PEDAGOGICAL DOCUMENTATION By Cheryl Anderson, QCCI Training & Professional Development Coordinator January 28, 2014

Small Group Discussions What is your understanding of documentation? Do you see it as part of your commitment to children’s learning? Are you feeling swamped by documentation or is what you are doing helpful in understanding the children better? What are your current documentation practices?

What is Pedagogical Documentation? “Visible listening” to reconstruct children’s learning paths and processes (Rinaldi, 2001) Offers insight into children’s thinking, feelings and understandings More than a retelling of an experience – what does this experience mean to the child and to others? A process of study (takes time; give yourself permission to be a beginner; but don’t stay there! Involves reflective thinking with others!

Why document? Offers a process for listening to children Provides opportunities to study with others what children tell us through words and actions about their competent and thoughtful views of the world Offers families and teachers new insights into children’s capabilities and learning Becomes a tool for thinking together

Documentation as a Process Observation / Recording “Traces” Reflecting with others What will I choose to document? How will I document this for others to look at?

Observing/recording “traces” Starts with close observation of, and a personal relationship with each child (who they are and what they bring to the program) How attuned are you to the children you work with? What does attuned look like, sound like?

Observation & Recording – Get Yourself Organized! Systems, methods and expectations will vary between individuals and programs Get into the rhythm of observing and recording! Make time for observation – develop a daily habit of observing and recording (How will you record? – have tools available) What “traces” will you collect? – photo, written description of what was said or done, sample of child’s work, child’s voice, video, etc Consider what you are observing/recording and why (determining what to notice and record is critical – must be meaningful or we are just describing children passing time!)

What do we mean by meaningful? Meaningful noticing tells us about: Individual children (their learning, development, dispositions, interests) – What is Johnny thinking about as he investigates the light coming in from the window? Vs Johnny is looking at the light coming in from the window. Children’s interactions with the environment and materials (What are children doing in the block area? How are they using the playdough?) Relationships and interactions with each other (How is the newest infant attaching to the educators in the program?)

Exercise: Meaningful Noticing Are these moments captured in a photograph meaningful? Why / why not? What would make them more meaningful? Should they be documented?

Are these moments meaningful? Documentation is not just about group encounters or experiences (trip to the pumpkin patch or developing project on insects) Documentation can be drawn from the ordinary moments that happen in our classroom that highlight a child’s thinking and actions – it’s what we capture, what we think about it, and how we write it.

What is “meaningful” in your context? What aspects of children’s involvement and engagement do you notice and try to understand? What things do you miss or don’t give attention to? Why? What strategies would help you notice with more meaning?

Strategies Focused observation: Observe one area of the room to see how children are engaging with the materials and space Focus on a particular child or group of children – listen to them play Pose a question to yourself and pursue that question with observation (How do children use the outdoor space?)

Reflecting with Others Need time to look at & consider observations and recording “traces” with others (paid planning time, time in staff meetings to share collaboratively with peers) Need to consider other perspectives (the child’s story, the learning and development story, the teacher’s story and the family’s story) to deepen your thinking

Reflecting with Others- Looking at Different Perspectives EXERCISE Your coworker brings this photo and her observational notes to your staff meeting. Consider the four perspectives as you reflect together. What would you like to add to this observation from your discussion?

Documentation as a Product- What will I choose to document and how will I document this for others to look at? Difference between documentation and program planning What is program planning? What does it look like? What does documentation look like? What is the link between documentation and program planning? OBSERVATION

Documentation and Display Is there a difference between documentation and display? In what situations might I use a display instead of documentation?

How can I document? Learning story (Margaret Carr, New Zealand) – see template Descriptions of ordinary moments Short stories Displays of children’s work with short story Portfolios Documentation in activity areas on clipboards

Other forms (what documentation formats do you use? Are you using a variety of documentation formats?)

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Looking Ahead – Link to Practice Our Link to Practice Networking Meeting on Tuesday February 4 from 7:00 – 8:30 pm will provide the opportunity for us to share, and reflect together upon many different forms of documentation. Bring samples of your own documentation to share with the group.

What will I share from this workshop with my team when I go back to my program? What are my next steps?