Documentation Examples > Documentation Exhibition

Beginning the Journey: Learning through teacher and student documentation

School: Wickliffe Progressive Community School, Columbus, OH

4. The Zoomer Project

The Zoomer Project is a study in Kathleen Taps' first and second grade multi-age classroom. Discovery is its driving principle. The creation of a zoomer was part of the FOSS kit for Science that had balance and motion as its central ideas. In order to go deeper into the laws of physical science, I decided to set up a structure that would help children form theories about how the zoomer works.

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We began by finding the balance point on tag board shapes. The children tried to balance a shape on a popsicle stick taped off the edge of a table. They attached clothes pins at various points to experiment further with balance.

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Next, the children investigated how/why tops spin.

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They used two different-sized plastic disks, a thin straw, and paper disks that were added to the top. My goal was to set basic parameters but to let the children discover.

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After each session we met in a circle of scientists and talked about discoveries.

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Kathleen's Reflection on Looking at Documentation with Colleagues:

As part of our journey into Making Learning Visible, I presented my documentation of The Zoomer Project from my first and second grade multi-age classroom to my colleagues following the Collaborative Assessment Conference Protocol. The experience was energizing.

The ability to look at a project in collaboration with colleagues expanded everyone's view of what had been done. Multiple layers of learning and teaching were uncovered. Of course, as a teacher I found it very difficult to be silent and not respond as everyone else described what they saw in the documentation.

The questions that were raised gave me a window into how others were thinking about the documentation. Responding to these questions I was forced to think even more deeply than I already had about the roles of the children and teacher in the Zoomer Project.