More about Theme-based Teaching

What is important in this topic/theme-based learning situation and what deserves our attention is the scaffolding provided by the teacher. Let us remember that the one who coined that term was Bruner when talking about his famous LASS. That scaffolding can be either linguistic or cognitive and affective. The former is going to be characterized by a teacher who is going to start using the language the child does not know, but the he or she needs in order to solve some task or problem. So, little by little the child is going to “borrow” the patterns needed. If you pay attention to the micro-teaching lesson, the teacher, from the very beginning of the lesson, uses constrained and familiar activities, which provides systematicity for the child, that is, order. This is what Bruner refers to as “formats”, patterns extremely essential when teaching young learners. As it was suggested some meetings ago, this LASS or scaffolding makes the educator act as a fine-tuner of the language, helping the child till the moment he or she can participate without the help of the adult, thus moving into his/her ZPD.The cognitive and affective scaffolding is found in games and tasks which requires imagination –imagination is seen as games without action- Both are paramount during childhood. Why? From the age of three onwards, different situations appear in the child’s life that make him or her unable to satisfy his or her needs just by touching objects. This is the moment where imagination appears and he or she plays. She plays to be a mother, a teacher, etc., and these games have got rules, laws which are fundamental for the development of moral codes in him or her.