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thought process and then return to the task at hand, which was attaching different sizes of
plastic tubing to transport water.
Felicia chose to document the children’s work with the artistic representations
they created during the tenure of the “Great Artists Project.” These surrounded the
classroom and the outside hallway until it resembled an art gallery. While visually
beautiful and inspiring in its depiction of children’s capabilities, it did not reveal
children’s thinking and learning in the way that the documentation in Layla’s classroom
did. Without the accompanying transcriptions of dialogue the process was incomplete.
Felicia did, however, try to incorporate the children’s interests and desires in terms of the
project’s directional thrust. She planned her program using Post-it notes arranged in a
web configuration. This way she could build on the direction of the project as it unfolded.
The children would come to her with ideas for the project and these, too, would be
recorded on the adhesive notes and affixed to the curriculum web.
Layla and her coworker made provocation a daily ritual. During meeting times,
children were asked questions that provoked their theories and revealed their thinking.
The questions and answers were transcribed and the documentation posted in the
classroom on the wall adjacent to the carpet area where meetings took place. On the day I
visited Layla’s classroom, the word “fog” was listed under the caption “word of the day.”
and posted. In addition, Layla’s classroom was resplendent with representations of the
“Weather Project.” Barometers and weather vanes surrounded the room; some were
functional while others were the children’s creations to represent the real object.
Children’s artwork also represented depictions of two-dimensional renderings of the four
seasons. Various charts written in large block letters listed weather-related facts and