Visible Learners by Mara Krechevsky & Mara Krechevsky & Ben Mardell & Melissa Rivard

Author:Mara Krechevsky & Mara Krechevsky & Ben Mardell & Melissa Rivard
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Wiley
Published: 2013-05-19T16:00:00+00:00

Documentation supports the social principle of learning by communicating the importance of the experiences captured, the knowledge gained, and those who participated. Analog and digital photo albums, home videos, and social media platforms all reinforce our sense of connection to various communities. Documentation serves a similar function in the classroom, helping students and teachers connect to each other as learners and human beings.

Serving as “Memory of the Group”

Tiziana Filippini, a senior pedagogista for the Reggio preschools, refers to documentation as “the memory of the group.” Few travelers would consider taking a trip to a new place or attending a significant event without a camera. This is because later the photographs help them remember the experience, often evoking aspects that the photographs did not capture. Perhaps because school is part of teachers' and students' everyday lives, the same impulse to preserve experiences is not typically present. Yet, when teachers focus on capturing the critical, and all too ephemeral, processes of learning, they and their students can serve as memory keepers for the group, making it possible to revisit, celebrate, and include others in these experiences later.

Gathering or creating artifacts that remind children of their earlier experiences can deepen learning, particularly for young children. Capturing and revisiting moments from key learning experiences provide continuity and help learners maintain the interest and momentum that deeper explorations require. “Meet the Directors” resided within a larger study of the Boston Marathon that began months before Simon, Christopher, and Rosie's video project. Teachers Ben and Rachel documented throughout the study to help children remember and build on earlier experiences and sustain their interest in the topic over time. Ben helped the planning committee of directors get started on their project by sharing the list of key aspects of the race generated by the whole class at the end of the project's first phase. The documentation reminded the group of things to include in their film and their purpose—to share what they learned.

Documentation is a bit like a time machine, giving teachers the chance to go back to experiences and, in a sense, do them over. Reviewing documentation reminded Ben and Rachel of questions children raised during the conversation when they first proposed the study. The children had been puzzled about how far 26.2 miles was and speculated about whether kindergartners could run that far and whether they would end up in China if they did. The teachers recognized the missed learning opportunities in the children's questions and hypotheses and decided to go back to explore the concept of distance. Ben and Rachel played the video of the conversation for the children before suggesting they go outside to try running 26.2 miles to experience for themselves what that feels like. Most children collapsed on the ground after running two laps around a large field. When their teachers told them they would need to run one hundred laps if they were running a marathon, the children's incredulity revealed their deeper sense of a marathoner's challenge. Revisiting documentation lends

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