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2009-11-21

2009-11-18

2009-11-05

Agriculture

Lifestyles

Tuesday, November 03, 2009 12:00 PM

STEVENS: AVID inspires hopes, dreams and goals

By MARGE STEVENS, Positives in Education

Leaders in education have an endless job and endless opportunities.

They have to be in the know about various curricula, methods and new ideas. They have to research and study which of these programs would best fit the needs of our students.

About two years ago, some middle and high school leaders heard about a program called AVID. They decided to visit some places it had been implemented. They were impressed and started to make plans to have an AVID program in OMS and OHS.

AVID is a nationally researched program that has been in existence for about 30 years. It is an acronym for Advancement Via Individual Determination. It is a program that targets potential first generation college students and then systematically trains a student to succeed in college and eventually complete college.

The administration and teachers decided to implement AVID this year in seventh grade and ninth grade. They used a set of standards to identify students who would qualify and who would be successful. They had the big task of reducing the 60 to 70 students who would qualify to 24 students for each class. Some of the qualifications were good attendance, good behavior, making fairly good grades on the assessments and good parental support.

AVID focuses on good note taking in the Cornell style. They use what is called the WICR approach: writing, inquiry, collaboration and reading. They learn to ask higher level questioning skills. They learn why an answer is the answer and what makes that the answer.

AVID classes meet every day with Monday and Wednesday being the time to take notes, collaborate and working on building a sense of family. Thursday is lab time to use the skills they have studied the other days.

Friday is a team day. They may visit college classes or have former AVID students come in and talk to them. More than 200 colleges have sent information so the students can readily see what opportunities are out there.

I was fortunate to visit the seventh graders at OMS on a recent Thursday. They all had a common problem and were instructed to find an answer. They used a tutorial reflection paper to find it. Some of the students were sure they had never seen this question before but through collaboration they soon came up with ways to find the answer.

When Kyle Kiefer asked what a monomial was, immediately Alysan Lindberg was able to show the group and explain her answer. In this method the students were learning from each other, each bringing their knowledge to the whole group. In another group Krystal Dowd was listening to her college group leader explain what steps to take next so they could figure out the answer.

The college AVID tutors were interviewed and chosen from Baker University and Ottawa University. Each group of four of five students had an AVID tutor. They were using the Socratic method of questioning. This is answering a question with a question. The students were able to learn how to ask deep questions and collaborate to find out the answers.

It was a typical classroom, when I walked in, but soon I noticed the collaboration, the asking of questions and the support of others, which is not always typical in a regular classroom.

By learning the AVID method these students will have the doors open to them and over the next five years they will become aware of the reality they too can attend college and subsequently complete a coveted degree that was not even a thought six years ago.

OMS and OHS will extend the program each year until AVID will be available to students from sixth grade to 12th grade. This will enable many students to meet the AVID goal — the ability to attend and complete the college of their choice.

This is a very exciting addition to our schools. Wouldn’t you agree?

Marge Stevens is an Ottawa School Board member.

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STEVENS: AVID inspires hopes, dreams and goals

By MARGE STEVENS, Positives in Education

E-mail this story to a friend | Print this article | Enjoy the convenience of home delivery of The Ottawa Herald.

E-mail this story to a friend | Print this article |
Enjoy the convenience of home delivery of The Ottawa Herald.