It is helpful to know what experts like Jean Piaget, Lev Vygotsky, and Jerome Bruner say about how children learn. If you want to teach a child about scissors, then what would you do? Let them know the definition of scissors from the dictionary, explain the purpose of scissors, and how to hold them. Obviously not. You are supposed to let them have a pair of scissors to use it but be careful scissors are sharp. So how do children learn? They learn by doing. Jean Piaget helped us to learn that kids are energetic learners and thinkers. kids learn by interacting with their surroundings. So, while you are teaching English, you need to carry in real objects. It's like the scissors. If you are teaching your young learners about toys, bring in toys for them to touch and play. With even better have your students bring in their favorite toy to share and talk about. Children also learn through social interaction.
Lev Vygotsky helped us understand that we learn through interaction with others. For instance kids learn to walk and speak with guidance from their mother and father. For your students, the interaction with you, the teacher, is extremely important. Your students need a guide to learn new things. The younger your students are the more they depend on you. To help them learn this brings us to the next point. Children learn effectively through scaffolding by adults. Bruner's work showed us some effective ways to scaffold instructions for young learners but first do you know what the word scaffolding means. In the picture you can see scaffolding.
In this picture, the men are standing on the scaffolding to construct a big building. As English teachers we are the scaffolding for our students. You have to hold our students up as they build their understanding of language.
How can we scaffold or support our learners in the classroom?
We can apply some of the practices that Jerome Bruner suggested in our classrooms. Create interest in the task. One important note: if the task is not interesting to children you are going to have a difficult time making them interested in it. If the task is to copy sentences from the board into a notebook, I am Not sure you can create interest in it. However, you can create interest in a storytelling activity, a song, or a game. Use these types of activities to teach language and you will have your students’ attention. Break the task down into smaller steps. This is so important. Remember when you plan your activities, break the test down into achievable steps. For example, don't start class by asking your students to show and tell their favorite toy. First review the names of all the toys: doll, ball, car, then teach students to answer the question. What is it? By saying “it's uh” and have them fill in the blank when you hold up a toy. “What is it? it's a doll”. “What is it? it's a ball. Great!”. Then you can give students a model for their show-and-tell “this is my favorite toy. it's a doll”. Then help students during the show-and-tell. Remember you were trying to set your learners up for success step by step.
Model your expectations.
You have to show them what you expect them to do. As we just saw if you give students a model and show them what to say they will be more successful. Remember don't just tell your young learners what to do. Show them how to do it. Remind students of the purpose of the activity. Make sure they know what they're doing and why? Of course this means your activities should actually have a purpose or goal for communication. Maybe it's a short dialogue about meeting someone for the first time or making an invitation to a class party or sharing a toy with a friend. Be sure your activity is meaningful and relevant to your young learners. Control frustration during the task. Sometimes children become frustrated or stop working on the task. To be honest, as a teacher, I found that when my students were frustrated and not behaving it was usually because I did not scaffold my students’ learning effectively. There was always less frustration when I created interest, broke it down into smaller achievable steps, modeled my expectations, and had a task with real or relevant purpose. So to review how do children learn let's see if you remember children are blank learners and thinkers. Right! Children are active learners and thinkers. Next! Children learn through social blank write. Children learn through social interaction. Last! Children learn effectively through blank by adults. Correct! children learn effectively through scaffolding by adults. Great job! So based on how children learn what can you do to be more successful with young learners in the classroom. You can promote active learning, encourage social interaction, and scaffold students’ learning. Remember to bring in materials and activities that make learning meaningful and interesting for children. Teach them step by step and model to set them up for success and most of all make English fun. If they love it, they learn it.