Primary / Elementary School

Visible Learners: Promoting Reggio-Inspired Approaches in All Schools

Inspired by the innovative educational philosophy that originated in Reggio Emilia, a small city in Italy, Visible Learners offers research-based practices for fostering learning in groups through documentation. In this approach, first developed during a long-term collaboration between researchers at Harvard's Project Zero and Reggio educators, learning becomes a visible activity that develops students' intellectual capacities as well as their individual and group identities as learners. Visible classrooms can be identified by five key principles—that learning is purposeful, social, representational, empowering, and emotional. The authors define each principle using illustrative learning portraits, quotes from students and teachers, pictures, reflections, and examples of student work. Additionally, the authors offer teachers and administrators practical ways to enhance learning by increasing collaboration and critical thinking across grade levels and subject matter. Also included is a section containing dozens of tools for making learners and learning visible, incorporating guidelines for the classroom and the staffroom as well as ideas for engaging students' families. Visible Learners shows how observing and documenting learning can change the nature of that learning, and asks teachers to look beyond surface to understand who their students are, what they come to know, and how they come to know it.  ISBN: 978-1118345696

Making Learning Visible Beyond the Classroom (Ch. 15)

Tools included in this section of Visible Learners:  

- Bulletin Boards That Make Learning and Learners Visible

- Creating Exhibitions of Teaching and Learning

- Anatomy of an Exhibit Panel

- Zoom Guidelines and Template 

Studio Thinking 2: The Real Benefits of Visual Arts Education

The Amazing Circus Act

An animation of a visual essay from the book Visible Learners by Mara Krechevsky, Ben Mardell, Melissa Rivard, and Daniel Wilson.

Out of Eden Learn Information Packet

Out of Eden Learn invites young people and educators to:

- Slow down to observe the world carefully and to listen attentively to others

- Exchange stories and perspectives about people, place, and identity

- Reflect on how their own lives connect to bigger human stories

This information pack offers samples of work from OOEL and offers the methodology behind the OOEL experience.