Digital Learning Stories:
Empowering Students' Representations and Reflections
Examples of Learning Stories
Reggio Emilia
In the Reggio Emilia approach, documentation of the children's work as it progresses is an important element of the learning process for children, teachers, and parents. Photographs are taken of the children engaged in learning activities, and notes are added regarding conversations with peers and teachers as they discuss their activities, their ideas, their feelings, and their developing understanding. These graphical artifacts of the learning process are displayed in a manner that will support the learning process, serve as artifacts for authentic assessment, and foster dialogue between the participants in the process. On the right is an example of documentation from an Italian Reggio classroom where students are working on the color green (verdi). Note the careful representation of the different steps in each student's process of working with the materials and constructing an understanding.
Discovery 1
In Christchurch New Zealand, a discovery-based learning school uses innovative and pedagogically powerful methods for supporting learning. One of these is encouraging students to engage in "Celebrations of Learning" at the end of a project. These celebrations take place in front of the whole school as well as visiting parents. They are designed to allow the students to describe the process of learning, to present examples and artifacts of the process, and to encourage community recognition of the learners and their efforts. Below is a picture of a learning celebration of a group of students who were working to understand protein.
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Page last updated on Friday, September 24, 2004