Reflection 10

As a group, we decided to teach the other students how to braid their hair. We thought that this would be a fun yet simple activity for them to learn. We wanted to teach something that wouldn’t be too complicated and could be taught on different levels if needed. We realized that braiding hair would be the perfect topic since most girls have braided their hair or others hair. If some people in our group of students did not know how to braid or had never braided before, they could easily learn quickly. As well for the students that had more expertise on the subject, we could teach them a more advanced version of the braid so they could still learn something new. As we did our pre-assessment, it became clear that we had students on all ends of the spectrum scale. But we knew we could tailor our lessons to make it interesting for everyone to participate.  Our plan to teach the students, was to have each student pair up and have one student sit down and one stand up. They would take turns braiding each other’s hair, so that everyone would have a model to practice on and then become a model themselves.

                We also realized that something we would need to prepare for was the students with disabilities. As a group, we talked about what could be done to help those students that would be visually, physically, or mentally impaired. Based on the type of activities that we had, we knew the biggest challenge would be the student that could use only one hand. Braiding requires two hands, thus this activity would be challenging for that student with that disability. In order to accommodate for that student, one of the teachers in our group, (Katelyn) would help be the other hand for the student and help hold the hair that would be braided. We also provided an aid for the student that was blind, by having (Stephanie) stand next to her and help guide her hands if she needed help. The last student with a disability would be mute and therefore wouldn’t struggle with doing the actually activity but if they had a question, they would need a way to ask. To help accommodate, we provided paper and pencil for them to write down what they needed to say.

                On the day that our group presented and teach we had an example placed in front of them for them to follow along with so that the student’s wouldn’t become lost in following directions. Lizzy sat down in a chair and Annie stood behind her to demonstrate how to do the braid. Annie gave instructions on how to braid the hair while braiding Lizzy’s hair. She would then pause and ask if there were questions or if anyone was struggling. Surprisingly, no students with disabilities were struggling, but one student wasn’t as advanced with braiding as the other girls. To help out, our group paused and we went over the steps slowly with her so she could catch up. The student’s with disabilities did very well with braiding and breezed through the activity.

                After doing the assessment, we realized that the activity could have been improved. Even though we planned to have everyone partner up and practice the braid and then switch, we ran out of time and only some of the students were able to actually practice the braid. Next time it would be helpful to either be given more time or to have it set up differently by having everyone in a line instead of paired up. We also knew beforehand that we had all girls in our group and that made it easier to teach the student how to braid. But if the situation changed and we had boys in our group that would have been difficult to have the students pair up since the boys would have too short of hair. If boys were included in our group, we would have to change up the plan by having fake doll heads that could be braided on instead. Though, overall, as a group we did a good job in preparation and planning. We communicated the steps efficiently and slowly so that the students weren’t rushed. It was also beneficial to have the teacher’s model in the room as an example, instead of playing a video from off of YouTube.