I am a documenter, I have always been… maybe it is in my blood…
…from keeping diaries from an early age on, being the family letter writer, to taking pictures to document our lives, vacations, family and friends… even when it was tedious… (taking 24 or 36 exposures at a time, then taking it to a photo store to develop them and waiting a week to being able to pick them up).
I am the family historian, creating family albums, chasing and writing down family tree connections….I am the storyteller… repeating family stories… so my children and grandchild(ren) will know where they came from…to not let voices of the past quiet down and disappear…
…so maybe it is in MY blood…but… even if it is not in YOUR blood… as an educator… take another look at the purpose and effect of documenting FOR learning…in my opinion, documenting serves a larger…big picture purpose in education…
Documenting FOR Learning is:
- a supporting piece for the study of self-determined learning–> Heutagogy
- a strategy, approach and technique to facilitate learning–> Pedagogy
I see documenting as:
- a process of intentional documenting serves a metacognitive purpose
- a creative multimedia expression (oral, visual, textual)
- a component of reflective practice
- taking ownership of one’s learning
- a memory aid
- curation
- professional development
- being open for feedback
While I have, until now, primarily seen and used documentation for my own and other’s professional learning by documenting student learning and learning/teaching strategies, one of the take-aways from a workshop I attended recently with Ben Mardell, Making Learning Visible, was that documenting student learning in the classroom is an integral component to inform the direction further instruction and content is to take.
Intentional educational documenting is multi-layered and can serve teachers, students and schools/districts:
- Teachers
- to share best practices with colleagues
- to make teaching available for students outside of classroom hours
- to inform further instructions
- to reflect on their own lesson plans, delivery and teaching pedagogy
- to gather and showcase their teaching portfolio over time
- to evaluate student progress, growth and for assessment
- Students
- to articulate (via different forms of media) and showcase their learning
- to become aware of their own learning growth
- to gather and archive their digital work via E- portfolios
- to build their footprint in a digital world
- Schools/ District
- to a certain degree in their marketing efforts
- in parent / community communication
- to attract like minded potential employees
- to provide Professional Development
- provide documentation and examples to linked curriculum maps
I use the following types of tools for documenting:
- Video
- Photos
- Sketchnotes
- Notes (traditional/annotated)
- Tweets
- Backchannel
- Blogs
- Slide deck
- Screenshooting and – casting
- Mindmaps
A very interesting article, titled Pedagogical Documentation (pdf) from the Ontario’s Capacity Building Series by The Student Achievement Division supports the notion that pedagogical documentation helps students take ownership of their learning, challenges teachers to
“see children differently. Different kinds of demonstrations of learning moved us all beyond what we had come to expect, and led us to a place of valuing each child’s contribution. What was made visible was the learning process of children , their multiple languages, and the strategies used by each child.”
When googling “pedagogical documentation“, many hits are returned regarding the Reggio Emilia teaching approach in early childhood.
In Reggio Emilia, teachers make records of events in the life of the school as a tool for research. This has come to be known as ‘pedagogical documentation’ because of the important role it has in supporting reflective practice. (Dahlberg et all. 1999: 144). Pedagogical documentation consists of records that are made for the purpose of pedagogical research.
Pedagogical documentation could be described as visible records (written notes, photos, videos, audio recordings, children’s work) that enable teachers, parents and children to discuss, interpret and reflect upon what is happening from their various points of view, and to make choices about the best way to proceed, believing that rather than being an unquestionable truth, there are many possibilities.
Beyond the benefits in early childhood, I did not find much in regards to Documenting for Learning with older students (K-16) and adult learners as part of their professional development.
What are your thoughts? What type of research have you come across? Have you conducted action research in your own classroom? With your PD? What are the benefits/disadvantages? Should documenting have an “official place” in our overall learning toolbox? Should documenting be part of every work-and learnflow?
We have been working on understanding the power of documentation with kindergarten educators. We found the work by Tom Drummond extremely helpful. If you follow the link to his site he shares his thoughts about the power documenting in older grades.
We use WAKIDs in our state.
I am a student at the University of South Alabama. As always I enjoyed reading your post. I can honestly say I never really thought about documenting things for learning purposes. I’ve always documented things such as important documents that would be needed for later. As I go deeper into my education degree I see that it is good to document items that could helpful in the classrooms and as you said share ideas with colleagues. Thanks for your post it was very helpful.
Hello Silvia! This was such a wonderful post! I have always wanted to take up some form of documenting (namely journaling), but I just never seem to find time. Being in school and working takes a toll on the amount of free time you have. However, I do think it will be neccessary for me to allot some time in my future classroom to document what goes on. I particularly like the list you gave on how pedagogical documenting can benefit teachers. I just watched a video recently where a teacher in Canada was talking about how teaching is becoming more collaborative. Although I am not (yet) a teacher myself, I have gotten confirmation about this from other teachers I have asked. I definitely think pedagogical documenting is something more teachers should embrace.
This year, I’ve started “Sacred Writing Time” – idea from http://corbettharrison.com/SWT.htm – It’s made a huge difference is writing for my students. Just 10 min/day. This can be a time for you to journal as well.
Hello Mrs. Tolisano! I love reading the different blogs you post! Documenting is such a great tool to use for the classroom that I would never really have thought of. The list of the different ways teachers, students and the schools can use documenting are great ways to use it. I will definitely be documenting more things that I can use in my future classroom!
Hello Ms. Tolisano! I have enjoyed reading your blogs. I have never really thought about the use of documentation in schools. As I think more about it, I can definitely see how it helps both the teacher and the student as well as the community. One of the most beneficial aspects of documentation is being able for the teacher, student, and the family of the student to assess the student’s work. Things have definitely changed since I was in elementary school. There is much more ways to document than when I was in school.
Documenting can be an excellent tool for educators collaborate with their teaching methods. By keeping a record of how effective a particular lesson was, teachers are able to go back and make revisions if needed. I can see that I may need to work on this area more after reading. Great post!
Hello, I have a different perspective on documenting now. I agree taking videos, photos, screen captures are ways of extending my learning. It has helped me blog better as a writer by having a image to make a visible picture to express the way I remember the content. I really enjoy the thoughts and ideas you share in your blogs. I have developed some new techniques as writing should be fun.
Hello, and thank you for this post! I always learn so much from your blog. I never considered documenting for learning and teaching purposes until now. Every now and again I will catch myself doing that for important assignments, or upcoming due dates, but this would be such an easy way to stay organized in a not-so-organized classroom.
@Emily
As I shared with @Kayloa in a previous comment, documenting is more than just staying organized. It becomes part of the process of your own learning. It will inform what you will teach next, it will change how you see your students’ learning and it will create a timeline of your growth as a teacher as well.
Thanks for this post! I can often be very unorganized and this seems like a great way to try and help be stay more organized in my future classroom! I enjoy reading your blog and learning everything you have to share!
@Kayla,
Documenting is MORE than just staying organized. It is about your reflective practice, about making your own learning and your students’ learning visible AND also to share with others who can learn from you.
I never would have thought about documenting for learning! I always just documented to stay organized and be able to find information when I need it. I can’t wait to try this in my classroom!
I am currently in an M.A. of education program with the focus of history. One of the issues I’ve been puzzling over is how to get students to DO history, to understand that history is a process, not set in stone. This gives me a lot of ideas for projects such as creating personal and local histories.
About three years ago, I explored the Reggio approach through some reading and online work. As much as I was interested in it, I left it at the “reading” level, with very little processing and reflection. The result? I wasn’t really able to bring it to practice in my PK classroom. Luckily, I found an opportunity to visit and experience a Reggio-inspired classroom myself and have a more meaningful understanding of the relationship between play, imagination, creativity, environment, provocations, communication and time. Lots have happened in my classroom in the last two years, and lots to document. I am attempting to use more meaningful ways for students, an not only me, to communicate the growth and discoveries that are taking place. I have noticed that taking the time to reflect on the process behind the product and, then write about it, adds immense value to the work that is displayed and shared, and then, it’s not just a nice wall, there’s actually a world behind it.