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.
