Article Link: http://exchangepress.com/article/using-learning-stories-to-strengthen-teachers-relationships-with-children/5019640/
Writing learning stories gives educators the freedom to share themselves and take important risks to discover who they are as educators.�" Lorrie Baird, Kawartha Child Care Services
Ever since discovering the New Zealand (NZ) approach to writing Learning Stories I’ve been struck by its value on many different levels. Margaret Carr (2001) and her NZ colleagues created this approach, not only as a way to assess desirable outcomes, but as a means to strengthen practitioners’ ability to use documentation as a tool for their own learning and teaching. I’ve seen this in action in Aotearoa New Zealand and watched the growing interest of U.S. and Canadian educators in using learning stories in their work. Our Seattle colleague Tom Drummond has begun using learning stories as a cornerstone in his community college classes, setting up a web site with examples and a set of guidelines for writing learning stories. He says, “Learning Stories are the way we can all do research and create communities of practice that help us grow as teachers and as human beings.”
While there is much to be said about the value of Learning Stories as a form of pedagogical narration for assessing children, I want to take ...