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National Association for the Education of Young Children Annual Meeting November 22, 1996 by Judy Harris Helm, Sallee Beneke, and Kathy Steinheimer Valeska Hinton Early Childhood Education Center, Peoria, Illinois The processes of carefully collecting, analyzing, interpreting, and displaying evidence of learning is called documentation. Documentation enables the teacher to effectively manage the project process and optimize learning opportunities. When shared with others, documentation also provides evidence that students are mastering curriculum goals. The displays in this exhibit present evidence of children's learning. There are photos, videotapes, samples of children's work, anecdotal notes, student products, and child and teacher reflections. The displays and the project notes in this text provide insight into how the work in these projects flowed and progressed in these classrooms. Care should be taken not to use them as "how to manuals" but rather, just as the teachers did, to use them as evidence of a unique, dynamic process which took place over time in each of these unique classrooms. How to Get Started Teachers can prepare for the documentation process by gathering together materials that are helpful for documenting. These include post-it notes for writing down observations and folders for collecting children's work and anecdotal notes. Some teachers find it helpful to place pens and notepads around the classroom so that students can jot down observations and thoughts quickly. It may be helpful to have a checklist for your classroom with children's names and any particular knowledge or skills that you are wanting to observe or document during the project process. A camera, film, and tape recorder can be very helpful. At certain times during a project, a video camera is also helpful. Care should be taken to capture evidence of children's knowledge and skills at the beginning of the project. Making a web provides a written record. Some teachers encourage students to add to or alter the web as the project progresses as a way of visually representing their learning. Recording or writing down exact words in statements and questions also enables assessment of change in vocabulary and understanding. Documentation during the Project The teacher might also want to consider keeping a journal. Many teachers take time each day to outline what was done on the project that day and to write about anything significant which took place. These entries can focus on the class, an individual child, a group of children, the project work itself, or the teacher and the teaching strategies. It is helpful to look at a required curriculum outline or developmental checklist and to think about how evidence of learning in these areas during the project can be collected. For example, a student may find a need to collect data. This event may provide an opportunity to document a child's ability to count. A time can be set aside daily to summarize and reflect on the observation data and items collected. Documentation can guide the teacher in planning what resources to access, experts to bring in, or field experiences to initiate. Any skills identified as needing to be taught can be introduced during non-project times of the school day. Children should be encouraged to express what they are learning in many ways. These expressions, in a variety of media, become documents of children's ideas and understandings. Some means of expression displayed in this exhibit include narratives such as conversations, written stories, and books; writing such as captions and signs; constructions such as block structures, play environments, dioramas, and models; artistic expressions such as drama, drawing, painting, sculpture, musical expressions, and photography; and webs and lists. Teachers can display selected items in the hallway and room that communicate what children are learning. Written descriptions will enhance the displays when they include the significance of what is displayed such as what the children have learned, why the item was chosen for display, the processes used by the class, or what an individual child learned. The description provides the viewer with an understanding of the educational value of the children's experiences. Adding to displays as children's work advances and projects progress increases the value of displays and maintains the interest of observers. Students can be involved in documenting their own project work. Even the youngest children can assist in making a book that tells the story of their project. Older students can evaluate and select what they judge to be their best work for display and can write their own descriptions and captions. At the End of the Project Sharing of documentation can educate others about the learning which occurred over the course of the project. The teacher can plan when and how to share documentation with parents such as parent-teacher conferences. Displays can be moved to more central areas of the school to be more visible. Project books and videos can be sent home with children to share with parents. Children can reflect on the learning experience as they review the documentation. Their words can be recorded and added to the narratives accompanying the display. Results of Documentation Time spent documenting children's learning can be a good investment. Careful documentation of a project can provide evidence of the wide ranging and in-depth learning that takes place when using the Project Approach. This type of learning, along with students' dispositions, are often not assessed or measured through standardized group-administered achievement tests. Documentation during a project can enable the teacher to see strengths of students not always measured in traditional assessment. Perhaps the most important benefit, however, is that documentation informs and directs the teaching process. Doing a project without documentation denies the teacher the gift of seeing into the minds of the children, matching strategies and materials with needs, and challenging children's thinking. Documenting enables the teacher to maximize the project approach experience and to become a partner in learning with the child. (The ideas in this chapter are based on Documenting Young Children's Learning, Judy Harris Helm, Sallee Beneke, and Kathy Steinheimer, Teacher's College Press, in press.) | Documentation in Projects | Incorporating Project | New to Project Work | Projects Standards | What Teachers Say | Family Project Book | Teaching Parents | | Project Approach Resources | Reggio Emilia Resources | Early Childhood Education | Books by Judy Harris Helm | Resources on Standards Early Childhood | Assessment Materials | Resources Toddlers | Documenting Children's Learning | Windows Translations | Young Investigators Translations | | Workshops Keynotes | Books Resources | Consultation Services | Great Links | | Return Home | Our Philosophy | What's New | Services Resources | Contact Us | Download Page | |
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