4 Features of Learning Groups

In this week’s reading I noticed that the author’s broke up learning groups in to four features: (1) The members of learning groups include adults as well as children; (2) Documenting children’s learning processes helps to make learning visible and shapes the learning that takes place; (3) Members of learning groups are engaged in the emotional and aesthetic as well as the intellectual dimensions of learning; and (4) The focus of learning in learning groups extends beyond the learning of individuals to create a collective body of knowledge. Each of these features is important in their own right, which I will comment on.

In the first feature I do think adults are and can be a very important part of learning groups. Where I work we are constantly on the lookout for families who want to be involved in their child’s learning or wanting to do something yet are unsure of what they can do to help out. Just last week we had a parent who taught the children Fire Safety for 3 hours. His job is a Fire Inspector. He had different fire fighters come to our school, two different fire trucks, many different uniforms the children tried on, Sparky the Dog visited, we also did a fire drill with two exits, learned what was safe and unsafe, and so much more. The children were very much a participants of this. Two other parents like to draw so when we need a picture we ask them and there is such pride when the children see their parent’s work up in the room. We also ask families for information about things, especially their culture. We also go beyond families and ask the community. People in the community are another great resource for preschool teachers. Most of them seem so willing to help and love to have visits from preschoolers. The above are examples of adults helping the school but we have adults who learn from what we do. Families will come and talk with me about what their child is learning because their child is telling them about it. Some parents get really involved and ask to come when we are learning about certain things on the Calendar. One child told there mom about the volcano at school and she asked about it and I told her and gave her a copy of the recipe. Another parent didn’t have material for the volcano so I was able to supply it for them. Each of the parents was happy to be able to make volcanoes at home with their child. Do you have parent/family participation where you work? Is it mandatory? Is having families come to visit an open invitation?

The second feature is about documenting the children’s learning processes. This is where I need to work on more. I would love to take a class on how to appropriately take documentation of children and their work. I think with all the different learning going on there should be a class for teachers to take on different ways of documenting. It not only benefits the teachers but it will help families to see what and how their child is learning. As a teacher I would like to get to the “meat” of the child’s learning but I feel I only scratch the surface due to time or should I say the lack of enough time. How do you take documentation at your school?

The third feature deals with the members of the group’s emotional and aesthetic learning as well as the intellectual dimensions of learning. I’m really not too aware of this feature. As a teacher I do focus on the cognitive part of learning not the emotional. Why is this? I believe it is the way American schools are taught. I do believe that if emotion is put into the learning that perhaps more learning will take place. When I do portfolios or documentation I am told not to put my feelings into it or guess how the children are feeling, I’m told it is not professional. This is something I do but I don’t agree with it. It brings me back to the book, “The Story of Laura”; I actually enjoyed reading the “feelings” in the pages of the book. It sure wasn’t sterile. I feel that families would also like to have the feelings put into the documentation instead of how the child looked, for example: “Timmy was so excited when he completed making his zoo that he jumped up ran to me and begged me to come and see.” Instead I would have to write: “Timmy went to a teacher and asked her to see his creation he built.” Now what one would you rather read? Are you aloud to put feeling into your documentation? If not would you want to? What do you think of how you do documentation? Would you do it differently?

The fourth feature is about learning groups that extend beyond the learning of individuals to create a collective body of knowledge. To me this is what the last readings were focused on. This also pertains to feature2. I would like to learn how to better document these learning groups. I want to be able to document the whole group and be able to add it to many of the objectives and different children instead of just one for one child. But now that I’m aware of it I’m trying to take more group learning documentation that can fit into different objectives. What do you think about learning groups?