​Documentation is Not Evidence, it is Thinking Made Visible

​We've heard alot about learning walls within the past couple of years.  It's only a natural response to making thinking visible in the classroom.  

I know my documentation process has come a long way, since I understood the process of learning.  The picture above is from a classroom I had over 15 years ago.  I like going back into my catalog of photos, because it reveals what we valued at the time.  

To be honest, I have always been a visual processor, so bright designs that have enough white space as been key.  This display gave me the anxiety when I was in it.  There is too many things on teh wall and jumbled together.  For others, this is perfect, because it is a display of learner's work.  On this note, I agree. 

Now, I am finding purpose for my walls.  What type of work is going up?  I don't have great work walls anymore...I know that is going against everything we were taught in teacher's college.  Instead, I have walls that speak to grounding concepts and guiding questions of my unit.  For those PYP teachers, I turn my line of inquiry into a question, because it is easier to answer and collect documentation. 

What transforms a space that collects work samples versus how learning happened is the intention.  What are putting it up for?  Who is it for?  I stopped collecting and posting work for my parents and school leadership along time ago.  Instead, I post it for my learners.  

I want my learners to see evidence of their learning joruney and how it has changed and progressed during a moment in time.  They help me put ideas together based on their knowledge and connections.  They decide what is worthy of being posted and what is not.  

As I have engaged in the conversations, everything has changed.  Are you willing to make the change with me?