Week Three

This past week we learned all about documentation. Documentation can include children’s work in different stages, comments written by the teacher, photographs showing work in progress, and many more. There are different ways to show this documentation like panels, these allow teachers to show how and what their students are learning visually. Another way teachers document is through the use of portfolios, can be displayed as a folder that contains evidence from various assessments. Teachers use documentation as a way to monitor each individual child’s growth and development while holding us accountable to making sure our students are learning. This information isn’t just useful for teachers and students but also parents and administrators who can check on the child’s growth and the teacher’s effectiveness. 

            Some differences between conventional style of documentation and Reggio Emilia’s documentation style is the process of child’s learning, teachers views, and the environment. The teachers take more of a backseat roll in students’ engagement with one another. Watching how they interact with each other instead of leading the engagement. Reggio Emilia’s approach is more formative and looks for the student’s own reflection of learning rather than summative where you only look for the right answer. Reggio Emilia’s approach is more related to students’ growth and development, where conventional looks towards hitting a certain standard or measure. 

            I think after all I learned this week that I will be better able to support students’ knowledge by knowing how to self-reflect on my own documentation. To be able to see where my students are excelling and where they may be struggling induvial and collectively.