Parlay

11/13/2025

When it comes to assessment, it’s common to rely on multiple choice, short answers and quizzes. They’re useful but they only tell part of the story.

How do you actually measure the development of higher-order thinking skills?

Parlay’s individual discussion data reveals how students grow across conversations: how they build on ideas, use evidence, challenge thoughtfully, and how their thinking evolves over time.

Student reports include formative assessment for the skills that matter most and the ones traditional tools can’t capture.

08/18/2025

Did someone say auto assessment?! 📊

The Genie Class Grader can now:

- Draft numerical grades using a rubric or a tally
- Draft feedback for every student, based on the criteria you select
- Lets you customize the style of feedback, whether that’s sparking deeper thinking, offering concrete next steps, or simplifying language for English Language Learners

By giving students quick feedback before the verbal discussion, you help them refine their thinking and enter the conversation with more clarity and confidence.

More on how it works here ➡️ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gW1PASRHqHg

06/27/2025

Does your teen want a FUN & social learning experience this summer?

Join our FREE seminar in July with students from across the country!

- For ages 13-17
- 4 weeks
- Synchronous Discussions every Thursday

✉️Email [email protected] to register

06/19/2025

Do you have students who are ready for a challenge?

These stems help scaffold advanced discussion skills:
🟢Inviting quieter voices
🔶Synthesizing multiple perspectives
🗨️Constructively questioning ideas

Find the resource here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1joyOOfWIw908xjSCGXUHwMnsbbQ1tXPX/view?usp=sharing

06/16/2025

🚨New Genie Feature: PDF to a Discussion Prompt in Seconds!🚨

1. Upload any PDF
2. Genie creates learning goals, higher-order thinking questions & peer feedback stems
3. Make any adjustments
4. Invite students and start the discussion!

This is great for turning any article, poem, short story or lesson plan into a meaningful discussion that drives deeper understanding across the class.

Try it out from your Parlay dashboard! 🔀

12/10/2024

Have you tried Genie Feedback for students?🧞

You can see the versions of feedback that each student received and how they changed their writing in response to that feedback.

Turn Genie Feedback 🔛 in your RoundTable settings!

11/12/2024

Check out this Parlay inspired bulletin board! 💬

What a great way to highlight sentence stems to scaffold class conversations.

The tap in types prompt students to consider how they are contributing to the conversation. After the discussion, the summary data provides insights on which skills students can improve on!

07/03/2024

🚨New Feature Alert🚨

The new chord diagram in the Verbal RoundTable has been one of the top requested features over the years.

It visualizes speaking turns & connections between each student. This helps in identifying participation patterns & reflecting after each discussion!

05/21/2024

Again this year, the American Association of School Librarians has selected Parlay Ideas to be included in their annual list of the Best Digital Tools for Teaching & Learning.

AASL’s Best Digital Tools are recognized for fostering:
- Innovation/Creativity 💡
- Active Participation 🙋🏽‍♀️
- Collaboration 🙌🏽
- User-Friendly 🔃
- Encourages Exploration 🚀
- Information/Reference ℹ

We're thrilled to be included in this list alongside other awesome edtech tools that support school librarians to enhance learning, engage learners, and collaborate with educators.

https://www.ala.org/news/2024/05/aasl-announces-2024-best-digital-tools-teaching-learning

05/14/2024

🗣️A few spots left in our Parlay Instructor Spring Cohort!

Join our 5-week professional learning experience to master student-driven discussions in your classroom.

Discuss strategies, research, data & assessment with other Parlay educators!

Register here 👉🏽 https://forms.gle/A1iY5oVUFumUScY59

05/08/2024

🧵Over the past 8 years, we’ve been building this platform with the goal to provide the best experience for class discussions.

As we listened and learned from many incredible educators, a question kept coming up...

Could we run entirely discussion-based courses on Parlay?

As teachers used Parlay online during covid, we got a glimpse of how we might facilitate learning experiences entirely on Parlay.

So... we built Parlay Seminars! Discussion-based mini courses where where teens read a classic text & develop skills to thrive in the world.

Each week, students read a section of the text, write their initial ideas, get feedback from their peers in a Written RoundTable & participate in one Verbal RoundTable.

For teens, we’re offering 8 courses this summer & Fall.

Each one is centered around a classic text (1984, Frankenstein, The Great Gatsby etc.) or a current event (the upcoming election!)

For educators, we're offering the opportunity to experience a Parlay Seminar as a student. Through weekly discussions, you will explore the Parlay methodology more deeply over 5 weeks with other Parlay educators!

Interested in learning more?

Check out➡️ https://parlayseminars.com

We're also hosting a webinar on May 15th @ 11am EST where we will walk through how it works.

Register here ➡️ https://forms.gle/jVWfif95mWqCYujQ9

Join Parlay Seminars and unlock the power of discussion-based mini courses. Connect classic texts to current events, develop your voice, and build future skills.