Wednesday, March 26, 2025 from 12:45-3:45 pm

Join Parker Teachers and other middle and high school educators interested in authentic, standards-based assessment to look closely at student work and teacher work. Participants will use protocols to make observations and build meaning, referring to Parker’s articulated Criteria for Excellence, associated rubrics, and the work itself. Participants will also have a chance to make connections, extend their community of practice, and learn together at this free gathering!

This two-day workshop reviews the ACTFL rating scale and introduces the structure of the Oral Proficiency Interview, as well as classroom applications.

This one-day workshop with an ACTFL trainer focuses on how to approach grammar from a functional proficiency-oriented perspective.

Effective and meaningful feedback is an integral part of the learning process and students’ growth. But how do we know when and if our feedback is truly effective? In this workshop, we will consider this question and explore different types and purposes of feedback. Participants will leave with a framework for thinking about effective feedback, as well as strategies for creating meaningful opportunities to provide feedback to their students. The session is led by two teachers and leaders with experience in middle and high school Math, Science, English and Social Studies. 

Sometimes, a test is exactly the right tool for the job, and sometimes we need a different way to assess the complexity of students’ thinking. Designing rich, open-ended tasks that challenge students to think critically and apply their knowledge in new ways is both exciting and daunting. In this session, led by a math teacher and a social studies teacher, we will explore three key questions. What can performance tasks reveal about student learning that traditional assessment tools may not? When designing a task from scratch, what does the design process look like, and where can teachers find good sources of inspiration? And how can teachers effectively align the tasks they design with the learning goals of the unit, ensuring that the task assesses the desired skills and knowledge? Participants will examine sample projects, including student work, learn in depth about the design process used to develop and refine the tasks, and develop new ideas for performance tasks to use in their own classrooms.  

Kids do their best work when they feel safe, seen and trusted. Teachers who maintain high expectations and are flexible when a child needs them to be, make students *want* to do their best work for them. It is this relationship that enables students to do the hard work we ask of them every day. This workshop is intended for teachers who are looking for creative and practical strategies to make their classrooms and schools safer and more humane places to learn. Through a variety of activities, observations and reflections, participants will learn specific techniques to apply to their own practice. Participants will leave with a toolkit to build connections within their greater school culture and community. Led by three seasoned teachers with experience ranging from middle school to senior year in the subjects English, Social Studies, Math, Science, Technology and Special Education, this workshop was created by teachers for teachers in service to our kids. 

The Promise of Advisories will take participants through a series of exercises that explore the Six Key Dimensions of advisory programs: purpose, organization, content/curriculum, professional development, assessment and leadership. Participants will leave the workshop with:

• An understanding of the Six Key Dimensions of advisory programs and how they interrelate
• An initial research-based outline of their advisory program along the Six Key Dimensions
• A sustainable plan for bringing this work back to their schools including concrete activities to do with their own faculties.

One of the most critical dimensions of any advisory program is professional development and support for advisors.  In this workshop, participants will explore four key questions: 

• What is the role of an advisor?
• What skills are important to being a successful advisor and how do we build those skills?
• How do we structure advisory to meet our advisees’ needs?
• What initial and on-going support do advisors need?

In addition, we will spend time helping participants articulate advisory professional development plans that can be implemented upon returning to one’s school.  At the end of this workshop, participants will:

• have clarity around the role of an advisor
• understand the skills important to being a successful advisor and how to build those skills among their colleagues
• leave with ideas on how to structure advisory sessions to meet advisees’ needs
• create the start of an advisory tool kit
• have a sustainable plan for supporting advisors in their own schools.

How can we increase student engagement in work that is meaningful and authentic?  The goal of this workshop is to explore the concept of authentic work and assessment and for participants to bring models and ideas back to their own practice. The session will begin by reflecting on the qualities of authentic learning and assessment, including by analyzing models of authentic learning from the Parker School across the domains of Math, Science and Technology; Arts and Humanities; Spanish; and Wellness. Participants will then reflect on their own classroom and the concepts and topics that they teach and within which they would like to increase the level of student engagement. The workshop will utilize protocols and small group tunings to help participants apply aspects of authentic performance tasks and assessments to their own work. Participants will have a chance to identify and brainstorm solutions to potential roadblocks to authentic assessment and will leave with new ideas to implement in their curriculum and classroom.

Parker’s unique MST program combines math and science instruction in a two-hour, team-taught course, where units of study are driven by unifying themes and essential questions. In this session, participants will learn how integrated curriculum is designed, how teachers ensure sufficient content coverage and balance while teaching toward deeper understandings, and how partners work together to instruct in this integrated fashion. Classroom visits and observations, review of sample units, and conversation with current students will support participants in gaining an understanding of Parker’s integrated program in order to begin thinking about their own initiatives.

Parker’s unique Arts and Humanities program combines ELA, social studies, and arts instruction in a two-hour, team-taught course, where units of study are driven by unifying themes and essential questions. In this session, participants will learn how integrated curriculum is designed, how teachers ensure sufficient content coverage and balance while teaching toward deeper understandings, and how partners work together to instruct in this integrated fashion. Classroom visits and observations, review of sample units, and conversation with current students will support participants in gaining an understanding of Parker’s integrated program in order to begin thinking about their own initiatives.

What happens when a school creates the conditions for students to own, demonstrate, and apply their learning in formal exhibitions? And, how do these experiences change the way students see themselves as agents of their own learning?

In service to a set of Common Principles, together with threshold Criteria for Excellence, Parker holds all students to clear standards, values growth over time, and includes families as essential partners in these moments of transition. Participants will be introduced to the big structures that undergird these public markers of student growth, as well as the smaller structures that make up the how of how it is all done. Participants will observe actual student gateways and view work products, engage in interest-based groups (including Arts and Humanities, Math/Science/Technology, and Spanish), and also be invited to imagine iterations of this work in their own settings.

Parker students have to meet standards and provide evidence of what they know and can do, but they never get a traditional letter grade at the end of a course. In such a system, how do students know how well they are doing? How do teachers track student performance and gauge readiness? What do you do when kids don’t do their nightly homework, and there is no zero? And what impact does learning in this system have on students and their learning?

Incorporating reading and writing into language class in authentic and engaging ways can be challenging. However, it’s been proven that reading can be one of the best ways to build proficiency in a new language. In this workshop, we’ll explore the question, How can I use my students’ literacy skills to my advantage in the foreign language classroom, and how can I help them further develop these skills in their second language? Some of the areas we will discuss are what materials are the most appropriate for students at different stages in their learning, as well as the role of intensive vs. extensive reading in the classroom. Participants will engage in this learning by observing literacy activities in Spanish classrooms, talking with students who do this work regularly at Parker, experiencing a student literacy activity, and digging deeper into research about reading through a text-based discussion

In this workshop, we will explore how to change the routine of all students doing the same worksheets and provide more natural and productive choices when practicing math skills.  Participants will learn techniques to differentiate in the math classroom, by experiencing instructional methods from the perspective of a student and discussing these strategies with fellow participants. Participants will be led through the structure of a typical unit of study, have an opportunity to try out the activities from the perspective of students in their class. Participants will observe classes where this type of work is taking place, and reflect on and plan for similar instructional moves in their own settings.

In this workshop, participants will complete an open-ended assessment/project that focuses on the Common Core Standards for Mathematical Practice, and experience the possibilities for differentiation as they work authentically with the same problem. Using this opened-ended problem, participants will see how we can shift our thinking to examine what kids can do from a problem-solving standpoint. Participants will also examine student work on this same problem and discuss the variety of ways that students can show success.  Participants will observe classes where this type of work is taking place, and reflect on and explore the possibilities for open-ended approaches in their own settings.

For many students, Math has been taught and thought of as a subject of "correct answers."  But math is really a subject of patterns and creativity.  In this workshop, we will explore the power of open-ended problems (those with multiple entry and exit points and more than one solution) in mathematics and how these problems empower student exploration, creativity and involvement in the work.  In this workshop, we will look at the traditional problems posed in math class (closed ended) and rewrite them to allow for more freedom, flexibility, and creativity in the work our students create, and to allow for multiple entry and exit points.  Participants will observe classes where this type of work is taking place, and reflect on and plan for similar instructional adjustments in their own settings.