Tessellation
The integration engine. Input a unit or topic and TEMPOS surfaces the linguistic layers hiding inside it, then assembles them into a lesson plan where literacy and content reinforce each other.
Literacy isn’t a subject.
It’s the connective tissue of every subject.
TEMPOS is a planning system for Montessori and project-based educators — built to weave structured literacy, writing, and inquiry into the lessons you’re already teaching.
Every word a student meets in your classroom is a tessellation — of sound, structure, history, and spelling. Fluent readers see the whole pattern. Striving readers see one piece at a time.
The teachers who can teach all four layers at once produce students who can read, write, and reason across disciplines. But that work has always lived inside one teacher’s expertise, rebuilt week by week, in classroom after classroom.
TEMPOS turns that expertise into a planning system.
The Method
The TEMPOS Method
Six interlocking layers. Not a checklist. Not a sequence. A tessellation.
Etymology
A vetted etymology library tied to elementary content standards. The origin story of any term in your science, math, or social studies unit — and the words students already know that share its roots.
Morphology
Morpheme analysis for elementary classrooms. Word sums, base and affix breakdowns, and word-family extensions ready for matching cards, anchor charts, and student-facing worksheets.
Phonology
Sound and syllable structure tools. Phonological annotations for read-alouds, pronunciation modeling, and decoding instruction.
Orthography
Spelling pattern and visual structure tools. Why words are spelled the way they are, with patterns grouped so students can transfer the logic to new words.
STEAM
Cross-curricular mapping across Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Math. Every linguistic layer anchors to subject-area standards.
See it work
Type a word. Watch the layers.
Type any word a student might meet in your classroom. TEMPOS breaks it down the way you would — etymology, morphology, phonology, orthography — and suggests one classroom move.
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Who it’s for
Built for educators in this world.
If your classroom looks like this — natural wood shelves, work cycles, hands-on materials, students choosing their work — TEMPOS was built with you in mind.
Montessori facilitators and guides. Project-based learning teachers. Reggio-inspired and inquiry-based educators. Intervention and special education specialists serving these students. Instructional coaches and curriculum leads at progressive schools. Homeschool co-ops and microschools.
A note from Kelly
I teach upper elementary at a Montessori charter school in San Diego. For the last several years, I’ve been building integrated curriculum that weaves structured literacy into the work we already do — etymology in science, morphology in math, writing in every inquiry block.
Other educators kept asking me how I do it, and I realized the answer was a system, not a personality. TEMPOS is that system.
I’m opening early access to a small group of educators who want to shape it with me — facilitators, guides, intervention specialists, anyone teaching at a Montessori, project-based, or progressive school. If that’s you, I’d love to have you on the list.
— Kelly
The waitlist is open.
Built to be affordable for individual teachers. Early access opens this fall.