Throughout the entire semester, the teachers use what we call Pedagogical Documentation to record the moments experienced by our children, as our memory is not enough to retain all the information.
These records are essential for the educator to note everything that catches their attention and what the children reveal, allowing for continuous and process-based assessment.
Through observations and records, teachers and pedagogical coordinators monitor what is being built in the daily lives of the classes. Both tools are highly recommended by scholars in the field because they respect the individuality of the children, consider the context in which they are immersed, and are carried out by the adults who mediate their actions.
In this way, the educator has the opportunity to get to know each child — their reactions, eating habits, favorite games, and many other details. For this reason, these tools are important when writing the children’s reports and, in the case of babies and very young children, they help to understand how they express themselves even before they speak conventionally.
The individual reports represent the organization of all these records and the sensitive observation of the teacher in everything that was noted. In this writing, It is important to keep in mind that the child is always in a process of development.
“The teachers are like explorers who use compasses and maps. And, like navigators, they know where the destination is (the objectives, the curriculum). They know what the goals are, but they also know that the goals change each year because the terrain, the climate, the seasons, the girls, and the boys are different. The destinations, the objectives, are important, and we cannot lose sight of them, but the most important thing is to know how and why to achieve those objectives. It is important for both children and adults to retrace their own steps, their process of knowledge through an attitude that is made possible through observation, documentation, and interpretation.”
(Loris Malaguzzi – precursor of the Reggio Emilia educational approach)
