Making learning visible

Sharon and are we're very lucky to be included in a project called "Making Learning Visible". The project is an inquiry into how documenting a child's learning can affect their own literacy development, and the effect it has on other children who view it. 

We are working with a group of 6 other kindergarten and grade 1 educators and our Early Years consultant at the board. Last week we were lucky to have Teresa all to ourself for a half day of research, planning, and creating. 

Using current research and reflections of our students, we decided to focus on documenting visual literacy behaviour- writing, drawing and representing. We framed our research question:

What influence does student talk about documentation have on responding, extending, and challenging new learning?

We started by creating a display space for each child to share their work.

The next day, the children helped us build the documentation board. Max and Ben made the sign about our learning goal: We are learning to be writers. 

Next we put up everyone's display space. 

It didn't take long before the board sparked some more writing. We put out some word rings to help build vocabulary, and they are already a hot commodity in the writing studio. 

We are excited and curious to see where this project will take us. Children learning from each other is the ultimate goal in an emergent program like ours. We hope the board and other supports will encourage them to write, share, talk, listen, and learn collectively.