Reggio Emilia Study Group
Greetings to all our Reggio Friends!
REGGIO STUDY GROUP
REPORT FOR RAEYC BOARD
November 2, 2011
The Reggio Study Group is up and running strong this year. We have had two meetings thus far, one on September 28 and one November 1. Our next meeting will be at the beginning of December.
Attendance and interest in the Reggio Approach is growing in the Rochester area. We have had representation from a variety of programs: Seton Catholic Preschool; Toddler’s Workshop; Creative Expressions; Rochester Museum & Science Center; Woodbury Preschool; Allendale Columbia as well as professors from area colleges and individual preschool consultants.
We have shared documentation boards, reflected on our work with children and have begun a reflection study for each chapter of the book, Working In The Reggio Way by Julianne P. Wurm.
We recall Loris Malaguzzi in the poem “The Hundred Languages of Children” and consider what and how we work with children.
Here is one of his quotes:
" TEACHERS- like children and everyone else- feel the need to grow in their competences: they want to transform experiences into thoughts, thoughts into reflections, and reflections into new thoughts and new actions. They also feel a need to make predictions, to try things out, and to interpret them ......Teachers must learn to interpret ongoing processes rather than wait to evaluate results."
Sincerely,
Kathy Burton
Chair of Reggio Study Group
http://reggio-inspired.grouply.com
RSVP
Ciao!!!!
Kathy Burton and Maya Lodico
General Information: The Reggio Emilia Study Group is a study group that meets approximately every two months to enhance our knowledge of the Reggio Emilia Approach to learning. This approach can be seen as a resource and inspiration to teachers, parents, and children as they work together to further develop their own educational programs. This approach is based on the following principles:
- Emergent Curriculum
- Project Work
- Representational Development
- Collaboration
- Teachers as Researchers
- Documentation
- Environment
We have viewed segments of the Reggio DVD,“Amusement Park for the Birds” and have used that as a conversation for reflections and observations of the Reggio Approach to teaching. We have toured local Reggio inspired programs in the area. By asking many provocative questions in the Reggio Way, many questions have come up in our discussions to help us understand the Approach and to implement it into our classrooms.
Some of the questions that we are exploring are as follows:
- What is documentation?
- How do you use documentation in your work with children? In planning?
- How can we uncover children’s thinking, especially their questions and theories, through the process of documentation?
- How can we substantiate our program to parents, administrators, and even other teachers who think what we do is like babysitting?
- How can we make Reggio ideas work in a public school setting?
- How can we fuse Reggio inspirations with district materials & standards for UPK?
- How can photography be used with 3 & 4 year-old children to deepen reflection and project planning?
- How can documentation support more meaningful planning & drive deeper preschool project work & inquiry?
- How can we orient parents to the Reggio Emilia approach & its value?
A wonderful website to view some photos of Reggio inspired classrooms go to
www.reggioinspired.ning.com This is a social network dedicated to collaboration and communication among Reggio inspired educators.
If you are interested in learning more about the Reggio Approach please contact Maya Lodico at mayalodico@gmail.com or Kathy Burton at kburton@frontiernet.net.