Documentation And Inquiry In The Early Childhood Classroom

Documentation and Inquiry in the Early Childhood Classroom explores teacher inquiry, reflection, and research and the documentation of these processes within a variety of school sites and models. Compiling underrepresented inquiry stories from practicing teachers and administrators in early childhood (0–5) classrooms in the San Francisco Bay Area, this book highlights the power of the community in supporting professional development for early childhood educators and the education of young children. Important elements addressed include teacher learning, children’s curricula, parent and community communication, and equity and social justice for teachers, children, and families.

An inspiring step-by-step guide to documenting children's ideas, questions, and learning in a way that enhances teacher's thinking and understanding

The what, the why, and the how of pedagogical documentation What does your classroom say about the children’s ideas, inquiries, learning, and play? An inspiring step-by-step guide to documenting children's ideas, questions, play, and learning in a way that enhances teachers' thinking and understanding at the same time, Pedagogical Documentation in Early Childhood will help you answer those questions and create documentation that tells the story of children’s exploration. This practical guide provides rich ideas, useful references, beautiful visuals, and the framework to get you started, as well as ideas for developing the documentation habit, design tips, and tools for communicating the curriculum and children’s experiences to families and others. Each chapter concludes with an invitation to explore, which offers you a starting point if you are new to pedagogical documentation, or a pathway to deeper reflection if you are already practicing it. The book has been revised and expanded for the second edition, including material on: Digital documentation. Documentation of infants and non-verbal children. Using documentation as a “thread” to follow the unfolding inquiries of children, including the use of sketch notebooks. Including the teacher’s voice, as well as the children’s, and the role of teacher’s curiosity. Bringing forward new thinking from the educators in Reggio Emilia. Leveraging pedagogical narration as a form of teacher-growth.

An in-depth look at children's inquiry and effects of environment in early childhood settings.

Young children live in the here and now. If adults are to make a real difference to their learning they need to seize the moments when children first show curiosity, and support their next steps immediately. This book embraces the concept of planning "in the moment" and emphasises the critical role of the adult in promoting child-led learning, giving early years practitioners the confidence and insight to work and plan in the moment, and enabling the children in their care to live, learn, play and develop in the here and now. Planning in the Moment with Young Children maintains a strong link to practice, providing numerous examples of how practitioners can integrate spontaneous planning and rich adult–child interactions into their everyday practice and early years curricula. From timetabling to setting clear rules, creating enabling environments, keeping records and making use of a variety of materials, the book demonstrates the multitude of ways in which practitioners can encourage child autonomy and respond to the unique needs of each child. Examples from practice are rooted in theory, fully contextualised, and exemplified by original documentation sourced from the author’s own experiences and from a wide variety of settings. Key features include: over 180 full colour photographs to illustrate practice; photocopiable pages including planning sheets, documentation and activity sheets; advice on working with parents, individual children and groups; tailored guidance on working with children at different stages of development from birth to age 6 years; relevance to a range of settings, including childminders, pre-schools, nurseries and schools. When children are allowed to select where, with what, and how to play, they are truly invested in their play, they become deeply involved and make dramatic progress. This book is an outstanding testament to a responsive and child-led way of working in early years environments. Practitioners will be guided, inspired and supported to work spontaneously and reactively – planning as they go and celebrating the results!

This text helps teach pre-service teachers the art of inquiry instilling in students a sense of wonder, curiosity, asking questions, looking for answers, and making sense of the world in different ways. The authors see teaching as an art that supports the learner in multiple ways, using different tools that are responsive to their individual orientation or to their multiple intelligences. Teaching as Inquiry is based on best practice and centers around the philosophies of Reggio Emilia, as well as Dewey, Vygotsky, Piaget, Gardner and others. The book has a unique structure that focuses on helping future teachers understand the theory and apply it practically. Each chapter begins with a story from the classroom, followed by a list of questions to be considered throughout the chapter. "Think About It" boxes ask students to pause and reflect, and each chapter ends with suggestions for "Getting Started" as well as Web resources and suggested readings.

Completely updated, this popular guide provides teachers with a proven method for documenting (collecting, analyzing, and displaying) young children’s work. Written by teachers for teachers, it also shows principals, curriculum coordinators, and directors of early intervention programs how to develop children’s portfolios to share with parents or to use for assessment and other accountability purposes. “This lively, informative book poses a remarkable challenge to teachers—to grow themselves while growing young children. Being creatively accountable is hard work and the stories told here describe both the work, how it’s done, and its joyful rewards for teachers and children.” —Elizabeth Jones, Pacific Oaks College “This book provides a set of windows on children’s lives and how teachers can enter into those lives and enrich them through high-quality teaching. The authors have created an inspiring volume, a challenging set of ideas, and an invaluable resource for early childhood educators.” —Samuel J. Meisels, University of Michigan “[A] thoughtful, up-to-date guide to assessing and documenting children’s work. . . . The authors give clear, practical advice on how to collect, analyze, and display children’s work in meaningful ways.” —Scholastic Early Childhood Today (on first edition) “Many teachers find it frustrating to hear the rich and exciting learning experiences they provide described as ‘nothing.’ Windows on Learning skillfully addresses the challenge faced by early childhood educators wishing to share classroom experiences with parents, administrators, and peers. The authors offer a timely and fresh approach to documenting children’s learning and work.” —Childhood Education (on first edition)

Margaret Carr′s seminal work on Learning Stories was first published by SAGE in 2001, and this widely acclaimed approach to assessment has since gained a huge international following. In this new full-colour book, the authors outline the philosophy behind Learning Stories and refer to the latest findings from the research projects they have led with teachers on learning dispositions and learning power, to argue that Learning Stories can construct learner identities in early childhood settings and schools. By making the connection between sociocultural approaches to pedagogy and assessment, and narrative inquiry, this book contextualizes Learning Stories as a philosophical approach to education, learning and pedagogy. Chapters explore how Learning Stories: - help make connections with families - support the inclusion of children and family voices - tell us stories about babies - allow children to dictate their own stories - can be used to revisit children′s learning journeys - can contribute to teaching and learning wisdom This ground-breaking book expands on the concept of Learning Stories and includes examples from practice in both New Zealand and the UK. It outlines the philosophy behind this pedagogical tool for documenting how learning identities are constructed and shows, through research evidence, why the early years is such a critical time in the formation of learning dispositions. Margaret Carr is a Professor of Education at the University of Waikato, New Zealand. Wendy Lee is Director of the Educational Leadership Project, New Zealand.