[Donita Bell]

Ooooh @EmmaBurchall I love these questions! What a great set of questions to add to our list from the initial survey! Documentation has not been mentioned by participants… yet! But when Amy and I were planning our sessions, it was an essential element of all the pedagogy and practices that connect to play, social emotional learning and other topics that had our members curious.

I have posted a chapter of a book in the ‘Resources’ section – ‘From Teaching to Thinking’ by Margie Carter and Ann Pelo. Chapter 3 delves into the ‘Why’ of documentation which links very well to your question. I look forward to hearing from our participants. I also address this same question in my current context – how do we balance the visual documentation for our students and planning (for teachers) with the expectations of posting to Toddle, Seesaw or other platforms that schools use? It is a great question. I would love to put it out to everyone – ‘Why’ do we document students learning? This might unlock some of our beliefs and understandings of how documentation can be more meaningful and purposeful.

I will also add a link to a great video from IB: PYP: ‘Documenting Learning in Early Years” by Ann Van Dam and Sean Walker: There is a plethora of ideas around how and what to document.