Documentation

Documentation is a practice of observation, record-keeping and presentation that focuses on children’s experience, memories, thoughts and ideas during the course of their work. The documents reveal how the children planned, carried out and completed the displayed work. They are also used for assessment and planning new ideas and directions for the curriculum.

• includes photographs & videotape of various stages of a project, verbatim transcriptions of children’s verbal ideas, stories and descriptions of their artwork, display of children’s models, painting, drawing and writing.
• permits children to revisit their experience, allowing an opportunity to contemplate, clarify, deepen and strengthen new understandings.
• in a careful and attractive display of children’s work conveys to children that their efforts, intentions and ideas are valued and important.
• allows children to learn from and be stimulated by each other’s work and share their experiences and finding through the documentation.
• through discussion of projects, encourages new strands of work to emerge; then provides a basis for modification and adjustment of teaching strategies and is a source of ideas for new strategies.
• is a tool for assessment, enabling teachers to make decisions about appropriate ways to support each child’s development and learning.
• allows parents to be introduced to the children’s experience in the classroom and to appreciate the uniqueness of each child’s representation of their experience.
• children’s work in a wide variety of media makes learning visible and provides evidence of the intellectual powers of young children.