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Old 01-18-2008, 05:53 PM   #123 (permalink)
shel90
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Join Date: Sep 2006
Location: A Desert Rat that has found herself in Maryland
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Quote:
Originally Posted by jillio View Post
Exposing to all methods does not necessarily exposing to all methods simultaneously. It is not an extra load cognitively if they are not exposed simultaneously. Imagine 2 teachers in front of a hearing class room teaching algebra and history at exactly the same time. Would you come away with sufficient understanding of either? Of course not. It requires a form of splint attention of which people simply are not capable cognitively. One cannot give full attention to 2 things that require that degree of concentration at once. Think of it this way: When you are driving in a familiar area, it is easy to carry on a conversation with a passenger and navigate your car through the roads at the same time. But if you are in an area of heavy traffic, unfamiliar with the area, and looking for a specific address, you cannot continue to carry on a conversation and drive at the same time. You will stop talking, and use your cognitive powers to accomplish the task of negotiating the heavy traffic and looking for the address you need. Once the traffic thins out, and you are back in familiar territory, you can resume your talking and driving at the same time. It is the same thing in a classroom. If we expect children to learn well, we cannot place them in a situation that creates a cognitiveoverload, and expect them to give full attention to 2 tasks that require split attention.
Exactly..it is not only the students who get confused, the teachers too if they have to switch from one language to another or use both at the same time in the same lesson. We, teachers, need our full cognitive processing to be able to manage a classroom full of kids, effectively teach the lesson, and keep the students on task. It takes a lot of mental work but because I use one language, my focus is not on how to use two languages at once. As a result, I am able to teach the lessons in a more effective approach that meets the diverse learning needs of my students. Yes, even with ASL, my students have different learning styles.
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