The Engagement Model and Tapestry
by stephenk on June 3
We have been contacted by many settings, asking if we will be including a new framework for ‘The Engagement Model’ in September 2020, when it becomes statutory to use the guidance when assessing children who are working below the old P Scale 5. Have a look at our Engagement Model article which provides more information on the model, as well as our thinking as to how it could be implemented.
We feel that it would not be a good idea to add a distinct framework for these assessments. The guidance clearly states that the Engagement Model ‘should not replace a school’s existing planning, assessment and reporting system’. We also feel that this model should not be used to produce ‘data’ with the intention of analysing and comparing progress to others. Our Engagement Model article goes into more detail about this.
Tapestry already has a built-in facility that we believe is ideal for organising observations and supporting monitoring progress, linked to the Engagement Model: the Hashtag feature. When creating an observation, if you add a hashtag (#) to any word, that word then becomes ‘searchable’.
e.g.
Stephen explored the #MessyPlay tray with interest with some physical prompts.
In the above example, when the observation is published the hashtag #MessyPlay will become clickable. When clicked it will bring up any other observations that contain the same hashtag. You can read more about ‘tagging’ on Tapestry here.
When working with the Engagement Model, we would advocate the use of more than one hashtag in these particular observations.
e.g.
#SKEngagementModel
Stephen explored the chimes independently for 30 seconds. #SKExploration
In this example, the initials of the child make their particular hashtags unique. If we wanted to find all the examples of Stephen ‘exploring’, we could click on one of the #SKExploration hashtags or search for it. If we wanted to find all observations linked to the Engagement Model for Stephen we could click on or search #SKEngagementModel. The actual hashtags could be much smaller if preferred (#SKEM). If we wanted to be more specific we could add more detail like a curriculum area to the hashtag.
We hope you find Tagging within Tapestry supports you as you work with the Engagement Model.
Our new Bespoke Flags feature may also lend itself to using the Engagement Model on Tapestry. You can find out more in this tutorial.