Featured Speakers:
- Peter Mangione, Senior Fellow and Director of the Program for Infant-Toddler Care (PITC) at WestEd
- Janis Keyser, Early Childhood Education Instructor (Retired), Cabrillo College; Lead Author, Creating Partnerships with Families, California Department of Social Services/PITC
Host:
- Elizabeth Crocker, Director of Training and Certification, PITC at WestEd
Elizabeth:
Welcome back, everyone. We’re so excited to have you for chapter two’s presentation, Planning to Support Infant-Toddler Learning and Development, with Peter Mangione and Janis Keyser. And we’re going to get started in just a moment. So, the point of tonight’s talk is just to think about how we plan, both with children and with their families, and really reflect deeply about what we see children doing, and their learning, and possibilities for how to really consider what’s next that we’re going to put in the environment or the interaction to support that child. And at this moment, I’m going to turn it over to Janis Keyser and Peter Mangione for an exciting evening.
Janis Keyser:
Thank you.
Peter Mangione:
Welcome, everyone. What we can do now is, to start this session, Janis and I wanted to express a really great appreciation for your reflections from last week. It was really wonderful to review the Padlet and reflect on the different things you said. And I wanted to make sure you all know that that Padlet is open and accessible to you through June 10th. So, if any of you are interested in going back and seeing what your colleagues and you all wrote, and do some reflection, that wonderful resource is there for you that you created. We’re going to reflect a little bit. The way I’m gonna do my reflection, I’ll do five principles, and I’m going to give a couple summary comments for each principle that I reflect on. The first one was the principle around relationships, and what came through really strongly was how important it is to be responsive in primary care relationships.
Those two themes were brought up in several comments. And beyond that, people expressed how important it is to make the effort to get to know each individual child, that each child is unique and you wanna get to know that child. And the other aspect of relationship that was emphasized was being with children, being present on the floor with them, really being with them together as you’re going through the caregiving experience. Janis?
Janis Keyser:
And I was reflecting on number two. I was really moved by many of your quotes, so I’ve included some of your quotes in my reflections. Number two, families, their cultures, and home languages are fundamental to early learning and development. Here’s a quote. “For the child’s whole self to feel included and accepted, learning key words and phrases in the child’s language. They love to hear the teacher repeat the word or phrase in their home language. They feel heard and seen. This strengthens the relationship with the teacher. Children feel safe using their home language.” Oh, I’m number three too. Family and community partnerships create meaningful connections and support children’s and families’ sense of belonging. Here’s a quote. “Family members collaborating with educators, caregivers, and community members create a climate of being included for the children and the family, nuclear and extended.
“Regular opportunities for families to participate in classroom activities and share their culture, language or traditions. For example, a teacher may invite families to read a story in their home language, share a special family tradition, join a classroom celebration. This helps children feel proud of their identity, and it creates a welcoming environment where families feel valued and connected to the school community.”
Peter Mangione:
And I’m gonna comment and reflect on the fourth principle, which was around the uniqueness of infancy. What came up there was how rapidly infants and toddlers are growing during the first three years of life, especially thinking about early brain development. And there were these expressions about loving taking in that growth. It’s fascinating and really an emotionally rewarding experience. And one idea that came up was, you get to be part or you feel that you’re part of the child’s engagement and discovery as they’re growing so quickly, and it’s joyful and fun as you do that. Janis?
Janis Keyser:
I think you’re number five too.
Peter Mangione:
I’m number five too. Here we go.
Janis Keyser:
Yeah.
Peter Mangione:
Number five was a principle that centered on responsiveness. And what came up most frequently in your different comments that I observed was, observe closely. That’s key to being responsive. And one comment that I thought was really interesting, it was a nice way of expressing it, it was, watch what they’re watching, and you can start to take in what meaning they’re taking in, what they’re making sense of. Another comment was, “Observe before acting, giving time, really making sure, taking into account that infants are moving more slowly, they operate more slowly, and to be responsive, you have to give them time to act.” And then, engage in conversations, make comments that connect with what they’re doing, what they’re communicating to you. Janis?
Janis Keyser:
And I have an example in number six, early learning and development are integrated. During hand washing, they’re developing multiple skills at once, building independence and self-help skills, practicing language, strengthening fine motor coordination, learning healthy habits. Hand washing also supports social-emotional development, as children learn routines, follow expectations, participate in group care practices. And I would add, the rich interactions that children have in hand washing, in cleaning up and preparing for mealtimes, all promote their social-emotional connections.
Peter Mangione:
And I’m focused on number seven, which has to do with language development. And one of the comments that came up quite frequently around language is its connection with culture, not seeing it as a separate thing, but language and culture working together. There were a lot of comments around home language support. I have a feeling that a lot of you are working with children who are coming to your programs, who are multilingual learners, and that it’s important that you learn some words, and that lets the child know that you value and respect their language and culture. The other kind of comments that came up was using language especially around reading and sharing that experience with infants and toddlers.
Janis Keyser:
And number eight, children demonstrate varying strengths and needs in their learning and development across domains. One example is that some children are more motivated to learn their letters and numbers, while others will prefer to do activities with their hands, arts and crafts. It’s beautiful to see how each child thrives in the environment they’re most comfortable with, and how encouragement puts a smile on their face.
Peter Mangione:
And then my next one is principle nine, which was around different ways of knowing. And there were individual differences, individuality, and there were comments around that children have different styles of learning, that they engage differently and you want to account for that. Several comments around temperament, that we see those differences based on children’s temperament. And there was a sense from all that we really do need to get to know that individual child.
Janis Keyser:
And in number 10, “Play offers engaging, joyful opportunities for learning and development in every domain.” One person talked about puppet shows and storytelling, creating narratives, and using expressive voices and building vocabulary, communication and sentence structure. Another person talked about providing a variety of open-ended materials, like textured fabrics and recycled oatmeal, tissue boxes, and seeing an infant-toddler’s joy in exploring those materials. Another person reminded us that toddlers observe everything around them and pay close attention to every detail you present to them, from singing songs and changing your voice pitch, facial expressions and body language.
Peter Mangione:
And, well, how do you think about this? How do you plan for these kinds of interactions that Janis was just talking about? The next principle was 11, which was around intentional planning. And what came through in the comments for that principle was first, you really need to base it on observation, and it was added, everything else you know about the child. It’s really understanding all you learn about the child from the family, what you know of the child’s experience, your own experience with the child, your observations. And then what that does is it allows you to create an environment and kinds of experiences that give children choices and allow different individuals to engage based on what you’ve observed and what you’ve learned about how each one of those children engages in discovery and learning.
Janis Keyser:
Number 12 was so inspiring to me. “Time for reflection and planning enhances educators’ supportive role.” There were so many significant comments on that page. I encourage you to revisit it. “Asking open-ended questions that encourage educators to reflect on their role and the support they provide to children.” “Discussing photos the educator has taken for observation to deepen reflection and strengthen instructional practices.” The last one is, “this often overlooked or under prioritized principle that’s so important for care educators. It’s important to wonder about what the children are wondering, and plan interactions, environments and materials that extend the curiosity of both children and care educators.” I love that line about, wonder about what the children are wondering.
Peter Mangione:
It’s a wonderful line to finish on this reflection, Janis. Thank you.
Janis Keyser:
Yes.
Peter Mangione:
So we’ve reflected on last week, and now we’re going to share with you what we’re doing this week. So, if we can go to the next slide? We’re giving you an overview of chapter two. As Elizabeth said at the opening, this is planning to support infant-toddler learning and development. It’ll be a very quick overview. You have the link to the document, so you can go in depth in it when you have a chance or if you’re so inclined. And then, really what we wanted to do is center planning through reflecting on learning stories. Because in this particular resource, we have practical examples and learning stories as a basis for really making planning come to life. So, we’re going to use a couple pieces from that document to help you explore the planning process this evening.
Janis Keyser:
And we always wanna start by collaborating with the family. “Through collaborating with each family, care educators deepen their understanding of each child’s strengths, interests, needs, and lived experiences.” Families hold information that is essential to care educators in understanding the child, including the family’s culture, language, and lived experience. The family also knows this child best, their temperament tendencies, approaches to learning, and their important relationships, and the child’s history and the family’s history. This collaboration, partnership and communication with families is essential in providing the best care, education, and strong identity development for each child.
Peter Mangione:
Thank you, Janis. And I noticed in chat there was a comment about, you can’t watch the children all the time. That’s very true. It’s a situation where you have to do meal prep, you need breaks, there’s a flow for the day. And what you wanna do is create those moments, those times during the day when you can do the observation. And it’s a balance, and it’s not an easy balance. No one’s saying… I hope you’re not getting the message that you should be giving up running your whole program just to do these things. You wanna integrate this kind of process into your program. So we talk about, when we’re talking about planning based on observation and reflection and documentation, we focus on three contexts. Rather than focusing on domains, as prior documents did, we looked at three specific contexts, relationships and interactions, we plan around that, routines, and the environment and materials. So, as we think about planning, you keep those three contexts in mind.
And we have this reflective planning cycle. This is something we’ve been using in California for a long time. There’s some variation in it, and I’ll tell you about that in just a moment. But essentially, you start with observation and documentation. And again, we wanna find efficient ways to do that. And there are some ideas about that in the guide, and there are other resources that help you do that. We’ve now used the term study and interpret, because you really are studying what you’re observing when you do observations of children and document, whether it’s some photos or whether it’s some video you’ve taken, or whether you’ve created a narrative through a story. All of those ways of documenting give you something to look at, to study, and discover the meaning, and you do that together with people, not separately. And then, once you’ve gone through that process, you plan. And notice that throughout, at every step you’re reflecting. And so, even when you’re planning, you’re reflecting on what you’re doing or what might work, and you’re doing that with others. All of this is with others, including the family. And then finally, you try out and see what happens, and then you keep observing again and documenting, and the process continues.
What I’d like to do is expand on this idea. We do this in the document, in the resource. On the idea of what we mean by study and interpretation. One is, what you want to do is reflect on, through your observation and documentation, what is the child noticing, what’s the child sensing, feeling, experiencing, understanding? That really trying to look at what you’re observing through the eyes, through the ears, through the senses of the infant, and how the infant is experiencing that world around them. What is each child curious about? What meaning is the child trying to make? What theory is the child trying to test? So, what is the child exploring? What questions is the child wondering about? What idea is the child testing? You also are noticing, because what’s so important in your care of infants and toddlers, and supporting their learning and development, is the relationships. What have you observed about the relationships between the children, and between the child and you, the care educator, and other care educators? You might even add into that what you’ve observed about how you and how the child interacts with the family. And then, as you’re doing this reflection, you also want to think about, reflect on how might I expand what meaning the child is trying to make? What possibility could I create to allow the child to further explore, to further find out about something and make a new discovery? Janis?
Janis Keyser:
Yes. Yes, yes. So, what is each child’s progress across all developmental domains? We’ve talked so much about how children are always learning in an integrated way. And we also wanna look at what domain might a child need support with, and how can we leverage a child’s strengths and interests to support their learning edges? I’ve had children that are just incredibly active climbers. They just climb to the top of everything and are physically moving and exploring, but they don’t have very many words. And so, I’m thinking about how do I use their physicality to encourage their language development? Do I just stand by and offer some words, “You are jumping so high. Your legs are moving fast, your muscles are working”, to try to tie in some of the areas that they’re not as focused on with what their strengths are?
How are care educators influencing each situation? So it’s interesting, because often we’re just watching the children, but it’s important to think about observing the role of the educator as well as the child. Is the educator engaging with the child’s interests and explorations when invited? Are they picking up on the child’s clues? Are they standing back when the child is wanting to be in charge of their play? And it really is kind of a dance, a kind of a choreography, that sensitive and responsive care educators do with children. Because there are times when children are absolutely absorbed and don’t even need you to talk about what they’re doing because that could be interruptive. And so, in our observations and in our self-reflections, it’s important to think about what is the educator doing, and how is the communication between the educator and the child impacting the educator’s role?
What might a family member like to know about the child and the group? And how can educators engage families in dialogue about what each is observing, the educator and the family, about the child? Are educators using two-way communication in a timely fashion that invites family collaboration? I think about the traditional, we have a conference with parents twice every year at most, and there’s no way for families to collaborate when they’re just hearing things every six months. And so, what is that communication, both listening to families about what they’re noticing and sharing with families about what we’re noticing that keeps both of our roles so relevant with our interactions in children? How does each child communicate? What kinds of situations and experiences lead to conversations and complex language? And it’s so important, I just love with infants and toddlers how much nonverbal communication there is, even when they begin speaking. And so, our awareness needs to be really around watching what their face is doing, what their shoulders are doing, what their body’s doing, in addition to listening to their emerging words and their vocabulary. And so, what languages are children using? How do our observations inform our communication with children? So, I’m leaving you with these more questions to think about in your observations and reflections.
And studying with families, the meaning of what the care educator observes and documents in the early learning and care setting is best understood through what they learn in partnerships with the child’s family. We’re now gonna turn to an activity where you will engage with learning stories from chapter two, and explore one way to share your observation, documentation, and your interpretation of the child’s learning development, and simultaneously invite families to partner in the process. So, learning stories come to us from the educators in New Zealand. We’re really inspired by the work that they have been doing for years. A learning story is part of an authentic, strength-based, holistic assessment of children. They provide a way to document children’s strengths and improve instruction based on the interests, talents, and expertise of children and their families. Learning stories are part of the New Zealand national curriculum for early child education, and that curriculum is based on principles learned from the indigenous Maori people in New Zealand. So, learning stories which provide a powerful and meaningful way to represent your reflection, and your study of your observation and documentation, and they are written as a letter to the child that is shared with the family.
So, the first learning story that we’re gonna look at is a learning story written by a family childcare provider, and I’m gonna read it to you. Also in the comments, excuse me, you’re gonna see links to the same story in simplified Chinese, Spanish, and traditional Chinese. So, the first step is that we’re gonna reflect on our own, either you’re reading on your own or listening to me, and the second step is, we’re gonna give you some reflection questions that you can share thoughts about in chat. Here’s the story. “Dear Ashan, today we begin exploring food, solid food together for the first time. I’ve been watching you participate more and more with your bottle, reaching for it, holding it, and handing it to me when you’re finished. I’ve been talking with your mama about when you will be ready to start eating solid foods. She says that you have been intently watching everyone in the family when they’re eating, and that she has started giving you small bites of soft potatoes and cooked lentils. We decided that those would be good foods for you to start eating here as well, so your mama brought some for you to try here with me.
“We decided to offer them to you after nap time, when the older kids got back from school, as they were excited to see how you would respond to your first food. Amani, who likes to help you with your bottle, asked if he could help with your food too. Since we have observed you picking up many things and putting them in your mouth, we decided to put a few small pieces of soft potato on your tray so you could pick them up yourself. We also put a few soft lentils in a small bowl and got two spoons so that you could hold one yourself. After Amani washed his hands, we washed your hands and helped you into your little chair at the table. Amani helped you with your bib and told you that your mama had made some potatoes and lentils for you to eat at Erma’s house.
“As soon as you were sitting, and you started reaching out for the potato pieces. You touched them with one finger and then grasp the piece with your whole fist and brought it to your mouth. When you got some in your mouth, you made a little ‘hmm’ sound, smiled, and patted the table. You brought another piece to your mouth and dropped it. You tried again, and more went into your mouth. Amani was eager to feed you your lentils, so he offered you the little spoon with lentils on it. You were excited and patted the spoon with your hand. The lentils spilled, and Amani laughed and offered you another bite. He showed you the spoon with the lentils on it, and then you opened your mouth and you ate them. Soon, you started to reach for the spoon Amani was feeding you with, and I offered you a spoon of your own to hold. You dipped it into the lentils and brought it to your mouth between bites from Amani. All of your friends were so excited for you, and Jalliyah ran to get the camera so she could take some photos to show your family.”
“Ashan, you approached your first time eating at my home just like you engage in most new activities. You are curious, interested, and eager to do things for yourself. Just like you started to hold your own bottle when you were a few months old, you reached for your own spoon right away. Your curiosity to explore the world and to persist even when things are hard to do allows you to develop so many skills, like holding a spoon and your bottle, picking up things to put in your mouth, and communicating your delight with your smiles and your sounds. You are so interested in and engaged with the people around you that you have developed special relationships with each of the children in our group, and they are all excited about each of your new developments. We are so glad you are with us. Your care educator, Erma.”
So, we would like you to make some comments in chat, reflecting on these questions. “How might Erma partner with Ashan’s family and the older children in her care to think about next steps for Ashan?” And the other question is, “What kind of experiences or possibilities might Erma provide that would include and extend the learning of the older children, as well as Ashan?” Peter, I think you wanted us to just focus on the first question first, right?
Peter Mangione:
Yes, Janis. Let’s start with the first question, and then we’ll move to the second one. So, focus your responses on how might Erma partner with Ashan’s family and the older children. And the learning stories are, you have them available to you in chat. The link is there, and you can select the language. So we’re starting to get some comments. Yes. They’re coming more quickly now.
Janis Keyser:
“Ask the family what they’d like to add to the story so they have something specific to answer in their contributions,” yes. “Asking the older children for their opinions about what soft foods they think would be safe for Ashan to try next.” “Asking the family to write a reply story.”
Peter Mangione:
“The idea of thinking about what other foods you might offer the children.”
Janis Keyser:
“And always involving the older children. They’re so connected to Ashan.”
Peter Mangione:
And several comments are encouraging the families to write their stories as well.
Janis Keyser:
“I would share a picture of the family mealtime.” Wouldn’t that be wonderful to post in the classroom or make a little book about? Even writing in the story, “I wonder what happens when you try food at home.” “Continuing communication with the family and the students trying other new foods.” “Talking to the older children about new foods they try at home.” “I love the idea of the older children representing mealtime by drawing a picture.” Jalliyah took photographs, and other children could draw pictures too.
Peter Mangione:
And the emphasis on learning from the family about their culture and way of doing things is so important and really solidifies that relationship.
Janis Keyser:
“The family sharing recipes, and making simple foods with children together.”
Peter Mangione:
The idea of different kinds of foods, and encouraging children to explore the textures and the temperature, and having those kinds of sensory experiences. Okay, we’ve had wonderful responses here. Why don’t we turn now to the second question, “What kind of experiences or possibilities,” and this has already started to come up for you in your responses to the first question, “might Erma provide that would include and extend the learning of the older children, as well Ashan?” So keep building on what you’ve already started.
Janis Keyser:
“Cooking experiences for the older children, and making food for the younger ones.” “Using sensory language.”
Peter Mangione:
That emphasis on sensory development is really strong and fits very well with what we know about infants and toddlers.
Janis Keyser:
I love this idea about inviting families to share recipes. I know programs that have actually put together recipe books from all the families.
Peter Mangione:
Yes.
Janis Keyser:
Contributions. “And inviting the families to the cooking activity or to the eating activity.” “Using sign language.”
Peter Mangione:
The idea of seasonal food is very interesting, because we know culturally that cultures do do that, and often we try to standardize things in our meal programs, and there’s this opportunity to really reflect more what the experience is of the family and the children.
Janis Keyser:
I love these ideas about writing stories with and about the older children. I can see older children being so involved in writing learning stories of their own or about each other or about Ashan. Thinking about the older child’s first food experiences too, maybe an interview with their own family. So inviting parents to cook food that all the children can experience and enjoy together.
Peter Mangione:
Including literacy as part of the experience.
Janis Keyser:
Exactly. Starting a vegetable garden as well. Broaden this curriculum. I love the idea that educators write the stories, read them to the children, and the older children can draw pictures of the story.
Peter Mangione:
And we know that infants are very oriented toward children who are somewhat older than themselves. They do a lot of social referencing. That’s a wonderful idea.
Janis Keyser:
It’s what I love about this story in a family childcare home, because it provides that rich experience for different aged children to engage in relationships.
Peter Mangione:
Yes.
Janis Keyser:
Okay, I think we’re about ready to move on to the next one.
Peter Mangione:
We are. Yes, we have another learning story for you. So, this story is Jerrick, and what we’re going to do is, first we’ll read the story, and then, after I read the story, Janis is going to pose some reflection questions that you can provide responses on a Padlet to. “Dear Jerrick, this morning, you were sitting outside on a mat with some balls, scarves, leaves, and bowls. You were carefully putting the leaves inside a bowl and then gleefully dumping them out, making a ‘yeee’ sound as they came cascading out of the bowl. After you repeated this a few times, Shawntika, who was lying on her back close to you, repeated a similar sound. You looked over and laughed and made your ‘yeee’ sound again. Shawntika responded with her sound again. You then reached for one of the scarves and draped it over your head. Shawntika watched as you pulled the scarf off and said, ‘A-boo!’ Shawntika kicked her legs, smiled, and responded with her own ‘ooh’ sound. Smiling, you repeated covering and uncovering your head with the scarf as Shawntika watched and responded with her own excitement.
“Jerrick, over the past months, as I have been getting to know you, I have seen your interest in the people around you. Sometimes you quietly observe. When there is a group of people together, I notice that you look carefully at each child and adult in the group. I sometimes call this taking roll. It is as if you are observing and learning about the people around you. You also invite people to engage with you through your expressions and your vocalizations. You began smiling at me soon after I met you, and when I smiled back, your whole face would light up. When a new person comes into the room, you are the first to notice, looking in their direction and watching with curiosity. When I shared this observation with your Meme, grandmother, she laughed and said she has observed that when someone comes into the room and doesn’t greet you, you will vocalize in their direction as if to say, ‘Hey, I’m here!’
“Today I observed you in conversation with Shawntika. I saw that when you noticed that she was responding to your sounds, you invented a game and invited her to play, and she responded. You used your memory of a fun game of peek-a-boo that I’ve seen you play with your auntie. You invited Shawntika to play and improvised with the scarf nearby. I watched as you formed a prediction that Shawntika would respond if you disappeared under the scarf and reappeared again. I saw your delight when your prediction came true. Jerrick, I look forward to watching you continue to develop your own ways of engaging in communication, relationships, playful interactions, and learning about the people around you. I’m also curious to see how you will continue to use observation and make and test your predictions to learn all about your world. Your care educator, Janelle.”
Janis Keyser:
So, in reflecting on this learning story, we’d like you to post on the Padlet. The link will be put in the chat, or you could scan the QR code. And there’s two questions on the Padlet. “In what ways does Jerrick’s interest in and engagement with other people reveal learning in other developmental domains?” The other question is, “How might the care educator, Janelle, engage Jerrick’s Meme, his grandmother, in continuing to observe and discover ways to support Jerrick’s developing social skills?” So, go ahead in the Padlet and make your post, and then we will, after about five or so minutes, five or six minutes of posting, we’ll come back together and discuss some of the ideas. It’s really fun to watch your responses as they come in.
Certainly such a range of physical skills, memory skills, curiosity, social skills, communication and language. I also love the idea that he’s got prediction skills. He predicts how certain things are gonna happen in the environment, and, if his prediction doesn’t come true, he’s very resourceful in making it come true, so that if people don’t say hi to him when they come into the room, he vocalizes to them to encourage them to say hi back to him. One of the first comments that I wanna address also is the idea that in many programs, family childcare programs as well as center-based programs, family friend to neighbor programs, there’s not a lot of time to write, there’s not a lot of time to write this kind of thoughtful stories. And a couple of ideas for family childcare providers, you can do a pretty effective voice-to-text story by recording something on your phone. I also wondered whether Erma might sit with the older children and with Ashan nearby and maybe all of them do a writing exercise together, maybe the children are writing in their journals or writing a story that they want to write, as she writes along with them. Peter, did you have some other comments?
Peter Mangione:
I was thinking about, there was a comment in chat actually about all the different domains that are engaged, and I was thinking about some of the other ways these domains might be engaged. For example, what came to my mind immediately for cognitive was cause and effect, that you make a social gesture towards some other person and see what kind of response you can get. It also was giving, in the social-emotional domain, giving the child a sense of agency, that they can see that they can make things happen. Another thought that I had was, we really see memory at work here in a big way, both verbal memory or vocal memory, and also memory of the sequence of a game, even the little pieces. Although the child didn’t have all the parts of peek-a-boo, the child picked up some of those pieces and could replicate them and repeat them. So we see a lot of development happening in this story, as you all are bringing up.
Janis Keyser:
And I really appreciated how much invitation there was to Meme to share her photos and videos, to make her own entry into the child’s portfolio of learning stories, and to also think with her about all of the development that her stories are revealing and just kind of say, what do you see him working on, so that there can be this continuing dialogue. And sometimes we as educators recognize a skill that the family member is telling us about and can name that and say, what do you think? And so, I love that two-way dialogue, both verbal and written, that can happen between educators and family members.
Peter Mangione:
I was also curious about what Meme might do if she came into the program. Would she maybe share a kind of game that she plays with Jerrick at home for the other children to experience? What are all the different ways that Meme could be invited to participate and share herself and her family’s experience with the children?
Janis Keyser:
I think one of the things that I really noticed was joy, and what happens when a child reaches out. And I think his first reaction from the other child was a little bit unexpected, and then he started engaging. And it seemed like both of them, their call and response was just full of joy at making that social connection. It’s like, “I’m speaking and somebody’s hearing me.” Talk about that sense of agency too. It’s about language and prediction and agency and memory and cognition and so many things all mixed together. But as Loris Malaguzzi says, “Nothing without joy.”
Peter Mangione:
A lot of joy and a lot of wonder. And the children were really having fun together. It was play.
Janis Keyser:
Yes. I also really appreciated the way that the educator included Meme’s voice in the story. And what does that say to a family about their role in the partnership, that they aren’t just a spectator or a recipient of information, but they are an important member of the partnership, of the collaboration, of the education of this child? Looking to see other comments. “The social rules of turn taking.”
Peter Mangione:
Mmm hmm.
Janis Keyser:
I also really appreciated the way that the learning story reveals the insight and perceptiveness of the care educator. One of the things that she noticed was how Jerrick responds when he’s in a room with people, how he looks at every single person in that room as if taking roll. So you really get a sense in this story of the depth of relationship between the care educator and the child and the family. And so, it’s fascinating that learning stories communicate so much to families. They communicate the value of families, they communicate information about their child, but they also communicate about who the care educator is and what they’re noticing and what they’re thinking about and how they’re paying attention to that family and that child.
Peter Mangione:
In a sense, what it’s doing is it’s allowing the care educator to share themselves with the family and invite the family to share themselves with them. It really creates a reciprocity in the relationship.
Janis Keyser:
And I know that there are many programs that keep portfolios in the classroom or in the learning environment with children’s learning stories, and the old ones and the new ones with places for parents to add their comments, that family members can actually review with children when they come into the program. So, many programs use these hard copies, and many programs use both hard and digital copies, so that all the family members can read the story at home. Some programs send the portfolios back and forth between home and program. So, there’s a lot of ways of collecting and sharing these learning stories in ways that invite families’ continual participation.
Peter Mangione:
I wanted to come back to something you commented on earlier, Janis, and that is that this whole concept of learning story is one way, a very powerful, compelling way, of expressing an observation and sharing that with the family and sharing it with the child. At the same time, when we’re thinking about the planning process, there are many ways to observe and document. And there were comments on the Padlet about that. You can take video, you can take photos, you can invite children to draw, depending on the age, of course. So there are all these ways that we can document, and certainly some… We could center a learning story, we could center other kinds of documentation. But the point is, we want to study what we’ve done and then communicate it with others and share that interpretation process.
Janis Keyser:
There was another comment that Shawntika’s family might appreciate a version of this story as well, and I think often that happens. And that’s one of the sweet things that can happen, is that you can write pretty much the same learning story and share it with two different families.
Peter Mangione:
Yes, and tell the story from Shawntika’s point of view.
Janis Keyser:
Yes, exactly.
Peter Mangione:
Mmm hmm. Yes.
Janis Keyser:
We do wanna thank you again for joining us this time and last time. Your participation is inspiring, and the fact that you’re here is inspiring, and hearing your comments is even more exciting to us. And again, we thank you profusely for your thoughtfulness and your care and your dedication and your perspectives in nurturing all of the people around you, colleagues and teachers and families and children. You make such a difference in the world. Thank you.
Peter Mangione:
I wanna echo what Janis said. I have deep gratitude for the work you do, for your understanding of children and families and colleagues. And it gives me a sense of optimism, when I see all of your responses and all of your thoughtfulness, that our children are in good hands and they’re being cared for in a wonderful way. Thank you all for everything you do, and thank you for being with us this evening and sharing your thoughts and ideas.