 AVID stands for Advancement Via Individual Determination.  It is a program that helps students achieve in life and go to college.

What we do in the AVID elective are ~ Coronel Notes ~ Timed Writings ~ AVID weekly ~ Writing helps students express their thoughts and feelings. The letter we wrote to the governor and all our quick writes are good examples of this. ~ The smart goals give us inspiration

Dear Governor Brown, My name is Stephanie Franco. I am thirteen years old in Blackstock Jr. high. I am in the AVID program. I’ve been in it for two years now. This program has helped me a lot especially now that I’m in eight grade. Its been helping me get caught up in my grades and give me lots of opportunities in being a great example for other fellow AVID students. My AVID teachers are the ones that give me the support to help me when I’m not doing great in my grades. AVID is the program that helps me in everything that it can to help me enroll into college in the future but if u keep on cutting the budget for the AVID teachers, tutors, and for the program. We are not going to be able to get the support and have no more AVID in our school system. Would you want the test scores of students in California dropping? Have you ever wondered that this program has helped many students receiving scholarships can have the opportunity to go to college? Have you noticed that Hispanics are the ones that need this program. I am Hispanic so I know that we are the ones to be pushed at to do our work. We need the encouragement of our teachers giving us support. Well, I read in a paper that you wanted to cut the funding and the money for AVID. AVID is a program that helps lots of students around the country to give us a better future. If we don’t have this program in the state of California. Us the Hispanics which need it the most, just like others we need the support. The program makes us understand a lot of standards and makes us achieve goals. They wont have tutors because we aren’t going to get funding. No more college fieldtrips. We wont have any motivations and that would make in my opinion more students dropping out of high school because we wont have that much support from our teachers. Mr. Brown please don’t cut the funding for AVID this is important to me and to the people in the program. I need the program for my next four years of high school because then I wont have the support I need. Its not fair that the program is going to be cut because the teachers are going to have low payments. Us students wont have the support and the grades to go to college. Dear Governor Jerry Brown, Avid does not deserve to have its funding cut. Avid is a great program that makes a huge difference in students’ lives. Therefore it should not be taken away from us. My name is Goretti Alvarez and I am an eighth grade student at Blackstock Junior High School. I have been in the AVID program since the sixth grade and hoped to continue on in high school, but I won’t be able to if you cut the funding for AVID in the state of California. Statistics show that 91.3% of AVID high school graduates plan to enroll in a college or university,89% of Hispanic California high school AVID students complete A-G requirements, compared to 22% of Hispanic California high school students overall complete their A-G requirements. Looking at these statistics you can see that AVID makes a huge difference in students’ lives. These statistics also show the main goal of AVID, getting students to college. California is not the number on state in education, but with Avid it is not far from other states. With AVID out of the picture California education rates will go down. What you are doing does not make sense because it is proven that AVID impacts, helps, and improves students’ lives in many different ways. AVID teaches its students to become leaders and go on to achieve many great things in life. By taking AVID funding in the state of California away you will also be taking away academic success from more than a third of students in the United States of America. I hope that all the letters that you receive will help motivate you to change your mind.

 Students who inquire process information. They use the knowledge they already have to gain new understandings. They inquire to probe for additional information.  Examples of the use of inquiry in the AVID program are philosophical chairs, Costas Level of Thinking questions, and

The purpose of a Socratic Seminar is to achieve a deeper understanding about the ideas and values of the topic. The conversation between groups is a great example of inquiry and collaboration.

 When collaborating students work together in groups or partners. They are interacting. A good example of this is tutorial groups.

 To be an organized AVID student you have to maintain a clean binder, write in your agenda daily, and check your progress.

Not a good binder Good binder

 To get a better understanding of what we are reading in our AVID class we mark the text, take Cornell notes, have discussions, and summarize and reflect.