The Empowered Educator - Analysis, Reflection and Evaluation in Early Childhood Programming.

My quest this year was to create a more organised environment in my classroom. A space that allowed for natural expression through various forms of play as well as a space that was organised and wa…

Meaningful observations: Examples of documented observations Moving from description to analysis To move beyond description to detailed analysis and interpretation of observation takes time and practice. It also involves developing a strong understanding of the influences that have an impact on teachers’ ways of seeing, interpreting and understanding children’s actions. Rich and effective observations are built on careful attention to both the practical skills involved in recording and the skills of critical self-reflection. Developing the practical recording skills of specificity, directness, mood and completeness helps teachers produce clear and easily understood observations. The quality and clarity of the observation is particularly important because teachers’ capacity to engage in critical self-reflection depends on effective observation with rich detail. Through critical self-reflection, teachers review their ways of observing and create new possibilities for seeing, interpreting and understanding children’s learning. Every teacher analyses and interprets what is observed in different ways based on their beliefs and assumptions about teaching and learning, the influence of their teaching experiences and the strong influences of their own childhoods. For example, some teachers may record an observation by describing what they see in a photograph or while observing children, focusing primarily on the physical elements. Others may attend to the social relationships between children, examine how children relate to objects, or use language that reflects their own feelings as they observe children’s interactions. There is no one way of observing that is "true" or objective, as every individual observes through the lens of their beliefs, experiences and perceptions. However, while observation is never a neutral process, it is essential to critically examine those influences that shape teachers’ ways of seeing and recognise the filters that limit what is seen and how it is interpreted. Annotated examples To illustrate the process of moving from description to analysis, three examples are provided of a teacher observation based on one experience in a kindergarten setting. The three examples demonstrate the difference between: • a simple description of what happened (Example 1) • a minimal attempt to interpret events (Example 2) • a detailed description of events with interpretation and analysis (Example 3). Example 3 clearly links observation, interpretation and analysis to future learning possibilities for children. Each example is shown first as a simple observation, with comments on its strengths and weaknesses; then as an observation with interpretation and analysis, again, with comments; then once more, as a basis for informed planning. This clearly demonstrates the value of having a rich observation to draw on. Focus questions As you read the examples; the following set of questions will help you to examine their quality. The questions will also assist teachers when developing their own observation records. Please consider the attention to detail, the depth of interpretation and the degree of critical reflection that is reflected in the examples. Observation • How clear is the observation? • Does it focus on significant learning? • Does the observation clearly identify the learning? • Does the observation provide specific details such as the date, time of day and length of time spent on the learning experience, the learning context in which the observation was made, the number of children and adults involved, and the type of materials and resources used? • Does it provide information about the non-verbal actions, expressions and gestures? Interpretation and analysis • Is it clear how the teacher arrived at this interpretation from the information in the observation? • Are clear links made to the kindergarten learning and development areas? • Has the teacher identified whether the learning is in a familiar or new situation and the level of support the child required? Learning possibilities • Do the learning possibilities relate to the observation and significant aspects of learning identified? • Will the learning possibilities help promote further learning in the targeted area and are they relevant to the child? After exploring the questions above, consider the critical questions in terms of your own observations. Critical questions • What is it about this scenario that drew my interest and why? • How do my assumptions about children’s social and cultural backgrounds shape what I observe or focus on, as well as how I interpret and record actions? • How does my social and cultural background influence what I see or don’t see? • What influences the ways that I prioritise and shape learning opportunities? Observation and documentation When you have photographs or artefacts of children’s work, you have a glimpse of the learning that may have taken place. When you include children’s voices and anecdotes you have the beginnings of a valuable observation. When you add interpretation and analysis of the learning taking place, you have substance. Observation with documentation is about substance. Examples: Observation Examples: Observation, interpretation and analysis Informed planning: learning possibilities and intentional teaching Reflection questions What aspects of your practice need further development so that: • observations are clear and focus on significant learning • interpretation and analysis align with the observation and make links to the kindergarten learning and development areas • there is evidence about whether learning occurred in a familiar or new situation, and what degree of support the child required • learning possibilities relate to the observation and significant aspects of learning • learning possibilities are relevant to the child and the related learning and development areas. Provided by the QKLG Professional Development Program

My quest this year was to create a more organised environment in my classroom. A space that allowed for natural expression through various forms of play as well as a space that was organised and wa…

If you are familiar with the Walker Learning Approach, then you are no doubt also familiar with writing a Statement of Intent. This fortnightly planning document is vital to the success of your play-based learning program. Check out this blog post to see how we write ours.

We have had numerous emails and blog comments regarding our Portfolio/Documentation Books. (Thank you for your interest and patience for this post!) Here is a little bit more information about them to help inform parents and other blog visitors. Each child in our class has a Portfolio/Documentation Book with their name and photo on the top. These folders are filled with clear sleeves to easily update what is included inside. After a trip to London England with YRDSB's Leadership Study Tour in 2011, our school team received great inspiration from their approach to early years documentation. At the two schools that we visited, we were impressed by their documentation notes, organization, and how well they made the learning in their classrooms visible. This inspired us to start something similar that would fit into our Bond Lake P.S. context here in Richmond Hill, Ontario. Below are some images (cropped for privacy reasons) of how the documentation templates look like. On the top is space for the child's name and date, the context in which the learning took place, and the level of support that was given by adults. (Educators circle whether it occurred indoors, outdoors, if it was child/adult initiated, whether the child was alone, in a pair, small group, or large group.) In the middle is a space for a photo of the child engaged in play-based learning, inquiry-based learning, or other curricular learning experiences. On the bottom of the template is space for educator notes (observations or dialogue between the children), next steps, the links to the curriculum, and who made the observation. Last year we also started to use this template for math interviews. Below is an example of an interview about ordinal numbers. The only difference, is that the image section has clip art of students in a line that matched our question about ordinal numbers. Another component of our Portfolio/Documentation Books are our monthly writing samples. Each day our students are expected to share their thinking through graphic communication (drawing/creative expression paired with writing) and post it on "Our Daily Writing Hangs Here" wall. The next morning we sit in front of the writing wall to discuss and give feedback for our writing. The writing samples then get placed into a filing cabinet, and saved until the child is asked to choose their two best pieces for the month. After the two pieces are selected (using our learning goal and success criteria that is reviewed each day during our feedback time) there is a reflection template that is filled out by the educator and the child to describe their work and next steps for improvement. These two samples then get placed within the Portfolio/Documentation Books. The purpose of these Portfolio/Documentation Books is to make visible our daily learning and discoveries. Learning in kindergarten that is play-based and inquiry-based requires many photographs, as we do not run a worksheet based program. Our hope is that students re-visit their learning and share it with their parents during Family Fridays. For our classroom, these templates were an excellent way to start documenting our students and making observations of their learning. Our next steps will focus on more in depth pedagogical documentation of our inquiries and math problem solving experiences. These experiences are more difficult to squeeze into one photo and a single page template. For this reason, we will sometimes use the template above and sometimes create the story of learning using a word processing program. I hope that this gives you a starting point, and that it better explains our process for you. There will soon be an interview available about this via the ETFO kindergarten page as well. Feel free to make a comment on this blog post about your impressions of these books, as well as other questions that you may have. I would be happy to clarify them for you! Please note that these Portfolio/Documentation Books include moments of learning and observations. More pedagogical documentation in the form of inquiry binders and panels are also used around our classroom. Those are not per child, but rather for small groups of children or the whole class.

Here are a few photos of the documentation showing others of our journey as we inquired about color and shades.

Since the new Ontario Kindergarten Curriculum was released this summer our kindergarten team has spent some quality time reflecting and re-thinking how we document and organize this documentation w…

Providing meaningful documentation has many benefits in the early childhood classroom. Today I want to share some examples of meaningful documentation.

Do you need some inspiration about education theories and their creators? Please read the full article for more information!

There is still time to see our exhibition of 5 years of children's project work at Reflections Nursery. The exhibition is in St Paul's Exhibition Centre, Chapel Road, Worthing until 4.30pm on 7th October. Or, if you are an early years professional or primary teacher you are welcome to register on our Professional Development Day and Private Viewing on Saturday 8th October. Contact [email protected] for details.

This resource file contains over 126 valuable time saving templates, posters and printables to make documenting your childrens learning easy. The documents are organised under the following headings: Programming Portfolio Printables Sustainability Templates Intentional Teaching Pack - Cultural Diversity, Emergency procedures, Healthy Eating, Hygiene, Road Safety Theorist posters Transition Statement Templates Billy Bear - A Travelling Teddy My Snap Happy Weekend Learning Story Templates with links to outcomes and theorists From the Mouths of Babes - Documenting children s speech

The "Jottings - Jungle" is our latest Observation template that can be used by educators in LDC, FDC and OOSH settings. Jottings are a quick way for e...

It is very powerful to give students a picture of themselves working on a creation and listen to their interpretation of what was happening. When students document their work it allows them to self-reflect and gives the educator a deeper understanding of student thinking and learning. I listened to dialogue, observed how marble runs were created, and documented the experience, but when I listened to students explain what was happening from the pictures I gave them, I was amazed at how much information I had missed. They went deeper and talked about the trials and tribulations they experienced building their runs. They discussed persevering after multiple attempts were tried and things were still not working. And most importantly, they discussed their emotions, how they felt when things worked, didn't work, or peers bothered them. I was proud of their reflections, and their language development, both becoming more detailed over time. Come by and enjoy their stories, they are truly proud of their work!

Why is documenting learning important? Featuring reviews of 5 education apps trending in 2019: Seesaw, Class Dojo, Google Classroom, StoryPark & Artsonia.

Two Points: This is MY method, and not necessarily right for you, your teaching or care philosophy, your set-up, or your students. ...

Here's another way to approach documentation panels - this formatting idea is courtesy of my brother Shaun. I was talking to him about doc...

Ever wondered what the difference is between these student-centred methods of inquiry learning? Read on to find out what makes them different.

Shapes and playdough seem like such a great combination, right? Playing with something fun like playdough all while learning about shapes! I knew it was a winning combination and thus, the shape playdough mats were created! They're great for open-ended play or more directed learning. There are so many great ways to learn about and work

Here is the list of the EYLF Learning Outcomes that you can use as a guide or reference for your documentation and planning. The EYLF Learning Outcome...

By: Diane Kashin, Ed.D, RECE. As someone who has been asked often to teach pedagogical documentation to students and professionals, I grapple with the process and all it entails. It is difficult to…

At my school, we use Kath Murdoch’s Inquiry Cycle. Many of our staff are new the PYP and new to inquiry-based teaching and learning, so we find this inquiry cycle provides some structure to t…