Windows on Learning : Documenting Young Children's Work

by Helm, Judy Harris; Beneke, Sallee; Steinheimer, Kathy

• ISBN13: 9780807736784
• ISBN10: 0807736783
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1997-12-01
• Publisher: Teachers College Pr

Summary

Now more than ever, there is expanded interest in and deeper appreciation of the documentation of children's work as seen in the growing influence of the Reggio Emilia Approach, authentic assessment, and other alternative ways of judging children's academic achievement. In this first book to actually explain the mechanics of documentation, the authors show how documentation (which includes narratives, photos, drawings, videotapes and captions) allows children, teachers, and parents to learn more from each school project. Renowned educator Lilian G. Katz provides a foreword to the volume. The text is heavily illustrated with many examples of children's work documentations.

Author Biography

Kathy Steinheimer is a teacher of three- and four-year-olds at the Valeska Hinton Early Childhood Education Center.

Table of Contents

Foreword	p. ix
Acknowledgments	p. xi
Introduction	p. 1
Using an Authentic Assessment System	p. 2
Understanding the Project Approach	p. 3
Learning About the Reggio Emilia Schools	p. 5
Introducing Our Schools	p. 8
Overview of This Book	p. 8
Learning About Documentation	p. 11
The Value of Documentation	p. 13
Applying What Is Known About Children's Learning	p. 13
Why Document?	p. 15
The Promise of Documentation	p. 23
Windows on Learning: A Framework for Decision Making	p. 25
A Window on a Child's Development	p. 26
A Window on a Learning Experience	p. 28
A Window for Teacher Self-Reflection	p. 30
The Documentation Web: Providing a Map for Documentation	p. 33
History of the Web	p. 33
Understanding the Documentation Web	p. 35
Using the Web to Increase Variation	p. 37
Project Narratives: Telling the Story	p. 39
The Story	p. 39
Collecting Stories	p. 41
Determining Content by the Audience	p. 44
Observations of Child Development: Watching the Child
Checklists	p. 48
Anecdotal Notes	p. 51
The Project Approach and Observation	p. 55
Individual Portfolios: Capturing Children's Competence	p. 57
Understanding the Use of Portfolios	p. 57
Collecting Core Items	p. 60
Collecting Individualized Items	p. 65
Other Portfolio Items	p. 67
Individual and Group Products: Seeing Is Believing	p. 72
Written Language Products	p. 72
Verbal Language Products	p. 80
Webs and Lists	p. 82
Picture	p. 84
Music and Movement	p. 92
Constructions	p. 93
Self-Reflections of Children: Thinking About Thinking	p. 100
Reflecting on Their Own Words	p. 100
Self-Reflections of Dispositions	p. 101
Self-Reflections of a Learning Experience	p. 103
Group and Individual Self-Reflections	p. 105
Learning How to Document	p. 109
Organization and Presentation of Documentation: Opening the Windows	p. 111
Getting Ready to Document	p. 111
Preparing Children for Documenting	p. 115
Doing the Documenting	p. 116
Organizing Displays of Documentation	p. 119
Setting Aside Time for Reflecting About Documentation	p. 127
Implementation: Using Documentation for Decision Making	p. 130
Decision Making	p. 131
The Window on a Child's Development	p. 132
The Window on a Learning Experience	p. 135
The Window for Teacher Self-Reflection	p. 139
Making Reflection a Priority	p. 142
Documentation as Assessment: Building Credibility	p. 143
Assessment	p. 144
Guidelines for the Assessment Process	p. 144
The Problem of Reliability	p. 146
The Problem of Bias	p. 147
Conclusion: Teaching with Integrity	p. 149
An Example of Documentation: "Our Mail Project" Memory Book	p. 151
Overview of the Work Sampling System	p. 191
References	p. 195
Index	p. 199
About the Authors	p. 202
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