HORSE POWERED LEARNING

IP facilitators are trained in Horse Powered Learning (HPL), an EAGALA (Equine Assisted Growth and Learning Association) approved workshop, taught by Michele Pickel, Ph.D., Licensed PreK-8 Teacher and K-12 reading Specialist, who is a full-time Professor at Concordia University, St. Paul, MN.

For your understanding, we will present a case study done by our IP Facilitators pertaining to HPL. Student’s name has been changed to protect their identity. “Joy”s case study is a part of her continuing sessions at IP.

STUDENT

Joy is a sweet, confident 8-year-old girl in the 3rd grade.  She is currently homeschooled.   Joy is mature, well spoken, polite and inquisitive.  She is comfortable with adult conversation and is a good listener.   She is a good reader and shared she enjoys  “reading chapter books.”   Joy had a homeschool visit/field trip to Isaiah’s Place (IP) in the fall prior to COVID.  They discussed sign language and she expressed an interest in learning more.  She was given the “Isaiah’s Place ABC’s and ASL” book. Joy and her mom recently visited IP again and worked in our butterfly garden.  We recruited her to help us with this class!

GOAL

The goal was to develop her vocabulary knowledge and her ASL skills for letters, “horse” themed vocabulary words.  The 8 words learned previously were combined with “sight” words, verbs, and nouns to make 5 sentences. Words were put in sentences and then sentences were put in a sequence order chosen by Joy. These sentence sets were then made into a “Sentence Path.” A fun challenge was added to have the horse use a ball to follow the sentence path.

SESSION 2

Briefing session with Joy reviewing previous session. Reviewed vocabulary in Sign Language adding: connect, nailed, open/close, cow. We signed the sentences that included new words.

We headed to the barn with activity props, and family.

Just as in her last session, Joy chose Sam as her reading Buddy. Sam is a ranch-retired quarter horse.

Joy and Sam headed towards the barn for grooming and feeding time.

ACTIVITY

Using Joy’s new vocabulary she has learned at IP, her activity was to arrange her vocabulary words into proper ASL sentence structure. Vocabulary words were placed into clusters inside of the pathway. She was to go through the pathway with her buddy who was guiding, talking, and encouraging her. Words used by Joy were:

• Bridle

• Horse, foot (hoof), Horseshoe

• Rope

• Spurs, Stirrup, Saddle

• Gate

• Boot

• Catch

• Connect

• Nailed

• Open and closed

Items used for the activity

• Foam floor puzzle tiles for nouns and verbs

• 8’ 4x4 wooden posts (4)

• ball

• Horse – haltered and lead

Our impromptu follow up and discussion brought more clarity and insight to the session as ASL practice and learning continued with mom and granddad joining. We practiced the sequencing sentence again and recalled a signed Sunday School song. Joy then offered a sentence built from the morning session work. “The horse goes through the gate.” Her spontaneity and fluidity of the signing showed that she was “thinking in the language.”

Joy’s success in her HPL sessions has been used by many other facilitators and students for other academic subjects (reading, writing, math, science, sign language).