A Suitcase Full of Stories

"""Avril has written not only a highly informative book, but a delightful one too. Alongside the theory and practical implementation steps for early education best outcomes are the little ones' stories. These children have such stories to tell! And they've taught this adult to see things through new eyes too."" - Claire Mason, Thought Leadership Publicist. 'This book, which is written in a highly engaging and accessible manner, offers an antidote for early educators, for parents and for young children. The chapters present clear, helpful and practicable examples of how educators might support children to document their own learning journeys through storytelling and pedagogical documentation, including the opportunities available in the MOSAIC digital documentation app, which is based on principles of attending to children's perspectives long since celebrated by Alison Clark and Peter Moss in the UK (Clark and Moss 2001, 2005; Clark 2017) and by Margaret Carr in New Zealand (2001). McMonagle also speaks to the challenges of documenting children's learning - the time it takes, the constant enthusiasm required, the need for training and the collective support that is essential to sustain imaginative approaches to documenting young children's learning. The documentation practices advocated in this book validate and celebrate teachers' largely unrecognized practices in the classroom - listening, observing taking notes and reflecting critically and constructively on the busy comings and goings of children's lives and learning. In this book, McMonagle foregrounds the place of imagination, creativity, play and stories in the early years classroom. These are the glue that hold learning together- Professor Rosie Flewitt."