Documentation

What do we document? What do we not? How do we document? What do we include? There seem to be so many questions around documentation in an Early Years setting and when searching for an answer there really doesn’t seem to be just one.

I have recently had a complete ‘shift’ in terms of what I will document and how each piece will be shared. I have always valued the importance of documentation but somewhere along my journey my documentation never really become a living part of the environment. I had been spending so much time creating beautiful documents of learning that would be shared with parents and hung on the wall only for it to be rarely commented on, I was the only one using it for reflection. I now have new understandings and new ambitions for my documentation and hopefully the documentation of my team. It will live and breathe in our classrooms. It will be used for reflection by educators, parents, and learners. It will inform our decision-making and help to create memories of our learning journey throughout the year and beyond.

So where did this shift in thinking come from?

I recently attended a live webinar hosted by Chapters International with guests Anne Van Dam and Fiona Zinn. Both are such inspirational voices in Early Years education and an hour listening to them discuss documentation certainly did not disappoint.

From this 1 hour webinar, which I highly recommend all Early Years Educators watch, we come to understand how documentation deepens over time and is a vital tool in reflection. Documentation is not one-dimensional and there is a relationship that is built from documenting. It helps you to develop metacognition “dig underneath what you are seeing”.

Many people, including myself, get stuck on the how of documentation. What should it look like? Through experience and listening to the voice of ‘experts’ we come to learn that documentation does not only have one way. It is cogenerated and in the PYP should encompass the learner profile, conceptual understanding, attitudes to learning(skills), and knowledge. It is a tool to dig deeper into how we think/children think and our way of being.

This is a place that my thinking has shifted. Although I still believe in the importance of documenting individual growth I have changed the value that I give to that form of documentation. I was privileged enough to attend the first digital study group with Reggio Emilia last month and anyone who has heard of their approach understands the importance of documentation for them. They helped me to understand the importance of maintaining integrity to our belief that knowledge is co-constructed. Therefore I have begun to further see the importance of documenting more of the co-construction of knowledge and having that ‘live’ on our walls for groups of children to reflect on, remember experiences and build on their understandings.

We further understand that documentation is not always beautifully typed reflection but it is also scribbled notes and annotations, but what is its purpose?

“Assessment is a bi-product of documentation”

I love this statement. No longer are we only documenting to assess but we are documenting to plan, to understand learning, to build relationships with learning. From documentation we can co-construct our thinking.

Having just come away from the first Reggio Emilia Digital Study group and reviewing my notes from Fiona and Anne’s discussion my mind feels finally clear. I have a plan about what and why I will document.

Documentation feels natural to me, it is part of who I am as an educator and I certainly could not forego the practice of observing, interpreting and documenting. I personally feel that we cannot teach without it but now I have even more reasons to spend a little more time reflecting on my documentation and ensuring it is feeding directly into my practice and the practice of my team.