We offer workshops to help you get started with portfolios and assessment. You can sign up for our open workshops or have a workshop brought on site to your school.

Descriptions of the workshops appear below, along with all of our other offerings. To sign up, or for further details, complete our registration form or drop us a line at info@richerpicture.com.

101. Getting Started with Digital Portfolios
(Available for elementary, middle, high school, or professional portfolios.)

This three_day institute provides an overview of what it takes to implement portfolios without going crazy. The three parts include:

101a. Getting Started: Using Portfolios in Your Classroom
How can teachers integrate portfolios into the daily life of the classroom? This hands-on session focuses on taking assignments that are already part of your teaching and linking them into the portfolio. We'll look closely at school and state expectations and how students and teachers can go through the process of "collect, select, reflect" in the classroom.

101b. Getting Started: Reviewing the Portfolio
Feedback is a critical component of any portfolio system. In this session, we will focus on how teachers can use online rubrics to assess individual student entries. We will also look at portfolio "tours" that allow students to show their best work from the year in any subject area.

101c. Getting Started: Going to Scale
Most schools begin with a pilot project, involving a few classrooms. Ultimately, many schools want to involve a greater number of students and teachers. We'll talk about what it takes for schools to "go to scale." We'll discuss how schools can use their resources effectively and how you can engage the critical stakeholders in your school community.

102. Practical Steps for Implementing Digital Portfolios

What does it take to successfully implement portfolios? In this workshop, we'll look at the roles and responsibilities of portfolio coordinators, administrators, teachers, and students and at the three kinds of support -- administrative, technological and pedagogical. We'll look at how schools have integrated portfolios into their other activities, and how schools find the time to make it happen.

103. Digital Portfolios and the Elementary Curriculum

Learn how digital portfolios can be used to capture students' reading, writing, and problem solving skills to improve literacy and parent-teacher communications. During the hands-on session, you will be able to see samples of student portfolios work with online rubrics, and discuss how portfolios can be useful at your school.

201. How Do We Set Expectations For Student Learning?

We’ll examine your school’s vision of what students should know and be able to do. We’ll discuss how state standards can be integrated into the vision, and how to create learner outcomes that are clear for students and teachers.

202. How Do We Create Schoolwide Rubrics?

For portfolios to be successful, teachers and students need a common language for deciding what work "meets the standard." We will look at samples of schoolwide rubrics, and discuss processes for helping your faculty come to consensus - and how schools can use data to revise the rubrics over time.

301. How Do We Design Portfolio Worthy Tasks?

What students put into their portfolio depends, often, on what teachers ask them to do. Here, teachers will learn about criteria for what makes a "portfolio-worthy" assignment -- and will review how to make existing assignments valid, equitable, and reliable. In this session, teachers will review tasks and generate assignments that both meet the school's expectations and allow students to show their growth as learners.

401. How Do We Assess Individual Tasks With Common Rubrics?

We will look at how teachers can give better feedback to students, examine student work, integrate common rubrics with specific assignment requirements, and analyze the results. Participants will look at three aspects of assessing student work: determining the tasks that will go into the portfolio, providing feedback with a common rubric, and working with colleagues on the development of common tasks.

402. How Do We Review The Portfolio As A Whole?

The power of portfolios comes in the ability to look at a student's body of work as a whole. In this workshop, we will look at how students can select pieces for an end-of-year review, prompts for overall reflections and rubrics for assessment. We will look at samples from multiple schools, and discuss the logistics of reviewing work throughout the year.

501. How Do We Use Our Portfolios for Accreditation (including NEASC)?

Schools going through the accreditation process (such sa NEASC) need to show how student and teacher work is connected to the school's mission. In this workshop, we will discuss how you can have your entire faculty help prepare for your school's review by designating samples of student work and aligned teacher assignments.

502. How Do We Make Decisions Based On Portfolio Data?

The Richer Picture® portfolio software presents a new type of data-driven decision making. Rather than just disaggregating test score data, teachers can analyze the data from the scoring of online rubrics, and look for patterns in student data. This workshop helps teachers find and analyze the data most useful for your every day practice.

503. How Do We Tie Portfolios to Curriculum Mapping?

Digital portfolios can connect very closely to the process of curriculum mapping. Both systems focus on linking to standards. A curriculum map allows teachers to look at their year-long patterns; a digital portfolio allows students to connect their work to school expectations. Here, we will see how the two processes are complementary and feed on each other.

504. How Do We Use Portfolios For Parent Conferences?

A common use for elementary portfolios is to help parents better understand their children's progress. Here, we look at how we can collect and select information for this important audience, and help create better communication between home and school.

601. Tracking Extended Learning Opportunities

Participants will learn about strategies for developing extended learning opportunities. We will spend time looking at the administrative side of this work - and also look at how technologies, such as digital portfolios, can help keep track of student demonstration of standards and communication among the teachers, administrators, students and community members.