Observation and Documentation Successes Strategies and Struggles Observation
Observation and Documentation Successes, Strategies and Struggles
Observation Definition in To watch or regard with attention order to see or learn something.
Observation Redefined O To watch purposefully, focusing on details, facts, and patters in order to learn about a child and build a relationship that fosters the child’s growth.
Getting Started Reflect on a child you know well. o How would you describe your relationship with the child? o How did the relationship begin? o What made you start feeling connected to the child? o How did it feel? o What role did observing play?
Step One: Getting to Know Children O Write down the name of each child in your class. O Write down something you have observed about that child.
O How did it go? O Were you surprised to find you couldn’t think of something to write about some children? O Did you forget to put some children on your list? Why? O Why do you seem to know some children better than others?
Step Two: Striving For Objectivity O Observing has a very human side; no one can be totally objective. O You need to differentiate between what you actually see and hear – the facts, and what you think you see – your own opinions and interpretations of these actions.
A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words
Observation One vs Observation Two
Digging Deeper What are some other questions you can ask about Jose with the information gathered from the 2 nd observation?
O Selects 3 crayons for box. Rolls them on table. Looks around. Looks at another child’s paper and asks “What are you drawing? I’m gonna make a sun. ” Uses yellow crayon to draw a circle.
Step Three Choosing Our Words Carefully Riley is withdrawn.
O Describe rather than label children’ behavior.
Sharing of Observation Recording Ideas
Barriers to Observations O Time O Situations that require immediate response.
Wrapping Up O Be aware of what you bring to observing O Strive for Objectivity O Describe rather than label O Be open to finding new ways to capture observations! What didn’t work with one group of children might work with another.
So………… O Observation by observation, bit by bit, a picture of a child unfolds and continues to blossom throughout the year.
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