Structural Supports Needed to Teach This Way
This book provides many examples of things one Head Start program did to implement a Reggio-style program. Let’s ignore “money” for the moment as one of the obstacles to doing a similar thing in your program. What are some key structural changes that would make running such a program feasible? Which of these are do-able right now? Do you have some experience in making some of these changes?
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This is a tough one for my particular setting. Our daycare is run/overseen by the public school system. We have families that have children in different rooms, for example they may have a toddler and a preschooler in the program. Most of our parents don't want there children in mixed age groups.
I agree with the can-do attitude but the decision stands in the hands of the Superintendent and the Director.
At the January face-to-face meeting, myself and others had reservations and questions
about the cost and planning time involved etc. I feel that if we are truly sold on this approach,
there are ways for teachers to incorporate some of the ideas from this book. The following are
some structural changes that are not costly as stated in Chapter 1- Introduction.
listening to and observing children
providing a rich learning environment
small group interactions
using verbal and visual representations
documenting conversations and representations
staff reflection
I would like to respond to Susan's comment on the limitations imposed by the school
system. She could help educate the people who oppose this by showing them that what she
would like to do is in the children's best interest. There are ways to incorporate math, science,
literacy etc. into the routine and still meet other requirements. Start small by making one change
a week or so and see what happens.
At the Children's Center, we do not have to follow a formal curriculum and are able to
incorporate ideas from different curriculums. Our goal is to follow the children's
interests and then incorporate that topic into different areas of the room. We document their
learning through charts, anecdotal records, art work, bulletin board displays and digital photos. We work with a small group(4 or 5) for our art
activities and follow those children for writing reports and doing parent conferences.
Again, I agree with the can-do attitude but I guess my challenege would be even tougher because I work in the infant room. Many of the ideas you mention are done but at the infant level.
We do not have parent conferences, although we do discuss the infants progress daily with the parents.
I agree I could take the first step to try to educate the staff but my interest is in my time spent in my classroom. If I were with the 3-4 year olds or older, I most definately would consider doing this.
Structural supports??
Educate ,Educate, Educate, I agree with that idea, and I suppose the best way is to use some of Reggios approaches in my practice, Certainly the suggestions from Debbies list from chapter one is a great start, Just the awareness of listening and observing ! I would like to pass that on to my parents who seem so rushed and busy and agenda orientated these days the old saying, “stop and smell the roses” .. The documentation ideas are also useful, especially when trying to involve parents more, showing charts of progression would maybe catch their eye and curiosity to ask more questions and want to be more involved. I guess that is what is do-able for me immediately. It has always been known that smaller group learning is more effective, and how simple is listening and observing and note taking. The next step is the acting . I guess that takes a little creativity and yet I guess one could just follow the childs lead which is exemplified by Reggios Approach!
Structural supports??
Educate ,Educate, Educate, I agree with that idea, and I suppose the best way is to use some of Reggios approaches in my practice, Certainly the suggestions from Debbies list from chapter one is a great start, Just the awareness of listening and observing ! I would like to pass that on to my parents who seem so rushed and busy and agenda orientated these days the old saying, “stop and smell the roses” .. The documentation ideas are also useful, especially when trying to involve parents more, showing charts of progression would maybe catch their eye and curiosity to ask more questions and want to be more involved. I guess that is what is do-able for me immediately. It has always been known that smaller group learning is more effective, and how simple is listening and observing and note taking. The next step is the acting . I guess that takes a little creativity and yet I guess one could just follow the childs lead which is exemplified by Reggios Approach!
I think one thing that would help make the Reggio approach more feasible is having the time and coverage to have the many meetings that this particular program had. It seemed that the staff was always coming together to discuss how to incorporate the program and how to improve upon what they already began implementing. There was a lot of support and feedback from a variety of people.
At my Center, we are fortunate enough to have three teachers to a classroom, plus teacher assistants (college students on a work study program). That gives us some time for at least one teacher to leave the room for an hour each day to work on curriculum planning. And once a week, two teachers will meet together for an hour to discuss new ideas for the classroom. For other programs, this may be impossible (coverage wise). I think they would need the help of the director to cover their classroom to give them the time needed to work on planning the curriculum.
We also all have to complete so many hours of training each year to meet EEC regulations. Why not use some of those training hours to attend workshops/conferences on the Reggio approach and/or to visit other Reggio programs. Does your staff have an retreat or a professional development day where this could be the main focus???
Aside from meetings and workshops, I agree with Debbie Drago when she says a teacher can start by spending more time focusing on the children during their play to pick up on their interests. Listen, observe, and document. You’ll be amazed at what you learn.
Jane, great post!!!
Unfortunately we have no volunteers that come to help out and allow us to leave and have time to attend other programs during the day.
We also have to attend workshops to meet EEC regulations but can only plan to do this at night because our staff is pretty short now due to severe cuts in the town. We are umbrellared under the school dept. so lay-offs have been hitting hard due to low enrollment.
I agree with Jane's suggestion to have workshops/conferences on Reggio and to use EEC hours to visit sites implementing Reggio. On another note, the drawback of using the Reggio approach in a family child care is that if you are working alone you don't have feedback from other teachers to review documentation and observations to help identify interests and plan curriculum accordingly. The staff at Chicago Commons had wonderful support through their numerous meetings (both staff and parent).
Implementing Reggio principles at an Infant and Toddler level is a task. Since babies are sensory driven repetition response is hard to build on. Shaking a rattel to hear the sound is self rewarding and examplifies a true Reggio trait since if interested the infant will shake it again. One can only introduce new experiences and watch for a respons. Once a Toddler repetition plays a big part in accepting the world around them. I see this again as a Reggio trait since Toddlers will seek to repeat things, therfore gaining security to try new things. When a Toddler asks "again" is this not the beginning of Reggio conversations.
I agree with Jane about the time neede to do the Reggio approach right. With income down and ratio demands a burden we don't have the revenue to hire extra teachers for discussion time coverage. the daily maintance of a classroom and the imposed regulatory requiremnets steal precious time out of the day. Reggio can find it's way into the direction of our circle time, exploration time, and discussion time with the children. But teachers don't get alot of extra time beyond planning to engage in those discussions I feel would highten their awareness of the children around them and thier interests.
I feel that the state standards can easily be met using a Reggio approach. Sometimes the learning and experiences are at a higher level than the standards even address. I'm not concerned with that as much as the time it takes out of the classroom to do justice to the documentation. I have two other teachers working with me and neither one can have a meeting after school to work on anything. I have the same issue with parents. I have great parents, believe me, but they all have very busy lives. Does anyone have any advice on documentation techniques that are not all time consuming?
i agree with you susan, while trying to change the center maybe impossible for you. you are right to focus on your infants and what u can do to meet their needs. while offering suggestions to staff is a good idea, you have to respect the teaching of other staff members.
(Originally published 2/10)
I agree with every thing said above. Right now we are making many changes but none cost money, yet. The hardest change to incorporate is the staff meetings. There are three of us in our program but for all of us to meet almost never happens. Usually two of us meet then one of us tells the other everything.
We have been doing lots and lots of observation and documentation. We plan on revisiting children's work and having lots of discussions about it. We take tons of pictures now but usually the pics do not get developed right away so it would be hard to have the process on the wall with the product immediately. But when we have the children redo/rework their projects they will all get on the wall at the same time (pics and work). I love the 'hand' section of the book...how the teachers got the children interested and wanting to do the work, to figure it out. I want to learn how to do that with everything we do. The problem is figuring it all out and implementing it.
I agree with many of you about the challenge of having frequent staff meetings to allow teachers to plan, interpret ideas, and organize thoughts. It also takes a great deal of time to construct documentation panels. If my co-teachers and I were to meet as regularly as is needed, a change in our daily routines and schedules would be needed. We also have a lot of part-time teachers, which makes covering for other classrooms difficult. Our director can cover for us occasionally, but not on a regular basis. One solution might be to communicate via e-mail when we have individual planning time, but I'm not sure we would ever be able to have as much time for discussion as the teachers at Chicago Commons. Perhaps getting teacher assistants involved in the documentation process would help with the creation of panels.
In regard to obstacles to implementing the Reggio approach, I think that there are different levels of obstacles.
One set of challenges in my setting is logistical. Where can the small group meet without distractions from others and without leaving a colleague with too many needs to handle calmly? How can we fit snack in without interrupting the flow of ideas – and where? How can I record the experience at the same time that I am engaged in it with the children? Since a video or tape recorder might help, where can I set one up so that it records what I need to hear, and not everything else?
Time itself, or the lack of uninterrupted time, can be an obstacle. In our setting, we have more devoted meeting time (time with no children present for teachers to meet) than many programs but it can still feel insufficient. One afternoon (2-3 hours) is devoted to curriculum, planning, and sharing perspectives specifically about our classroom and children. Another afternoon (2.5-3 hours) is devoted to whole school staff meetings weekly. There are weeks that require either more or less classroom work or time connecting to other teachers. Finding a balance that keeps us connected enough to understand each other’s needs and classroom issues (whole staff meetings) yet feeling free enough to take an investigation one step further for a small group of children (classroom meeting) can be tricky. If I have enough time to plan with my colleague and support an investigation in the classroom, but no time to make sure documentation is visible (i.e. available in a format that children can re-visit, or parents can relate to, etc) then the investigation may lose energy and potential. If I use my time to work on this documentation instead of connecting with colleagues (at a whole staff meeting) then I have lost connections, new perspectives, potential feedback, and I may find I have less personal energy or investment to continue.
This raises another obstacle, one that has to do with how adults come together around a philosophy or set of assumptions that can either support or inhibit the development of this approach. It seems to me that in order to realize an approach informed by Reggio, teachers need uninterrupted time and support to pursue their ideas on behalf of the children. We all need an environment that speaks to our personal needs, where there is evidence that we are viewed as capable and competent, with ideas and perspectives of deep value and meaning. We need to be invited to take risks, and we need to develop some comfort with potential failures. We need to develop the capacity to suspend judgment while we allow an idea to play out, grow, or connect to something else. I think that when teachers feel time is limited or feel demands from their personal lives inhibit their freedom to pursue professional goals and connections, it is harder to pursue deep learning. Instead, we are more likely to stay with time-tested approaches whose outcomes may be more predictable.
Many of the structural supports necessary to implement a Reggio type program are already in place in our family child care. Our curriculum is often an emergent curriculum based on the interests of the children and we have a flexible schedule that can easily accommodate long term exploration. Our group is mixed aged which is ideal for generating ideas and small group work is how we function best. Most of the children are in my care for several years so there is a strong relationship between the children and myself, the children and each other, and between the families. My extended time with the children also affords me a deep understanding of their interests and abilities. We also have a relationship with the neighborhood and community as we are out and about in it most every day. Our learning environment includes not only the classroom but the kitchen and other rooms as well. There is space to display panels and projects and also a place to store them so we can revisit them later. After 20 years of family child care I am adept at improvising and have come to enjoy the unexpected , two of the key ingredients of Reggio. Over the last year I now have another adult to collaborate with in Bill. Our discussions of the children and their development (and lately the Reggio method) come second only to those of our own four children.
Some key non-monetary structural changes needed to begin a Reggio style program are listening to, observing, and documenting children. These are important steps in implementing the Reggio Way and are something we can all do without incurring any cost.
Our child care is structured consistent in the Reggio style set up. Small group areas for exploration, collaborative writing and work tables for the creation of representations, subsequent storage and display areas of children’s work is very evident to the children during the day and parents at drop off and pick up time. The storage of books, toys, building blocks dress up clothes, writing and coloring materials along with the alphabet, numbers, weather charts, and calendar are all at a level for the children to use. There is a change over of certain materials that change with the month, seasons and new interest that the children have. The children all know the numerous areas to experience what their interests and this is enhanced by the outdoor areas such as the various outdoor play areas we experience and utilize. This set up does encourage the Reggio style of learning and is certainly seen during the free play period in the day.
structural supports:
I recently attended an advocacy meeting which talked about our active involvement politically in congress regarding Earl Education and the need for funding. These folk are trying to get the attention of the state and show that education should begin alot earlier than Kindergarten and that they need to get involved and start here with bettering education overall. something we all are trying to do without funding help! its food for thought but the website is Info@earlyeducationforall.org
As a Director I see the teachers doing a wonderful job, but needing more time for the observation and recording piece. Ignoring the buget issue I would lenthen the teachers work day to include an hour daily for planing and recording observations, instead of our 1/2 hour per week. Having acess to computers in each classroom for teacher use is a big help also, when they work:) As far as structural changes I would love bigger classrooms!
Sadly without the needed funding to hire additional staff for these preschool programs most will never see a full Reggio setting they desire.Our goverment claims education is a priority. But at the end of the day nothing seems to change. I do not work in a structered center [I do home day care]but I do understand the frustration of trying to be everything for these children and feeling lost in the system. It's the laughs, smiles and hugs that keep us going another day. I wish all my fellow book discussion group members nothing but the best in all your future endeavors.
What a wonderful summary by Katrina on Feb. 17th of the many levels of issues we face in trying to make this work. Time was mentioned early and often in the first face-to-face, and I still see the need for more planning time as a dominant theme in these exchanges. Yet here and in the other threads I don't sense despair, just a caution that we can't do the impossible, but we can still do what we can, which is a lot! I am very proud of this group and the support and insights you have offered one another over the course of the last month.
I think that the most important elements of the approaches described are realized in the quality of relationships between teachers, children, and families, and in a philosophy that inspires teachers to listen and learn from the children, to create real partnerships with them as curriculum choices are made, and that looks for ways to stimulate these processes in the environment. So by changing the way teachers see their role(s) changes can occur.
Some possibilities for small changes in our setting that could have big impact:
1. Assure that the children have on-going access to a variety of open-ended materials with which to represent their ideas, along with the time and freedom to develop fluency with media. For us, this means improving the set up of our “collage” table to include access to clays, wire, etc. along with recycled materials (children need to develop confidence in their abilities to realize their ideas with materials, and may need frequent exposures and modeling to do so)
2. Build even more opportunities for small group times with teachers to follow up/re-visit previous themes/work. Although the ideal would be to have designated space for this with a variety of materials readily available, in our space we will use a classroom “project table” near collage, and use times when at least some of the children are engaged in small groups that are not in the classroom (using our science investigation area, or in a music group, or outdoors)
3. Think about ways to reserve as much time as possible in our meeting schedules to devote specifically to this work, and think about building in more opportunities for teachers to both talk together and observe in other classrooms
4. Feature more “works in progress” in displays for both children and families, giving up the notion that displays necessarily show beginnings, middles, and ends (giving us “permission” to ask questions/be less sure of where things are going)
5. Stay focused on what is most important for the children, without becoming distracted
i love ignoring money! i think the previous posters have touched upon a few of the really important structural changes necessary, particularly the need for additional TIME for staff...time to plan together, time to document, time to reflect, time to organize the classroom setting, time to grow as learners, time for professional development...
Also, SPACE - space for children's work to remain accessible to allow them to revisit and revise as part of their process; space for documentation to be planned and assembled; space for materials to be organized and beautifully displayed; space for documentation panels to be viewed and saved...
Also, certainly tools - digital still and video camera; color printer; voice recorder (and transcription software!); and a computer...
Yes, you can certainly teach "in the Reggio way" without most of these things - but if money were no object...i would wave my magic wand and give these supports to all of us!!
After reading more of the book (I finally finished, took me long enough) I feel that the communication and cooperation with parents is so very important that they could not run their centers without them. Parents come to the monthly meetings and have huge imput on what goes on. Part of me gets defensive and thinks so the parents get to choose what we do in the classroom? Another part of me loves the idea. When I realized how much parent involvement is needed I then became a bit discouraged. First I was discouraged because right now I find that even when a parent just lingers it is disruptive. I cannot imagine them hanging around more. :) I was remembering when a parent stayed for a party (to help) and that child was horribly behaved for his mother and did not listen to his teachers when mom was there. I figure the children would get use to parents being around and maybe, in time, behaviors would change and all would be less hectic. I think if we had a mandatory meeting (parents and staff) to explain the Reggio ways that we intend to initiate and why, explaining the need for the meetings, parents may get excited for their child's learning experience. In the book one of the Chicago schools provided transportation for far away meetings and a professional translator (not a staff member or parent. That is a fantastic service provided but we would be financially incapable. They also provide a buffet dinner, also a financial strain, however one of the reasons they do it is to provide an incentive to come on time. Great idea! We could have a pot luck dinnner...that would be fun. So my point in this post is to figure out part of the structure of Reggio, beginning with monthly meetings. Wouldn't a lot of what comes next be decided in those meetings?
Some of the changes that would need to be made would be to hire more teachers...and the way the economy has effected everyone I would say this is not do-able right now. It is however the main thing that would need to be changed at this time to help make running an Reggio program feasible. This would help give teachers more time to plan and come together to discuss childrens interests, etc. The teachers do get time daily to plan curriculum but for a true Reggio style of teacheing to be implemented I would have to say having more teachers would be first and foremost. Some things that are do-able right now are things like observing what the children find interesting and building a curriculm around that (which my teachers try to do now).
One of the biggest structural changes I would need to run a Reggio program would be to have more teachers. This is not something that is do-able right now but having more teachers would help with coverage so my teachers could have more planning time and time to think about and discuss ways to teach the children based on what their interest are. Although the teachers at my center have time for planning they are very busy doing other things as well and can not focus all of their down time on planning curriculum. So having more teachers would definitly be one of the biggest changes that we would need. Also more training on the Reggio style of teaching for all of the teachers to attend together. This is something that could be accomplished now.
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