Pondering Documentation

Pondering a Quote regarding Documentation:

I love the following quote to continue thinking about not just reflecting the work of the child- but how are we truly showcasing the thinking process of the child. I believe that if we had this goal in mind as we are hanging items on our walls and deciding how to document children’s learning- not just the end product but the process as well- it would serve as an incredible focal point for student conversations as well as provide an amazing visible display of what children are learning through play and exploration for parents, administrators and other stakeholders- what are your thoughts?

Documentation is not pretty pictures of engaged children. Rather, it captures
the thinking process:

• What motivated [students] to begin, continue, change direction?

• What were the breakthroughs, the pivotal remarks or actions?

• How did  they solve the problem?

• The goal is to enable whoever reads a panel to understand what the child attempted and how they went about it, to see stimulus,  process, and outcome.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          -A. Lewin-Benham

Intentionally Designed Environments: Documentation

As we continue the discussion of intentionally designed environments and how we display not just children’s work but also the process of their learning, there are some key ideas I found helpful to provide some insights from Working in the Reggio Way by  Julianne Wurm.

• Documentation is important for not only the children to see the process of their thinking and their work but also for the teachers to grow in their craft and understanding of children.

• Documentation can serve to illuminate the thinking, a change in thinking that occurred, what was learned or not learned, the evolution of the behavior, questioning, maturity, responses, and opinions.

• Documentation begins with observation.

A couple of fun, engaging ideas that I have observed in classrooms include…

* Documenting student’s thoughts during different times of the day and placing those by the posted visual schedule.

* Taking lots of pictures and showing them as a slide show – playing the slide show each morning on the Smart Board to remind students of the learning that took place the previous day.

* A web of student’s thoughts and ideas as a project develops is a good way of displaying the process of the children’s thinking. The teacher would always be referring back to it with the children-  the documentation was useful and children were able to gain the skill of reflecting on their thinking.

* Students reflection of their own learning posted next to their work. 

* I saw a documentation board in one classroom that had pictures and one or two quotes from students for each month- although it wouldn’t capture the thinking through a whole project, it was a good way to demonstrate to students the passage of time. The students chose one to two pictures each week that demonstrated their learning. It was a great time to review the learning and also work on voting skills.

documentation of shadows

Monthly Documentation

Daily Documentation

Project Documentation

Monthly Documentation

Project Documentation

 

Honoring Children through Display of Their Work

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Continuing with our discussion of intentionally designed environments, today we are going to ponder how we honor students and develop a sense of belonging by our thoughtful display of their work.

Look around your environment and ponder how you can give greater importance and honor to children’s work  by placing it in a frame or on a shelf- in a place of honor. This communicates to the child that what they have created is important, has meaning and is worthy of being looked at by others.

Frames are expensive but I’ve even seen the lids to shoe  boxes covered to “frame” student’s work or poster board cut into shape of frame  and they both were beautiful displays of children’s work. I have also found some very inexpensive frames this summer at garage sales, flea markets and Goodwill stores.

 

Play: Elevator Speeches of Why Play is Critical in Pre-K and Kindergarten

Kindergarten teachers in  McLean County Unit 5 School District and the Prekindergarten and Kindergarten teachers in Union School District developed “elevator speeches” describing why play is critical during the early years based on snippets of information from the article, Crisis in Kindergarten: Why Children Need to Play in School published by the Alliance for Childhood. These statements can be added to parent newsletters, etc. as a continual reminder of the importance of play.

Key Research Statements About Why Play is Important that Resonated with K Teachers

Authentic Assessment during Play

The Power of Observation:  

    Assessment in early childhood classrooms should occur through observations in a natural, authentic environment.

As we watch, listen and interact with children with the intention of being in the moment with them, we discover not only their understandings but also their learning process, their uniqueness and interests. We begin to value each child’s contributions to the community of learners.

We gain valuable information on how we can promote their success as a learner.

                   NAEYC Recommendations for Assessments:
*teachers’ observations of what children say and do
*other documentation (e.g. photographs)
*collected during their play and daily activities
*used  to refine how teachers plan and implement activities

Key Benefits:

• Through intentional observation of each individual child, we begin to respect and appreciate each one for his/her uniqueness and for the strengths he/she brings to the community of learners. We value the contributions of each individual child.
• Gain understanding of child’s skills in their natural environment, how they apply the knowledge in everyday exploration and use instead of in a contrived testing situation
• Ability to reflect on each child’s skills and developmental growth
• Increased ability to respond in ways that enable the children to be successful learners; turning the observations into effective instructional invitations
• Provides differentiated instruction- clearly knowing the next steps for each child
• Allows for strong relationship building- (which leads to more engaged and risk-taking learners)
• Beautiful opportunities to wonder and learn about children’s thinking
• Provides information on child’s approach to learning and their application of the knowledge instead of just ability to label or perform an isolated skill
• Fuels our desire to learn more about the learning process

Maintaining Engaged Learning while Addressing Early Learning Standards

Since we know that young children learn best through active engagement-  we must stand firm in our support and implementation of instructional practices that support constructing of knowledge through active experiences. We also need to develop and refine our own beliefs about young children in order to defend and protect best practices.

National Education Association for Young Children supports (based on multitude of research) a constructivist approach to teaching and learning in which young children construct their knowledge and understanding of the world through their experiences.

So the question to you is… how are you melding together the research based constructivist type approaches with the early learning standards to provide activities, questions/probes and  materials that are designed to challenge children’s thinking processes and encourage them to dig deeper into their understandings (based on student interest)?

Joy of Reading

Kathy Collins and Matt Glover remind us of a critical component of reading instruction for our young learners:
It’s vital that we support young children’s reading in ways that nurture healthy reading identities, that foster an attraction to books and a love of reading, and that teach them how make meaning in any text they choose, whether or not they can read the words.
—Kathy Collins and Matt Glover, I Am Reading, published by Heinemann

​This fostering of a love of reading to connect with others, to gather information, to hear a great story, to laugh, cry or rejoice, etc. starts when a child is born and continues throughout life.
Allison and Watson (1994) in their article, The significance of adult storybook reading styles on the development of young children’s emergent reading, support the idea of reading to infants as young as 0-3 months. They found that the earlier teachers and parents began reading to children, the higher the child’s emergent reading level is at the end of kindergarten. Bredekamp and Copple in the book, Developmentally Appropriate Practice Third Edition, published by NAEYC, share with us that reading aloud to children is a developmentally appropriate practice starting as young as infants . These practices include:
​Infants: Caregivers need to remember the importance of language development through talking, singing, finger plays and reading.
​Toddlers: Caregivers should read frequently to the children- both one child individually and to groups of two or three, always in close physical contact.
​Preschool: Every day, teachers read aloud to children, in both small and large groups. Teachers promote children’s engagement and comprehension through strategies such as questioning and reading with expression.
​Kindergarten: Every day, teacher read aloud to children. Books are accessible in a library area and other places for the students enjoyment and use. Books reflect the children in the classroom.

What are some of the ways that we can promote a love of reading in children of all ages? How can classroom libraries and cozy nooks for reading be designed to promote reading as a fun and enjoyable choice during free choice play time?

Intentionally Designed Walls

 

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journeyintoearlychildhood.com

Another important aspect to consider when thinking about designing your classroom with intention is the walls.

• How do you make decisions of what to put on your walls?
• How do you decide the image you want to portray through your room environment?
• What image of the child are you projecting through your environment? 

As discussed in the last blog post regarding intentionally designed environments, it is critical that we examine the environment as a place for students and should be a reflection of them.

Patricia Tarr in the article, Consider the Walls,  talks about how commercially made posters, etc. that we hang for educational purposes may actually be limiting children’s sense of who they truly are and true capabilities and stifles their imagination and creativity. She states,

“So too does the mass of commercial stereotyped images silence the actual lived experiences of those individuals  learning together. An overload of commercial materials leaves little room  for work created by the children—another kind of silencing.”  The challenge for early childhood educators is to think beyond decorating to consider how walls can be used effectively as part of an educational environment. In Reggio Emilia the walls display documentation panels of projects that children are engaged in. These become the basis of ongoing research and dialogue between the children, teachers, and families. Panels of photos, artifacts, and text make “learning visible” to participants and to outsiders (Rinaldi 2001).”

Think carefully about what pictures, children’s work, or photos you place on the walls. Students absorb a lot from their environment; so, we want to use the space for demonstrating both the learning and the process toward the learning. When determining what you are going to place on the walls, ponder

• is the item is important to your educational goals and objectives 
• how can it be  created by the students instead of commercially  or by the teacher
• does it demonstrate beauty and is it aesthetically pleasing
•  how does the item(s) display not just the product of learning but also the process of learning
• is it a part of the children’s world, something that is relevant to their life that they can touch and observe

Students helped to design the color posters. journeyintoearlychildhood.com

For example: one Pre-K teacher felt it was important to have the colors displayed on her walls- so her students created the color  posters which was much more meaningful to them and since it was created by them,  they tended to reference and look at the posters more often than they would have if it was limited to a commercially made design. They were beautiful and much more aesthetically appealing.

 

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collaborative art journeyinotearlychildhood.com

Birthdays journeyinotearlychildhood.com

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Math and DAP Practices

NAEYC Position Statement on Mathematics: Promoting Good Beginnings

In high-quality mathematics education for three-to-six-year-old children, teachers and other key professionals should …
-enhance children’s natural interest in mathematics and their disposition to use it to make sense of their physical and social worlds;…
​
-provide ample time, materials, and teacher support for children to engage in play, a context in which they explore and manipulate mathematical ideas with keen interest.

INCORPORATING NUMBER SENSE      INTO PLAY

“Early math is not about the rote learning of discrete facts like how much 5 + 7 equals. Rather, it’s about children actively making sense of the world around them. Unlike drills or worksheets with one correct answer, open-ended, playful exploration encourages children to solve problems in real situations. Because the situations are meaningful, children can gain a deeper understanding of number, quantity, size, patterning, and data management (Grossman 2012).” (Making Math Meaningful for Young Children, published by NAEYC)

Intentionally Designed Environments

Pondering about where to start with intentionally designing your environment for the start of the new school year can at times seem overwhelming.

One key aspect to think about that is critical all year but especially at the beginning of the year is making the space belong to the students – not to the teacher! The classroom space should reflect the learners.

At the beginning of year, building the space for the learners would include designing for the importance of building a community of  learners- of creating the environment to assist with being a school family.

IDEAS:

• Add pictures of each child’s family to a family bulletin board or have them in frames in the dramatic play area.
• Create identity panel,  with photo on one side and self -portrait on the other side.
• Create a chandelier or a piece of art work together as a class that is displayed in the room.
• Allows pairs or small groups of students to work together on art projects to build friendships and have a piece in the classroom that they can continue to discuss and show to others.
  

  

  collaborative art journeyinotearlychildhood.com

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

What are some ways that you build the classroom to reflect the students and build your classroom community?