Crossing Boundries Preschool Stories

This article created Preschool Stories as a tool to examine the creativity of children through art. The teacher would use the child's art as a form of assessment. However, this tool contained a interview and parent participation. According to Rinaldi in Project Zero & Reggio Children 2001, viewing children as "component and strong" accompanies the actions of documentation as learning is made visible and "enables reading, revisiting, and assessement in time and in space, and these actions become an intergal part of knowledge-building process."
I do agree that there needs to be alternative assessments for keiki. For our program we administer the Dial 3, PPVT, and Worksampling System. In addition, we are implementing the Positive Behavior Support Program within our division. I do agree with some of the assessments we use. I don't think that there can be one true program that works. I think as a professional, you need to find what works for you.
I liked the idea of utilizing preschool stories, however like the concerns with limitations, I had questions about the process of preschool stories. What were the ages of the children? Does the teacher do this of all of the children? Personally, I would love to try this with our keiki, but I don't think that I would be able to complete this will all of the children. In this article, I like the way Sarah was able to complete and explain her collage and drawings. However, would I be able to have 2-3 year olds do this? I am not sure.
After reading the entire article, I realized that this was done not only a year, but for a few years to show the child's growth.
Overall, I agree that there should be alternative types of assessment, professionals need to use what works best for them.

The Love of Play

According to article by Sheryl Reinisch and Will Parnell, the Helen Gordon Center’s Reggio-inspired practices, documentation is thinking about thinking, talking about learning, revisiting the subject matter studied, and displaying it for further discussion and learning opportunities. Developed over time, this has become a way for the learning field to communicate what is being learned, how, and why. Documentation has become a meta-cognitive process for children, teachers, and the community. Children revisit documented panels and representative work, create new stories about their prior learning with parents, friends, and co-learning teachers, and talk about past happenings while looking at their own languages on the walls and display shelves of the school.
Ceppi and Zini (1998) describe it as following:
It is not a question of styles. A relational space is an environment fabric rich in information, without formal rules. It is not the representation of a school, but a whole made up of many different identities, with a recognizable feel about it, in harmony with a set of values and references that guide each choice and line of research. In this space, the aesthetic quality depends (also) on the quality of the connections. (p. 13)
This website shared a great description about the Helen Gordon Center. I am more concerned about providing opportunity for children to learn through play by using their imagination. So if your program is well funded, with a beautiful school, quality curriculum, expensive equipment, then its this the best type of play for children?
As I teacher, I like to provide the children with opportunity. The opportunity for them to share their knowledge from home to school. Then, we set up a curriculum based around their knowledge. Then, we scaffold with different materials, books, and continue to teach the child. During free center time, the children are allowed to go to any center they choose to go to. At this time, the children use build social skills, incoporate imagination, invent, build curiosity, persistance.
I am not saying that the Reggio Program is not good. All I am saying is that children do not need expensive instructional materials to play. All they need is themself and other children.