Sharing and Responding
"Sharing documentation that makes learning and teaching visible reflects choices about what sorts of learning matters, supports collective knowledge building and creates moments for taking pride in the work of students and teachers; shapes attitudes about who teachers and learners are and what they are capable of; and enables students and teachers to see themselves and their contributions reflected in the documentation themselves" (Krechevsky, Mardell, Rivard & Wilson, 2013, pg 87).
Effective Documentation Sharing Practices
A display of student work shares products of learning.
Documentation doesn't just share what happened, but is an analysis or interpretation of the learning processes that also took place.
When creating documentation to share, we must ask ourselves:
Does the documentation promote conversation or deepen understanding about some aspect of learning?
Does the documentation provide enough context for the viewer to understand the piece?
Does the documentation focus on learning, not just on what was done?
Does the documentation focus on the process as well as the product(s) of learning?
Does the documentation include an interpretation by teachers and/or students?
Does the documentation include more than one medium?
Does the documentation have a title?
Is the documentation presented in a way that draws the viewer in?
Does the documentation add to our collective body of knowledge and promote conversations about learning?
Making Learning Visible Project at the Harvard Graduate School of Education http://www.makinglearningvisibleresources.org/documentation-when-does-it-make-learning-visible.html
Sharing Documentation for a Target Audience
"Making learning visible in ways that are understandable and engaging to others requires learners to reflect, synthesize and shape communication for a target audience" (Krechevsky, Mardell, Rivard & Wilson, 2013, pg 92).
Blogging and Microblogging
Target Audience: Professional Learning Network
Purpose: Reflect, Connect, Collaborate, Question and Grow
Check out Silvia Tolisano's blog and hashtag #document4learning on Instagram and Twitter!
Learning Stories
Target Audience: Teachers, students and parents
Purpose: Reflection, community building, feedback and next steps
This was one of the learning stories I created in my journey. It took awhile to design it and to make it visually appealing. I still think I have too much text.
A Template of this Learning Story can be copied to your Google Drive for editing here.
Silvia Tolisano on the creation and sharing of learning stories.
Learning Journals
Target Audience: Teachers and students and parents
Purpose: Reflection, feedback and next steps
While many teachers already use Seesaw to document learning in the classroom, we have just begun experimenting with Seesaw in the makerspace. Documentation taken in the learning commons is shared with teachers who can view and add/or expand on the learning they see by uploading new content. It is a great way to share and interpret content for prospective learning at any time! Our next step is for students will to curate their own makerspace journals to share their learning at home.
Documentation Panels
Target Audience: Teachers and students in the school
Purpose: Reflection, feedback, community building and next steps
Above is an example of a beginning documentation panel that was co-constructed with with a colleague. A valiant first step; however, we need to make more of the thinking processes of our students visible. We tended to focus on the product of their learning.
A better collaboration and interpretation of student thinking can be seen below. This piece,as well as that from all the other students in the class formed the next documentation panel.
...we still have a ways to go.
The Anatomy of a Documentation Panel:
Final thoughts:
How does the sharing of student products and processes allow learners to become teachers in the makerspace?
How does documentation value student experiences and foster their role in making positive contributions to the learning community?
How can we encourage students to take the ownership of creating public displays? What value would this have to their learning and the evolution of the makerspace?
How does documentation build capacity for making in our schools? How can documentation inspire other teachers to see what is possible in relation to making in the curriculum, and in connection to their students' strengths?
How can documentation give teachers the confidence to experiment and to try new strategies for making in the classroom?