Guest Posted June 17, 2005 Posted June 17, 2005 HOLA I went to a confrence today in Huddersfield where a lovely lady from New Zeland did a presentation on learning stories. Does anyone use them as a form of assessment? We are starting a new FSU in September which also has 2 Y1 classes within it, I wondered how we could use them and the day to day management of them? Can anyone help? They seem a great idea but I can't get my head around using them for such a large phase (60 in Recp/60 in Y1 and 58 in nursery)
AnonyMouse_1195 Posted June 18, 2005 Posted June 18, 2005 I use a type of learning story to track a child initiated topic. It is the best I can do with the time available.I take lots of photos showing the stages of development of their theme, talk with the children and make a few notes as they go along. Then I make a small display on my observation and assessment wall, with explanatory comments and which ELG's they are working on. I might add a bit of emergent writing I have found done in their child initiated play, or a picture or whatever is relevant. I feel that this is as valuable as scribbled observations as what I am looking for is: how are they learning, what knowledge are they demonstrating and how can I move them on. It is all in one of these stories and being on the wall means that other adults in school can see what has been going on. Afterwards I just scrunch them into a book and there are lovely records which can be left out for anyone to see. I want to work even more in this way and use this as my main way of observing as it covers so much without being as onerous as putting eveything in individual folders. Looks good too
Guest Posted June 18, 2005 Posted June 18, 2005 I have recently been told that my obs and assesment is excellent ( FSP moderation am sooooooo happy and extremely relieved ) but to further develop I could make use of learning stories. Does anyone know of any training, courses , websites or books to help ? Thanks for above info btw, sounds fab!
Guest Posted June 18, 2005 Posted June 18, 2005 Hi Gillie I was at Early Excellence conference in Huddersfield as well. Came away really inspired from the whole day. I love the idea of learning stories being shared with parents and parents writing their own, offering suggestions of what their child might be interested in next. Not sure of the logistics of it all yet. It does seem more parent friendly than some other forms of communication with parents (don't get me started on the nursery stage and foundation stage profile)! Only slight concern is basic literacy skills of a few of our parents and also those who don't read/write English. We would have to get around these. Other concern would be time needed to do them (I can imagine staff proclaiming "when will we have the time to do this"). Lots for management team to think about first! I would be really interested to learn how other settings are using them. Our children love looking at their profiles and remembering and talking about what they have done (at the moment we write up observations and include annotated photographs, divided into six areas of learning or 4 aspects of bttm). I loved the story Wendy gave about an inspector asking a child about the learning stories in the file, listening as the child recalled and talked about the events in the past with lots of knowledge and insight, only to discover that the file belonged to another child in the group.
Guest Posted June 18, 2005 Posted June 18, 2005 Hi longwayround On the course, Wendy Lee mentioned a book called "Assessment in Early Childhood Settings: Learning Stories" by Margaret Carr Wendy Lee talked about the assessment research project (Te Whariki Early Childhood curriculum) and showed us a pack to go with this (haven't got details but can get them from a colleague next week). The folder included exemplars from diverse settings in New Zealand.
Guest Posted June 18, 2005 Posted June 18, 2005 Hi Louise Thanks sounds really interesting. Would appreciate it if you could pass on those details. Thanks
Guest Posted August 7, 2005 Posted August 7, 2005 Have now got the book, but was hoping some of you might have examples or details of the pack as mentioned above. Thanks really appreciate the help so far
Guest Posted October 16, 2005 Posted October 16, 2005 Thought I would bump this topic up, as I am still working on Learning Journey type ass and obs. Anyone got any further information, I would really appreciate any ideas.
Guest Posted October 16, 2005 Posted October 16, 2005 We in the FS have just started Learning Stories this year. Reception started first with allocated exercise books with post-its of obs stuck in. Working on the theory that post-its don't stay that sticky, in nursery we are using white sticky labels: I have 3 clipboards around nursery with strips of labels on for all adults to add to with child's name, date and the obs - at the end of the week these get transferred to their learning story book. Ours are slightly different to reception, as I painstakingly took hours to cut strips from the pages in order to create a divider look, with 6 sections: one for each area of learning. I then allocate the stickers to the appropriate area; often an obs could go in more than one area, so I just decide which it's most relevant to. There are also occasional photos in their books, either as illustrations of the obs, or as obs themselves, perhaps of areas they enjoy working in. I'm really enjoying working on the books & feel it gives a much better insight in to each individual child. I shall be using them for parents evening this week, although most are pretty sparce at the mo.
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