How To Document Evidence Of Learning For Preschool

The Power of Documentation in a Reggio-Inspired Classroom

What is Reggio Emilia-inspired documentation?

Reggio Emilia documentation has the potential to serve many purposes during the children'south learning experience. When defining documentation, we must call up of information technology every bit a process, an action, a verb, "a systematic act of collecting, interpreting and reflecting on concrete traces of learning" (Gambetti) By centering our attending on children's learning, documentation can serve as a valuable education, research and cess tool. Looking at how children recall and acquire and how ideas evolve is not the only focus of Reggio documentation, but it is a central focus. Ane of the master features of documentation as practiced in Reggio Emilia is a focus on how and what children learn.

Documentation typically includes samples of the children's work, photographs of the children engaged in the projection piece of work, and comments and transcripts of conversations. Examples of the children's work and reflections on processes tin can be displayed in the classrooms. The documents highlight how the children planned, carried out, and completed their work.

High quality documentation of children's work and ideas contributes to the quality of an early babyhood program in many ways:

i. It Makes Learning Visible

Documentation should brand the learning visible to its audition. By providing evidence of the children'southward learning in all areas of the child'south development through photographs, transcripts of conversations and artifacts of their piece of work displayed, we can visibly run into the learning process. These beliefs provide a pedagogical basis for making learning and learners visible by showing:

Learning is purposeful
Learning is social
Learning is representational
Learning is empowering
Learning is emotional

Documentation not only allows us to make-visible the learning of group and individual learning, but tin promote learning within the group. When students learning is documented, children tin re-visit and interpret their learning experiences and how to develop these experiences further.

Making learning visible through documentation provides educators information about children'due south learning and progress that may not be evident in formal assessments, checklists and standardized tests.

2. It Enhances Children's Learning

Documentation tin contribute to the depth of children's learning from their projects and other piece of work experiences. Loris Malaguzzi points out, through documentation children "become even more than curious, interested, and confident as they contemplate the pregnant of what they have accomplished" (Malaguzzi, 1993). By preparing and displaying evidence of the children's learning experiences, the children tin can re-visit their experience and piece of work which may bring new understandings and more in depth thinking, questioning and dialogue. Documentation of children's ideas, thoughts and feelings are a keen mode to stimulate memories of experiences.

iii. It Encourages Parent Participation

Sharing documented work at school with parents is great way for parents to participate in their child's learning in a more intimate way. Documentation also allows for the parents to understand the work and learning that their child is engaged in and think virtually means they tin can contribute to the work in a thoughtful manner.

At that place are many ways parents can be involved and contribute to the project after examining documentation:

By listening to their child'southward thoughts and ideas
By helping them to collect materials they may demand
By helping them tape their ideas to paper
By making suggestions
By reading with the child about the topic

4. It Respects the Kid's Work every bit Valuable

By displaying the children's work, efforts, ideas and learning in a beautiful and respectful fashion supports our value in children to be capable, thoughtful, and artistic. Taking children's ideas and work seriously conveys to children that their efforts, intentions and ideas are taken seriously. Children will besides take their work seriously which encourages them to work in a responsible, joyful and dedicated mode. The learning process and results will exist more satisfying for them if their learning process is recognized, appreciated and displayed in a respectful manner.

five. It Helps Teacher Planning and Assessment

Teachers use documentation to continuously plan based on bear witness in documentation as piece of work progresses. Teachers utilize the documentation to discuss ideas and thoughts and new possibilities with the children during their work. Planning decisions can exist made based on what individual or groups of children have establish interesting, stimulating, or challenging. The documentation provides ongoing planning and evaluation that can be done past the team of adults who work with the children.

Implementing Reggio Documentation in the Classroom

There are several important items to remember when preparing and providing quality early childhood documentation in the classroom:

Documentation focuses on children'southward experiences, memories, thoughts and ideas during their piece of work.
Documentation should be interesting rather than decorative, serious non cute, engaging non entertaining.
Documentation is the opportunity to showcase the children's learning.
Documentation gives the history of the learning in the classroom.
Visible documentation should exist nowadays to reflect work currently in process. Focus of documentation on displaying the creativity and thinking of children as information technology happens, as opposed to viewing documentation as a finished product.
Displayed photos should capture expression and engagement and represent important events.
Documentation should represent more work done by fewer children, rather than less work done by more than children (i.due east. displaying x or 20 of the same affair is discouraged).
Documentation should ofttimes include samples of the children'southward work at several stages of completion.
Documentation reveals how the children planned, carried out, and completed the displayed work.
Documentation makes possible for others to go enlightened of the children'south experiences in the classroom.

Schedule your personal tour to acquire more about how The Compass School tin can use documentation to heighten your kid's learning! We'd honey to hear from y'all!

References used for this web log:

Windows on Learning, Documenting Young Children'southward Work; Helm, Beneke, Steinheimer, 2007.
Visible Learners; Krechevsky, Mandrill, Rivard, Wilson; 2013.
The Contribution of Documentation to the Quality of Early Childhood Educational activity; Katz, Chard, 1996.