Guest Posted July 12, 2011 Posted July 12, 2011 Does anyone use 'A Learning Story' as a form of observation. This is a new concept for me as I have always used the 'ten minute child observation' (amongst other types of observation of course). How do you 'complete/use' these? - as a narrative observation or bullet points - any information would be useful! I'd really love to see a completed 'Learning Story' if anyone has one that they are willing to share.
AnonyMouse_705 Posted July 12, 2011 Posted July 12, 2011 Hi Try doing an internet search - there are many articles on this subject such as: http://www.unisanet.unisa.edu.au/staff/Sue...ningstories.pdf I've also attached an example of a completed learning story observation but I'm afraid I can't remember where I obtained it from to reference it or provide a link to a webpage. From my understanding Learning Stories emphasize a child's learning dispositions such as perseverance, curiosity etc so longer term skills of lifelong learning, their disposition to learn, being as important as achieving short term goals such as recognising numbers 1-5. The emphasis is on what children can do and building on that rather than what children cannot do and trying to fill the deficit gap. Hope that helps. A_Learning_Story_1_.pdf
AnonyMouse_19762 Posted July 13, 2011 Posted July 13, 2011 Hi Deb - thanks for sharing - that's really good - I haven't seen that format before
AnonyMouse_37885 Posted July 13, 2011 Posted July 13, 2011 We use learning stories and love them. They are a lovely way of capturing activities and special moments. We use a variety of formats. Sometimes we use a series of chronological photos of a child/children and put captions to them. These can be small enough to fit in LJs or sometimes we make bigger ones to display around the setting. We also use a learning story sheet Learningstorysheet.docx which I may or may not have attached here (useless at this sort of thing!) but if you cannot see it, it has a box for the story, which we write in story format, and a space for pictures. Then at the bottom there are boxes for what we have learned about child, links to EYFS, possible next steps etc. Parents love to read them.
Guest Posted July 13, 2011 Posted July 13, 2011 (edited) Thanks Deb and fairygarden - that's great. It's so good to see other formats. I found one recently (can't remember where ) and have adapted it a little; will upload. I will also upload the 'Target Child' observation sheet for anyone interested. I wonder if anyone still uses this method of observing? I usually enlarge it to A3 as I tend to word process it afterwards (not good practice as it is so time consuming!). Also I print it out so that it is double sided. And while I am uploading, I have also included a F.A.C.T. (Focussed Assessment Child Tracker) Sheet ... and Overview Grid. A_LEARNING_STORY.doc TARGET_CHILD_OBSERVATION_SHEET___Nursery___10_mins.doc Focussed_Assessment_Record_Sheet.doc OVERVIEW_GRID.docx Edited July 13, 2011 by Guest
Guest Posted July 14, 2011 Posted July 14, 2011 Thanks for that DevonMaid, that was really useful. Debbie
Guest Posted July 25, 2011 Posted July 25, 2011 hi devonmaid did you take the preschool diploma many many years ago as they used the same or similar formats they brought back memories
Guest Posted July 25, 2011 Posted July 25, 2011 hi devonmaid did you take the preschool diploma many many years ago as they used the same or similar formats they brought back memories Yes I did - 1987 and 1991!!
Guest Posted July 28, 2011 Posted July 28, 2011 Hi, I'm an ambitious Level 2 nursery nurse (with psychology degrees and post-poned EYPS student) but love working in my nursery - I think these learning story sheets and focussed assessment documents are great! I am hoping to promote the use and benefit of long obsevations more within my nursery as I feel it is something we don't do much of. How oftem do you do long observations on your children and how useful do you find them?
Guest Posted July 28, 2011 Posted July 28, 2011 Hi, I'm an ambitious Level 2 nursery nurse (with psychology degrees and post-poned EYPS student) but love working in my nursery - I think these learning story sheets and focussed assessment documents are great! I am hoping to promote the use and benefit of long obsevations more within my nursery as I feel it is something we don't do much of. How oftem do you do long observations on your children and how useful do you find them? Hello Charly Ideally we try to do long obs every half-term. They are very useful, but also very time consuming to complete after. The 'neat' writers in my nursery can observe, write and have 15 mins or so afterwards to add comments and identify areas of learning. The sheets are photocopied and enlarged to A3 before use to give plenty of space to write. My writing (at least when trying to write so much) is not very legible and I would not want to include the obs in the child's LJ until I had either re-written it or word-processed it! I am trying to introduce the 'learning story' type of obs, as an alternative because the staff find the TC obs too time consuming. Later today, when I have more time, I will upload a completed obs for you (changing the name of course); this will give you a better insight into how they are used.
Guest Posted July 28, 2011 Posted July 28, 2011 Hello again - I have uploaded a completed example of a ten minute Target Child Observation. Note, when staff or students are doing this type of observation for the first time, they may want to do only 3 or 4 minutes at first because it takes practice to get everything down (and of course, you can't 'catch' every single second!). I try to make sure that I record the 'social' situation as I am going because this can change several times during the obs. The 'task' section can be completed retrospectively. Hope you find this useful! A___Target_Child___Observation.doc
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