Irene Garneau: We talk a lot about the difference between documentation versus decoration. Oftentimes, a traditional bulletin board will have 15 to 20 of sort of the same project on it, and that maybe is more copying what a teacher does, versus children’s own experience. We’re shifting how we think about that. Helping teachers understand that the purpose of documentation isn’t about decoration, and it’s not about how cute can I make something look. It’s about documenting the serious learning that happens for young children. When you walk down the hall and you see a display of student work and student learning, that story will include work samples, photographs, language samples, a little narrative about how that experience came to be. What were the children’s questions? And then most importantly, we always include what the learning objectives are, so that anyone that’s coming by will be able to say, “Oh wow, look at all the learning that happened.” Our teachers are very collaborative, and one idea that they shared was a QR code.

Cindy Barron: I can add a QR code to a display, and anyone that wants to that happens to be in the room can use their phone, scan it, and then watch a video of the learning happening right in front of them.

And they said, “It was reaching up to the sky.”

Today I was working with Carver during choice time in the block area.

Micah and Celeste over here were playing together.

Carver: I know.

Barron: And he happened to notice a display. I was able to take out my phone, scan it.

All right, you keep watching. We’re going to get to see what your friends did in the block area. Are you ready?

Carver: OK.

Barron: And he could actually watch Celeste and Micah building a structure from those blocks. A lot of times, if the children see somebody else doing something that looks interesting or fun, it might encourage them to give it a try. In this one, Jason said, “I made a tower this big.”

Garneau: Because we document and display student learning, we send a message that we value their thinking and their understanding, and we value their questions about their world. We also send a message to adults in the lives of these children about the importance of the work that happens in an early childhood classroom, and the importance of an inquiry-based curriculum.

Student: And the top of the bottle.

Charter Oak International Academy