A Guide to Documenting Learning: Making Thinking Visible, Meaningful, Shareable, and Amplified

by Silvia Rosenthal Tolisano, Janet A. Hale

Overview

A new approach to contemporary documentation and learning

What is learning? How do we look for, capture, reflect on, and share learning to foster meaningful and active engagement? A Guide to Documenting Learning helps educators answer these questions. 

Documenting learning is a process that makes thinking about learning processes visible, meaningful, shareable, and amplified. It facilitates student-driven learning, helping students reflect on and articulate their own learning processes. It also helps teachers reflect on their own learning and classroom practice. When teachers are co-creators with their students, both gain valuable insights that inform future learning and empower students as engaged learners. This unique how-to book

• Explains the purposes and different types of documentation
• Teaches different "LearningFlow" systems to help educators integrate documentation throughout the curriculum
• Provides authentic examples of documentation in real classrooms
• Is accompanied by a robust companion website where readers can find even more documentation examples and video tutorials

Written for educators of any grade level, this book provides insights into contemporary learning and professional learning environments, and emphasizes the power of technology to amplify teaching and learning beyond school walls. 

"This book touches upon information that would be useful to any school system because it scaffolds ways that educators can help students make their thinking known, which will only improve their future reasoning skills."
LaQuita Outlaw, Principal
Bay Shore Middle School, Bay Shore, NY

"This book will become an important guide for schools and educators to have on their shelves. The content is original, highly organized and presents many new ideas on documenting learning. It takes what is happening in the world of teaching right now and elevates it to a coherent pedagogical process. The graphics are a fantastic resource."
Andrea Hernandez, Educational Consultant
amplifiEDucation and edtechworkshop.blogspot.com, Jacksonville, FL

 
 

 

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781506385556
Publisher:	SAGE Publications
Publication date:	01/06/2018
Series:	Corwin Teaching Essentials
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	288
File size:	13 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.

About the Author

Silvia Rosenthal Tolisano is a Third Culture Kid (TCK). She was born in Germany, raised in Argentina, lived shortly in Brazil, and is now planted in the United States. Her multicultural upbringing fueled her passion for languages, travel, global awareness, and global competencies.

Silvia holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Spanish with a minor in International Studies, and a Master’s Degree in Education with an emphasis in Instructional Technology. She has worked as a world language teacher, technology integration facilitator, 21^st  century learning specialist, social media coordinator, and professional development and educational consultant.

She is a Curriculum21 faculty member, co-founder of edJEWcon, author of Digital Storytelling Tools for Educators (Lulu, 2010), and co-author of Mastering Digital Literacy and Mastering Global Literacy (Solution Tree, 2013).

Her passions include globally connected learning, technology integration, contemporary upgrades, amplification of curriculum and instruction, blogging as a pedagogy, developing and maintaining a personal learning network, and documenting learning.

Visit Silvia’s consulting website: globallyconnectedlearning.com; amplifiEDUcation website: amplifieducation.com; documenting learning website: documenting4learning.com; and blog: Langwitches.org/blog; and follow her on Twitter @langwitches.

Janet Hale is an educational consultant and trainer who is passionate about supporting educators in making curriculum decisions that ensure, enhance, and enrich learning and teaching experiences. She works with schools, districts, and higher-ed programs in the areas of curriculum, instruction, and assessment. She specializes in curriculum mapping; standards literacy and alignment; and documenting learning.

 

Her Masters in educational leadership and curriculum development; elementary, secondary, and special education classroom experiences; and working alongside teachers and administrators for over 20 years enable Janet to provide unique insights that aid the learning organizations she has the pleasure of assisting.

 

She has written an assortment of educational resources, including three titles for Corwin, and enjoys presenting at national and international conferences.

Janet resides in Tucson, Arizona, with her husband, Johnny, and their four-legged Schnauzer children. Visit Janet’s consulting website: CurriculumDecisions.com and documenting learning website: documenting4learning.com. You can follow her on Twitter @janet_hale, as well as @doc4learning. She can be contacted via e-mail at [e-mail] or by phone at 520.241.8797.

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Table of Contents

Foreword
Preface
A Collaboration Invitation
Acknowledgments
About the Authors
Introduction
Chapter Descriptions
1. Documenting Learning Types and Purposes
Documenting Learning Types
Documenting Learning Purposes
2. Documenting Learning and the Now Literacies
Relationship Between Documenting Learning and Now Literacies
3. Documenting Pedagogy and Heutagogy
Defining the Difference Between Pedagogical Documentation and Heutagogical Documentation
Defining the Difference Between Displaying and Documenting
4. Documenting Engagement and Learning Layers
Defining Learner Engagement
Documenting Learning Layers
5. Documenting With Sharing and Amplifying in Mind
Sharing and Amplifying When Documenting Learning
6. Documenting Phases
Documentation Phases
7. Documenting Learningflow Routine
Learningflow Routine Steps
8. Documenting With Text and Visual Platforms and Tools in Mind
Text and Visual Platforms and Tools
9. Documenting With Audio, Video, and Blogging Platforms and Tools in Mind
Audio and Video Platforms and Tools
Blogging Platforms and Tools
10. Documenting With Unpacking in Mind
Unpacking Documentation Artifacts
11. Documenting Challenge: 21st Century Skills and the Now Literacies
Focusing the Challenge
Framing the Challenge
Applying the Challenge
12. Documenting Learning and Branding: Administrative Actions
School and District Brand Identity
13. Documenting Learning: Moving Forward
What to Cut? What to Keep? What to Upgrade?
Appendix
Glossary
References
Index

Editorial Reviews

"In Documenting Learning, the authors seek to qualify, rather than quantify, what contemporary learning is all about: looking for, capturing, reflecting, sharing, and amplifying the learning that is taking place. In this text, they break down these actions and how they apply to before, during, and after learning moments and describe a new way to approach contemporary work and self-determined learning. "

Michael Fisher

"Educators trying to create compelling learning experiences confront the daunting challenge of content coverage requirements and expectations of teaching to the test. Students and their thinking are often invisible as the only representations of learning made public are marks and rankings. Silvia and Janet take the inspirational Reggio Emilia approach and scale it into new contexts to create deep learning experiences for today’s learners, with an eye on the future of learning as well. "

Cameron Paterson

A Guide To Documenting Learning is a practical book for educators that asks the questions, "What is learning? How do we look for, capture, reflect on, and share learning to foster meaningful and active engagement? "

There are lots of useful teachings, resources, and scenarios no matter what age group you work with or what educational setting you’re in. The book could truly apply to kindergarten teachers, right up to adult learners. The concepts covered would be priceless for administrators who are looking for ways to improve their school as a whole. This book should also be required reading for all pre-service teachers.

The whole concept of what it means to be literate has changed since most of us were at school ourselves. Students (and adults!) now need to do a lot more than read and write in order to be truly literate. This includes being able to communicate and express ideas in a variety of ways — using all sorts of digital tools, video, audio, hyperlinked writing, social media etc. This book breaks down exactly how to do that to ensure our students can thrive in a global community.

What I loved about this book is there are lots of ideas for tools mentioned, however, it is more about the processes than specific tools. The learning comes first. The QR codes and companion website bring the book alive—there is extra information and a challenge etc. on http://www.documenting4learning.com. This could be ideal if a group of teachers wanted to study the book together.

A Guide To Documenting Learning is not the type of book you read once and put away. You could definitely dip back into it regularly throughout the school year for new ideas and inspiration.

Kathleen Morris

"This book will become an important guide for schools and educators to have on their shelves. The content is original, highly organized and presents many new ideas on documenting learning. It takes what is happening in the world of teaching right now and elevates it to a coherent pedagogical process. The graphics are a fantastic resource. "

Andrea Hernandez

"This book touches upon information that would be useful to any school system because it scaffolds ways that educators can help students make their thinking known, which will only improve their future reasoning skills. "

La Quita Outlaw

"I love the idea that students can be aware of their learning. It can be documented, reflected on, curated, and shared in order to garner feedback and that the student owns the learning every step of the way. "

Kathleen Rodda

"This book touches upon information that would be useful to any school system because it scaffolds ways that educators can help students make their thinking known, which will only improve their future reasoning skills."

LaQuita Outlaw