledge, such as focusing on word families of specific phonetic rules.

The nomenclature lesson becomes more complex with older children who are entering a new stage of more advanced mental development.  Now, imagination and abstract reasoning are active developing faculties for the child to gain total knowledge of a wide range of advanced cultural subject matter.  At any age, however, the nomenclature lesson can always be most useful to help children connect symbols or concepts with their corresponding image, sound or word.