Let’s say for the moment you aren’t ready to take the plunge and completely transform your program to align with the Chicago experiment. Even so, there are an enormous number of innovative techniques that are mentioned in the book you might see as worth implementing. What are some of those, and why did they catch your attention? What affect do you think even those small steps might have (or have had, if you have already done some of them) on transforming your practice?
Let’s also go beyond the book on this one. What are some other resources you have found that have had a positive influence on transforming your practices in ways consistent with the Reggio approach?
23 comments:
Although I no longer have a program in which to create spaces for children, I can speak from my experience in my family child care. I operated my program on two levels, primarily using the kitchen, bathroom, and a dedicated playroom on the first floor and a shared space in the finished basement (over 75% was taken over by the child care). Of course, using shared space does limit your creative license somewhat. I thought the bathtub full of dolls was a unique idea, but something like that would not fly in my home! You can still be creative and use a small plastic pool, etc.
I had quite a collection of recycled items with which to “create” but could not keep them accessible to the children for safety reasons as I often cared for infants through pre-k. Spaces such as lofts or access to audiovisual equipment were also out of my realm. I did, however, have a climber in the basement which would serve many of the purposes a loft might. Overall, having a dedicated space in which to incorporate a variety of interest areas and the freedom to design and define the environment with materials to inspire the children is ideal.
One of the the best resources I have found is the Reggio Listserve http://ecap.crc.uiuc.edu/listserv/reggio-l.html . There are many thoughtful and expressive educators on the list who are always ready to provide a sounding board for questions and problems that people present, and offer provocations for us as teachers/administrators to consider. There is a searchable archive, and you can receive daily postings or a digest version. Occasionally, the list is pushed into highly politicized discussions, but for the most part it is focused on Reggio educational principals. One of the most helpful things for me has been when teachers post links to pictures or videos from their classrooms, and examples of their documentation. It gives me a sense of community with teachers from around the world, and allows me the opportunity to peek inside their classrooms without leaving my own home! I have picked up lots of small tips in this way, particularly about the classroom environment.
A few small steps worth looking in to are finding out what the teachers are interested in, are they interested in another approach to teaching? What do they think about this new approach? I think this is the first step then get them involved with programs that have already begun the Reggio program. Document what the teachers have learned from the visits. After time when the teachers have seen the Reggio approach in action they may be more understanding to how it works.
Using the internet helped me alot to understand the Reggio approach. Many different sites have lots of interesting ideas and projects to help understand how this works.
Some sites give ideas how to roam the neighborhoods with the children and turn it in to great learning experiences in many different ways including math, science and art.
Take-Aways?
Learn and Educate
Teacher and Child points of view
Observing and Listening
Explore
All of the above to me are vital in the learning process no matter what philosophy or Principles you follow, They catch my attention because they are doable for me immediately whether my center ever adjusts to the Reggio way. Every moment is a learning experience either for me or the children or family! We need to be more aware. I have been nudged to move away from boundaries and more to Exposure as a teaching tool, Even if there is no immediate results I do not think exposure is a bad thing.
yes every moment is a teachable experience for children and teachers, its we do with that information that makes it worth it.even if it is not something you may be interested in, hopefully you are open and will learn from it.
Take-Aways
Even though it was a difficult book to get through at times, I feel that I learned
a lot that can readily be used in the classroom. These ideas will both enhance the children's
learning as well as challenge my growth as a preschool teacher. The following are
some techniques that I liked that were used in the Reggio classrooms.
1.The process of having the children draw before, during and after the project as described
in Chapter 9.
2.The genuine value that they place on the child and the effort they put into making the families feel welcome.
3.Their attempt to focus on deeper lying interests rather than surface ones.
4.The indepth exploration of materials to help the children learn representational skills.
5.I look forward to our upcoming dinosaur study to see how the children's interest will
evolve and how long it will last.
Additional Reggio Resources-
Books:
The Hundred Languages of Children by C. Edwards and L. Gandini
Working in the Reggio Way by J. Wurm
Websites:
www.youngchildrenslearning.ecsd.net/reggio
www.brainy-child.com/article/reggioemilia
www.northamericanreggioemilliaalliance.org
www.reggiocollab.org/default.asp
www.geocities.com
www.scuolenidi.re.it
www.reggioemilliaapproach.net
www.ericdigests.org
http://zerosei.comune.re.it
www.educationworld.com
www.reggiokids.com
www.ceep.crc.uiuc.edu.poptopics/reggio
One thing I found interesting in this book and to be helpful in starting the Reggio Approach was the "Emergent Curriculum Planning Form" on p.95. It breaks down the whole planning process piece by piece helping the teacher to truly understand the process. Careful note taking will help the teacher to interpret, project, plan, and hypothesize about the children's interests/knowledge on the topic of study.
I was also quite amazed at how long it took the teachers to master the Reggio approach. In the appendix at the end, it showed that they worked on it up to 12 years. So, I don't think teachers should feel a lot of pressure to master this in just a couple of years. Time, practice and patience is the key I believe.
I took so much away from the book. But the part that hit home the most was at the end when it speaks to introducing this approach to the staff. Five years ago when I put all the tables into a circle and introduced this concept of a child's image, and princoples such as documentation, co-construction of understanding, revisiting, exploring materials in a new way, and representation was met with "Oh yeah we do that." After looking at some pictures I had taken and opening the floor to developmental evidence portrayed by the photos they saw how it easy it is to miss so m uch in the course of a day with too much going on for the sake of refridgerator art. We decided to set the rooms up with (non- designated, items created to use manly in one way, ex connecting bears)manipulatives. Stones, twigs, bits of leather, spools, wire became the vehicles for shape representation, outlining, path making etc. When the staff came together for discussion it was apparent how creative children really are when offered items of free expression. I like how the book spoke to finding out what the teachers like.Once they experienced this freedom it helped them to understand what it was we should be offering the children. I love the can do approach and it has kept on the track of trying for low these five years of growth in the Reggio way. It hasn't been easy. New teachers fresh from college cling to tangibles, plan book, lists, Maibox magazines, and the internet. It takes time to help them truly feel creative freedom and how to recogize that documentation and representation are forms of active listening.
Some ideas that influenced the founders of the Reggio Emilia schools were the ideas of Lev Vygotsky and others. I feel that Vygotsky's ideas really ring true for me. I see it everyday how younger or less experienced children learn and increase their level of development from the social interaction of older or more experienced peers. I recently started reading a book called "Tools of the Mind: The Vygotskian Approach to Early Childhood Education", by Elena Bodrova and Deborah Leong. This book puts into words many ideas that I've noticed in my work with children, but was never able to articulate. The information in this book helps to make the Reggio concepts clearer. I would recommend this book to anyone seriously into ECE.
When I ran my home daycare in Avon 14+ yrs. ago with children 2.5 to 5 yrs. old I did agreat deal of bringing the children into the community [post office,firehouse,supermarket etc..] Then for the week we would spend exploring all sides of that subject. Drawing pics of the post office,the delivery truck,stamps& then have them mail it to their own home to see how long it took to get there. It was interesting. But then we would go back to the ABC's & arts&crafts because these kids were like enough already we want stucture. I was always on edge hoping they were learning something everyday. These days are precious and pass by too fast! But all these yrs. later as I reconnect thru internet w/ these young adults & parents I receive positive feedback on my days spent as their early educator. I wish the creator of Reggio & the Chicago experiment could offer such statements because personally I feel the book just ends with no ending !!
We have already begun to implement a few things learned in this book and from all your posts. We web, we actively listen, record and observe. We will be revisiting childrens work, having lots of discussions and try harder for parent participation. A lot of what I read seems to focus on community so we will also be bringing the community into our talks and walks.
Some resources I have found and thought were appropriate for our topic are "The Emergent Curriculum", "The Kindness Curriculum" and anything by Vivian Gussin Paley.
I think the best resources are programs that are successfully using the Reggio approach today. Last year I paid a visit to Salem State's preschool program and was able to see how their centers were set up and I quietly took pictures with my cell phone so that I could bring new ideas into my own classroom. I was amazed to see how many natural elements were included in the classroom and how warm and inviting the environment was. The director showed us some of their past projects and explained that Reggio is an ongoing learning process,both for the teachers and the children. It doesn't happen over night, but evolves with time. I had read some books on the Reggio philosophy, but my visit really got me excited about it. For those of you who are visual learners, a visit to a Reggio program is a must!
One of the best take-aways for me was the importance of the visual learning display. For the teacher it is a away to gain knowledge of the child’s understanding while reflecting on his or her own role in the learning process. For the families it gives access to and appreciation for what goes on in the classroom For the child it is a way to share their learning with others. In particular, I love the respect and value that the visual displays impart upon the young child’s thoughts, words, work and creations. They allow the child to revisit and re-live their own experiences and to reflect on their work and in turn to make new connections that raise the child’s level of understanding. When the visual learning displays take on a variety of forms, from print to puppetry, the child has the chance to tap into their individual learning style and contribute in a meaningful way to the group work. The visual learning display is so much more than a classroom decoration, it is an insightful way of communicating the learning process to all.
I wanted to mention something else that I am 'taking away' from this workshop. We will no longer be hurry-ing along from one activity to the next. We hope to encourage them to repeat key experiences and consider and reconsider, represent and rerepresent. I would like to share with you something I read in a handout about Reggio Emilia. "Early in their history the educators realized that systematically documenting the process and results of their work with children would simultaneously serve three key functions:1.It would povide the children with a concrete and visible memory of what they said and did in order to serve as jumping-off point for next steps in learning;2. It would provide the educators with a tool for research and a key to continuous improvement and renewal;3. Provide parents and the public with detailed information about what happens in the schools as a means of eliciting their reactions and support."
One more resource I found is
www.projectapproach.org/pablog/
here are a couple of blogspots I have found, how I have know idea as this course has been my first expirience with blogging an/or anything more indebt than simple e-mail to my children, anyhow I found some very inspiring reply's and also learned, although this is my first intro to Reggio, until this i had never heard of it before, that the Reggio principles are widespread and moving forward, so here they are,
blogsixredmarbles.com
blogsixredmarbles.com/blogsrbrandenburg
if ya can get to it there is quite an inspiring blog regarding a toddler classroom and what 2 teachers did. good luck
I searched the websites listed by Debbie Drago and found them to be interesting and informative. I also tried the site that pipesdreamer suggested but could not find the blog regarding the toddler classroom. This was disappointing because I work in a toddler classroom and I was interested in seeing what this was about. Is there another way I can get into this?
I found this:
http://blog.sixredmarbles.com/blogs/rbrandenburg
which has a Reggio component. Maybe that's it. Sixredmarbles seems like an interesting site in its own right!
With regard to my attempts to capture moments where children are "learning", I find this site
http://www.videatives.com/
to be very useful. I subscribe to the "videatives views", and every few weeks I receive an email with a link to a short video clip from an early childhood setting and some things to consider, such as - what do you see the child doing? why do you think the child is doing that? what do you think it indicates about what the child knows about xx? what can the teacher do to help the child progress in their understanding?
Using the video clips and following the discussions from other teachers has been a good way for me to hone my observational skills, and also to learn how often a few well placed items, or just the right question or comment allows the child to develop skills and knowledge through their own actions...
Also, here is the blog of a teacher whose thoughtful posts I have always appreciated on the Reggio listserve:
http://www.midpac.edu/elementary/PG/
She has not written recently, but she does have some wonderful pictures in her gallery (link on the right hand side). I particularly like looking at photographs of other classrooms (I'd actually prefer to visit Leslie's classroom, and not only because she teaches in Hawaii!), and Leslie's room is just dreamy looking! She has a few blog posts about creating relationships with her parents, and a project about "lines" and she documents in photos a long term project about "the wind" that her class has been engaged in.
I hope this can be helpful to someone else too!
as this book was hard to get through at times, i did find that when working with the 3 and 4 year old children i did use some of the reggio methods of teaching. i think if staff sit back, think about how they teach they may find they also use the reggio methods also without knowing it.
Here are a few things I’ll take away from participation in this reading and writing:
• A renewed energy for thinking about and implemented features of a Reggio approach
• Specific ideas for changes in my own classroom: setting up more on-going access to a variety of media, use of a classroom bulletin for “works in progress” that children can re-visit, additional focus on times that small groups with a teacher for uninterrupted investigation might work
• Ideas for possible ways parent partnerships can be enhanced – to bring into whole staff discussions
• Ideas for (and new energy for) loop slides, cds, and other digital means to help keep the learning visible (along with interest in reaching those family members who don’t see displays, classroom life, etc. directly because of their work schedule)
• A renewed commitment to visit/observe in other classrooms and other schools, and to assure all the teachers at our site have that opportunity
• Interest in developing ways for the children to be more directly involved in both documentation and the sharing of documentation (narrating slides about their play or projects? Sharing portfolios with family members?)
• Interest in checking out the many resources (books, online sites, etc) shared – thanks to all who contributed
im very happy i got to learn more about the reggio approach. i would love to go visit and spend the day at one of the reggio schools :) weve begun to get more parent participation!! lots of great ideas from book and posts. weve also started to include more dialoge after a project(drawing,painting,ect..) so they know that we listen to and value their ideas. its cute to see how they get into this long story and very happy while they're telling it and expressing themselves :) were also starting to revisit their work. i like the recource:www.projectapproach.org/pablog/
One of the things I am taking away from the Reggio approach is the way I think about things. I just attended a workshop on Infant Curriculum and found myself comparing what was being said to what I now know about Reggio. I feel that I do follow Reggio principles in a lot of things I am already doing and last night's workshop confirmed this to me.
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