Documentation
Making Learning Visible
What is Documentation?
Documentation tells the story and the purpose of an event, experience, or a project. It is a product that draws others into the experience—evidence or artifacts that describe a situation, tell a story, and help the viewer to understand the purpose of the action. .
Documentation is a way of showing the process of thinking and learning. It typically includes samples of a child's work at several different stages of completion, photographs showing work in progress, comments written by the teacher or other adults working with the child, transcripts of the child's conversations and comments about the activity.
Take a Gallery Walk
What do you notice?
What do you wonder?
Leave your thoughts using post-it notes
Self-Portraits Panel
- story behind the work
- student drawings
- questions
- pictures tell a story
Observational Drawings
- a quote helps explain the learning
- story is told through pictures
What is Music?
- questions from students
- student thinking is captured
- student drawings included
- pictures of the process
Why is Documentation Important?
For the Students:
- Know their thinking is valued
- Allows them to take pride and ownership over their thinking
- Reflect on the learning process.
- Spark new ideas
For Visitors:
- Makes the learning process visible
- Highlights what is most important to the adults and students in the classroom
For the Teachers:
- Important for teachers to be able to reflect on student learning and thinking
- Helps to plan where to go next and how to differentiate instruction
Information adapted from fairydustteaching.com
What Should be Documented?
- With your group discuss the types of things that you might document in your classroom.
- Let's share our thinking!
Examples of Documentation around HSE
Documentation Tips
- Keep it low for students
- Capture the process
- Driving question that invites reflective thinking rather than an answer
- Presentation is important-clear pictures, teach students to publish best work for others
- Student and teacher voice should be captured