The Power of Documentation

This is a photo of our current documentation board that is home to pictures and stories of our latest inquiry on Goldilocks and the Three Bears. I am so elated about the excitement this board has been generating that I had to blog about it!

Previously Bonnie had been posting some documentation on a board inside the classroom but it did not seem to get noticed. I believe it was due to its location as one must go out of their way to look at it. I have always felt strongly that documentation must be easily accessible to parents (like this blog) otherwise it is shared only among staff and a few parents. Documentation has many functions but primarily it is about sharing a child's educational experiences with parents and teachers so that we can support their learning.

In order to achieve the goal of accessibility, we decided to move the documentation to the outside bulletin board, which is right outside the classroom and gets a lot of foot traffic. Wow, does product placement ever work! Suddenly, the documentation is generating lots of discussion- and not just between adults but with the children themselves. When we walk by the board I gently point out their art work and read back to them the ideas they had formulated. They love hearing their own voices and I have noticed that now they will initiate the investigation of the board.

Before and after class I have been witnessing children pulling their parents and caregivers over to the board to show them the work they have done. I find this very exciting, dynamic and immensely rewarding! For me, this is at the core of our work as educators and parents. We can rejoice together in knowing that we are creating a respectful environment that sends our children the message that they matter; their words and pictures reveal their deep thinking skills. The power of documentation!

And, because we all love pictures, a few snapshots of the spontaneous work done by the children at the art table.