Observation writing styles

[tinkerbell1403]

Afternoon,

 

Our setting have been using Tapestry for a term now. All the staff have really welcomed this new way of working and we love it. However, I am approving observations and I have noticed that some staff will write one or two sentences as an observation and others will write a longer narrative and include lots of different activities.

 

For example,

 

A member of staff will write in one observation about their key child making snips in paper then move onto to talking about the child dressing and undressing the dolls. She is accurately assessing these but my question is should she be separating the two activities in two observations or is it ok as a single observation? These are a delight to read and she is meeting lots of outcomes in one observation but just wasn't sure if should be done a different way.

 

Hope this makes sense as I sound like a load of waffle!!!

[apple]

The joy of Tapestry is for it to be used as you see fit and how it works for your setting and staff. I think the observation above would be fine as the member of staff is observing one child engaged in different experiences. Therefore her assessments will reflect and be linked to the different areas of learning and appropriate statements accordingly. One observation can provide a great deal of evidence :-)

Glad you are loving Tapestry!

[lashes2508]

We write our observations in lots of ways , sometimes we write from the child's perspective , usually on their first day ob.

 

Other times I will write a group ob i.e P.E session , I will write what we did , split it and then add particular points that are relative to the individual child.

 

Sometimes I advise staff to add to a previous ob , rather than write a whole new one as this helps them and parents to see progression .

 

I.e Johnny wanted to use the scissors , I supported him with this and he was able to move the scissors with help. Jan 1st

 

Jan 5th Johnny independently made snips in the paper with the scissors using both hands

Jan 15 - Johnny using the scissors using his right hand and enjoyed snipping lots of pieces of paper.

 

Sorry but rough but it saves having 10 obs on scissor work and as you can go in and edit obs already approved at a later date.

 

Hope that makes sense.

I think one of the things I have found or needed to tell staff is to always read back an ob once written , do not use really good continually !

 

Simplify language depending on the parent reading it and make it enjoyable to read .