Pedagogical documentation

Documentation has many purposes, audiences and forms.  A few years back after making the transition from childcare into the Ontario school system and attending teacher's college I realized that teacher's are not aware of what documentation is or how and what to document.  The first step as an Early Childhood Educator was to educate the Kindergarten team on why we document and how to document.  Next to teach was how to display the learning so it was visible for parents, administrators and children to see.  Here are my cole note's version on pedagogical documentation.

Why document learning? An educator in the classroom is being an observer and collecting observations, student's work or recording conversations as evidence of student learning.  They are gathering evidence (say, do, represent) through careful listening to make the child's thinking and learning visible.  Educators can see the learning, discuss ways to extend the learning (materials, questions), share the documentations with the children to help create new ideas, and to inform families and administrators as to the power of play, exploration and group learning.  Assessment follows after the observations and demonstrates what a child has learned.

What to document? This question is one of the most popular questions I get when I talk to teacher's about documentation.  One thing I often remind educators about documentation is to capture the learning when and where it happens.  You are to capture the learning that is taking place. This can also be from a child's point of view.  For example you capture a photo of a child measuring another child using rectangle shaped wooden blocks.  You write the conversation occurring and see that the child is learning who is the tallest and shortest student in the classroom.  A child can look at the picture or pictures you took and explain which student is the tallest and shortest based upon the number of blocks they used to measure.

Capacity Building Series K-12-
Pedagogical documentation (2012)

How to present the learning? The power of pedagogical documentation lays within the picture or video clip that was taken during the learning process.  A good picture will be able to tell the reader a story, identify the learning, make a connection and to show the child's emotions. As an educator I often use the app Sesame Snap or I create a pic collage with the pictures and place it in a word document.  These documents can be displayed in various ways, and communicated to parents in various ways depending on your preference. I enjoy making portfolio's for parents that the students take home at the end of the year demonstrating their learning that year similar to a scrapbook. Most common way is bulletin boards where students can view their learning and show others what they have learned. If it's electronic on an app such as Sesame Snap then you can have parents view in online right away. Remember there is no one right way to do it! Educators need to determine the documentation format that works best for them to support the students in their classroom