Teachers at the CDL build strong relationships with families. This includes learning about families' individual needs, traditions, and languages which are taken into account with assessments. Anecdotal notes from families are helpful to fully understand the larger picture of their child’s development.¹⁸

3. Documentation

Documentation is “evidence” of learning and development and of the child’s ability to integrate and apply information. The following are examples of things that can be documented:

1. Observations made by the teacher and recorded as anecdotal notes
2. Photographs of activities
3. Items that show the child’s unique learning style and interests
4. Products the child makes or produces such as 3-D constructions, block building structures, models, art creations, and so on
5. Children’s representations (drama re-enactments, songs, storytelling)
6. Child-made books
7. Child-made signs and symbols
8. Spoken language samples saved on audio and/or video files
9. Vocabulary word lists
10. Writing samples
11. Drawings or paintings
12. Responds to questions
13. Records of skills with various tools and equipment
14. Musical expressions such as made-up songs or dances
15. Behavioral indicators of disposition and learning style
16. Children’s self-reflections –their own statements
17. Stories of learning experiences in activities, projects and units
18. Memory drawings that recreate an activity or event
19. Records of problem-solving attempts
20. Topic webs
21. Surveys and graphs
22. Charts of questions
23. Records of data collected in an investigation including field visits
24. Predictions, findings, and discoveries 

4. Displays

All teachers at the Child Development Lab are expected to display documentations and change them regularly to reflect the learning that is occurring within the classroom.

The displays are the part of documentation that demonstrate to families and visitors what children noticed, wondered, explored and discovered in their daily activities. Displays are the part of documentation that makes children’s work visible within the classroom and school.

What to include in displays:

1. Context
2. Date
3. Outcomes including the learning standard or development skill being addressed (What did children learn)

Where to display? Displays can be on bulletin boards, walls, shelves, tables and open floor spaces in the classroom.

5. Daily Reports

The daily report form is used to communicate to families and visitors the activities that have transpired in the classroom that day. For children in the Infant and One year old rooms, this daily report form is individual to the child and includes information about the child’s eating, sleeping, and diaper changing times as well as individual outcomes activities the child did that day. In the older classrooms, the daily report should include not only what children did, but what knowledge and skills they are acquiring.

The daily report also provides a record of the classroom activities over time required by Day Care Licensing & City of Madison Accreditation.

6. Individual Portfolios

The documentation “evidence” is organized into an individual portfolio. A portfolio is a way of storing (might be in a folder, box, drawer, etc.) and it is devoted to the collection of evidence of an individual child’s learning over time and demonstrates his/her efforts, progress or achievement. At the Child Development Lab, teachers create a portfolio for their assigned primary children and it is shared with families during parent/teacher conference times. The portfolio is given to the child at the end of the year.

Guidelines for creating a portfolio:

1. Each portfolio must contain AT LEAST 8 documentation items per semester during the academic year. See the list above for what constitutes an item. Of course, you are not limited to 8 items; this is just the minimum requirement.
2. Each summer portfolio must contain a minimum of 4 documentation items for each child. You are not limited to 4 items; this is just the minimum requirement. A summary is required for summer portfolios. Write a summary/reflection for each child’s portfolio collection. Make 2 copies. One copy is for the child’s permanent file in the school office and one copy is to be given to returning 9-month teachers and or classroom teachers they are moving on to. The original stays in the portfolio for the child’s family.
3. Guidelines for documents included in the portfolio:

• Each document must be dated and contain the child’s name
• Each document must be relevant to the individual child and represent something unique and meaningful to that child (an interest, a developmental milestone, a mastered skill, a behavioral disposition, etc).
• Each document must contain a brief description of the context in which the document was produced (i.e. a description of the activity and when it occurred-free play, small group, large group, and duration)
• Each document must include the early learning standard or development milestone that the item is demonstrating or documenting. Including the milestones or learning standard on the item is what makes a portfolio different from a “scrap book”.
• The collection of documents should be a good representation of the “whole child”. Consider including representations for all 5 domains: Health & Physical Development, Social & Emotional Development, Language Development & Communication, Approaches to Learning, and Cognition & General Knowledge.

4. Efficiency is encouraged. Documentation of group projects can be included in multiple children’s portfolios, as long as you add comments/information to make it relevant to the individual (i.e. includes the child’s oral comments, an anecdote about the individual’s part in the investigation, what the individual discovered, and so on)
5. The “focused portfolio” milestone form may be used or another similar format.
6. Older children should be involved with selecting things for their individual portfolio

7. Family Conferences

1. In the fall, collect documents in September, October, and Early November. In the spring, collect documents in January, February, March and Early April. Stop collecting at least 2 weeks before Family/Teacher conferences are scheduled so that you can finish the Portfolio, reflect on the documents and begin to summarize your assessments using the “Conference Summary sheet”.
2. Complete the “Conference Summary Sheet” in time for the child’s scheduled Family/Teacher conference.
3. Before giving the portfolio to the child, make a copy of the summary sheet and put it in the child’s permanent center file. This will serve as a record, after the child has left the center.