Deck 10: Documentation and Reflection

Question 1

If you were to demonstrate to other people what you had learned from a visit to a museum, or a walk in a forest or some unfamiliar neighborhood, how might you do that?

Answer 1

This could be accomplished in many ways. You may collect items (leaves, branches, etc.) that caught the child's interested for display at the centre. Pictures could be taken and communication recorded for display in a panel presentation. After returning from the experience, reflection about that experience can be recorded from both the educator and the children's perspectives.

Question 2

When you meet someone new, how do you get to know them? How do those strategies apply to observing, listening to, and getting to know a child?

Answer 2

The techniques we use to get to know other adults are the same techniques we can use to get to know children. We may watch others from afar. We will notice things about their appearance, what they do and what they say. We will ask questions and listen to their answers. All these techniques are observational strategies used informally. Using these techniques in an informal basis, allows the observer to practice the skills, get comfortable with them in comfortable settings. By doing this the observer will have a baseline of skills and knowledge of the child, and can then move forward to observe the child in more depth, or for a specific reason.

Question 3

How does your own experience of being observed, viewed, judged, assessed, tested, listen to, or understood make a difference to how you think we should get to understand the experience of children's lives and learning today?

Answer 3

Adults view being observed as a very formal, stressful process. You may remember being observed by a doctor in a medical test, or by a school teacher during a physical assessment in gym class. It can be an uncomfortable experience, especially when we become aware of the things we cannot do, or the things we cannot do at the level we would like to do them at. Of course, educators do not want children to experience these feelings. Educators will use naturalistic observation to help alleviate some of these problems. When we experience negative events, as adults we want to alleviate or mitigate these when working with children. We are caring people.

Question 4

Documentation may involve a variety of matters, some informal, some not

Question 5

The use of documentation in early childhood settings varies widely.

Question 6

Documentation used with emergent curriculum

A) helps identify areas of competence and weakness
B) summarizing behaviours
C) can identify areas of competence and interest
D) contains adult planned activities

Question 7

The project approach

A) provides aesthetically pleasing wall decor
B) can be used with children of all ages
C) focuses on one child
D) involves lower order thinking

Question 8

The Playing to Learn philosophy

A) is based on adult selected and directed activities
B) uses the documentation gathered for assessment purposes
C) contains a play-based living curriculum
D) is based on theorists such as Freud and Piaget

Question 9

What are the similarities between the project approach, Reggio Emilia and Playing to Learn?