1. What is AVID?
Newcomers: An Introduction to Basic AVID Concepts and Processes

2. AVID Program
Advancement Via Individual Determination
[L. avidus]: eager for knowledge

3. “We help our students find their voices by believing in them, helping them become academically competent, by encouraging them, and by treating them not as members of a group, but as individuals with unique skills, talents, and passions. Once our students find their voices, there’s nothing they can’t achieve.”
Mary Catherine Swanson

4. AVID’s mission is to close the achievement gap by
The Mission of AVID
AVID’s mission is to close the achievement gap by
preparing all students for college readiness and
success in a global society.

5. The AVID Student Profile
Students with Academic Potential
Average to High Test Scores
GPA
College Potential with Support
Desire and Determination
Meets one or More of the following Criteria
First to Attend College
Historically Underserved in 4-year Colleges
Low Income
Special Circumstances

6. A Sample Week in AVID Elective
Daily or Block* Schedule
AVID Curriculum includes:
Writing Curriculum
College and Careers
Strategies for Success
AVID Tutorials Include:
Collaborative Study Groups
Writing Groups
Socratic Seminars

7. O

8. O Writing Curriculum Writing to Learn Writing Process Focus Lessons
Timed Writing

9. O
Cornell
Notes

10. O Cornell Note Taking System The STAR System Set up your paper
Take the notes
Apply your thinking to
the notes
Reflect and Revise your notes

11. O An example of how notes are set up… Topic Heading
Questions Class Notes
Subtitles • Use Bullets
Headings Use Abbreviations etc.)
Summary 3 to 4 sentence summary across buttom

12. O Summary Summary is added at the end of all note pages on the subject
(not at the end of each page).
Summary is added AFTER
questions are finished.

13. O

14. O Inquiry Method Engage in skillful questioning Higher Level Thinking
Respectful dialogue

15. O
SOCRATIC SEMINARS:
“a form of structured discourse about ideas and moral dilemmas.”
Contribute to the development of vocabulary, listening skills, interpretive and comparative reading, textual analysis, synthesis and evaluation.
Develops student centered dialogue which is at the heart of rigor.
Fosters understanding of complex ideas and information.

16. O

17. O Collaboration Students ask, explore and answer questions
Students are listeners, thinkers,
speakers, and writers
Students discover ideas and remember because they are actively involved
Teacher becomes a coach, guiding students in their learning

18. O
TUTORIALS:
Purpose
Create deeper understanding of concepts covered in core content classes.
Develop skills necessary to become self-directed learners.
It's not just homework help!
Process
To push each other's thinking. AVID tutorials utilize an inquiry process.
Tutors do not give answers; they facilitate the group's discovery with critical questions.
Students reflect on their learning.

19. O Organization AVID Binder Agenda Cornell Notes Tutorial Request Forms
Portfolios

20. O

21. O Reading to Learn Connect to prior knowledge
Understand Text Structure
Use text-processing strategies
(during and after reading)

22. O
Reciprocal Teaching
Reciprocal teaching is an instructional approach characterized by an interactive dialogue between the teacher and students in response to segments of a reading selection
The dialogue is based on four processes:
Questioning
Summarizing
Clarifying
Predicting

23. O Distinguishing Between Reading and Instructional Strategies
Reading Strategies are deliberate, cognitive acts learners use to bring meaning to a text.
Instructional strategies are the teaching techniques teachers model and use to help students become more independent readers and learners.

24. AVID Program Essentials
1. AVID Student Selection
2. Voluntary Participation
3. AVID elective class offered during
the school day
4. Rigorous course and study
5. Writing and Reading Curriculum
6. Inquiry to promote critical reading

25. AVID Program Essentials (Continued)
7. Collaboration
8. Trained tutors
9. Data Collection and Analysis
10. District and School Commitment
11. Active and Interdisciplinary Site Team

26. “Rigorous curriculum is a greater factor in determining college graduation rates than class standing, standardized test scores, or grade point average.”
From: Answers in the Tool Box: Academic Intensity, Attendance Patterns, and Bachelor's Degree Attainment (1999) by Clifford Adelman, Senior Research Analyst, U.S. Dept. of Ed.

27. What is academic rigor?
Rigor is the goal of helping students develop the capacity to understand content that is complex, ambiguous, provocative, and personally or emotionally challenging.
Taking rigorous courses opens doors !
Source: Teaching What Matters Most; Standards and Strategies for Raising Student Achievement by Strong, Silver and Perini, ASCD, 2001.

28. Meeting the Challenge
To help all students do rigorous work and meet or exceed high standards in each content area we must help students:
Develop as readers and writers.
Develop deep content knowledge.
Know content specific strategies for
reading, writing, thinking and talking.
Develop habits, skills, and behaviors to
use knowledge and skills.

29. Meeting the Challenge (Continued)

30. Why AVID Works
Places AVID students in rigorous curriculum and gives them the support to achieve
Provides the explicit “hidden curriculum” of schools
Provides a team of students for positive peer identification
Redefines teacher’s role as that of student advocate

31. Tonya Leal, Blackstock Jr. High School 8.19.12
from 2006 Summer Institute
Tonya Leal, Blackstock Jr. High School