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Post date: Sep 11, 2017 7:28:42 PM
In this month’s AVID Newsletter you'll find information on a Hurricane Harvey relief program for AVID schools, the Secondary AVID Leadership Team’s Prodigy Award, VVE Successful Students, VVE carousel activity, VVM exploring WICOR, College wear days at KHS, the Language Function Sentence Frames WICOR strategy, AVID Weekly article information, and AVID professional development opportunities.
AVID Center Develops Hurricane Harvey Relief:
AVID School to AVID School Program
We have all seen the devastation of Hurricane Harvey along the Texas Gulf Coast. There continues to be a great outpouring of generosity, and AVID educators are no exception. Many have reached out to AVID Center asking how they can assist their fellow educators and students.
AVID Center has set up a way for AVID schools to help those impacted by the storm: AVID School to AVID School. This Google Docs form lists the 276 AVID schools in the affected area. If your school would like to help, your AVID Site Coordinator (Kristin Donnelly-KHS or Kristen Power-VVMS) or AVID Administrator (Joan Maland-IM or Steve Searle-VVE) can go here to "adopt" another AVID school in need. Their hope is that two AVID schools will sign up to support each affected AVID school. Affected schools will list their greatest needs in the hopes that schools will partner with each of them as AVID community service projects.
Spotlight on Bloomington AVID
Congratulations to our Secondary AVID Leadership Team!
During August’s Back-to-School Celebration, Kristin Donnelly, Kelly Killorn-Moravec, Kristen Power, and Ashley Modrow received a Prodigy Award from the Education Foundation of Bloomington for their work in supporting students at Valley View Middle and Kennedy High Schools through the AVID Program.
The AVID Secondary Leadership Team is focused on supporting one another and all students. They engage in reflective conversations where they are active in identifying strengths, what is working, areas for growth, and plans for next steps. They engage in solution-oriented conversations. In addition to generating ideas to bridge the student’s VVM to KHS transition, this team works together to support individual goals for each site. The Secondary AVID Leadership Team has the shared goal of student success and truly work together to support one another as a team, as individuals, as individual schools, and as a pathway for students’ college/career readiness experience.
Highlights of the Secondary AVID Leadership Team
- Supporting a total of 2308 students through AVID’s school-wide approach, including implementation of Cornell Notes, supported use of organization tools (planners and binders), and embedded critical reading strategies.
- Supporting 141 students enrolled in AVID’s elective course, offering added levels of support of writing, inquiry, collaboration, organization, and reading strategies, as well as motivational speakers sharing college/career pathway experiences, college visits, career field trips, service learning opportunities, support in taking rigorous courses (honors and AP), weekly inquiry-based tutorial experiences, and developing a sense of family and community among peers.
- Developing goal setting/pathway opportunities for students as they begin planning their courses from middle school to high school to college or career.
- Making it possible for 26 teachers/staff from Kennedy and Valley View Middle Schools attended 39 different AVID-sponsored trainings
- Providing professional development through all-staff and break-out workshop sessions on such topics as Cornell Notes, WICORizing lesson plans, collaborative study groups, and critical reading strategies.
- Collaborating with our AVID elementary buildings (Indian Mounds and Valley View Elementary Schools) by bringing middle and high school AVID students to interact with younger students.
- Collaborating with the Professional Growth Plan Coordinator to deepen the AVID experience in classrooms by developing goal-setting lessons/activities for all students in middle and high school.
What is a Successful Student?
This is the question Ms. Theisen’s fourth grade students answered during a recent collaborative activity. Together, they created a visual representation of what a successful student looks like, inside and out. As a follow-up activity, students will create their own successful student drawings in their own likenesses and keep them in the front of their AVID binders.
Respectful, Responsible, and Safe Carousel
Fifth grade students in Ken Putt’s class generated ideas about how to be respectful, responsible, and safe in various places in the school using AVID’s carousel discussion strategy. Students collaborated with one another to share ideas and write them on a poster representing one area in the school (e.g. lunchroom, bathrooms, etc.). Next, they rotated to the next poster, read what the group(s) had written before them, and added to it. In the end, students developed their own comprehensive lists of what it looks like to be respectful, responsible, and safe all over the school.
VVM Explores WICOR
College Wear
Many teachers, administrators, and staff hang pennants and wear t-shirts representing different colleges and universities to help cultivate a college-going culture within our AVID schools. Heather Young, a member of VVM’s AVID Site Team has a great tip for those of you who need some new college swag: contact your college/university’s alumni office and explain that you’re a teacher, describe AVID, share the reasons we have “College Wear” days, and ask if they might be willing to make a donation. Many teachers have done this and received free t-shirts and other gear!
During workshop week, Valley View Middle School teachers used Padlet collaboratively to develop a comprehensive list of ways they already incorporate writing, inquiry, collaboration, organization, and reading (WICOR) strategies into their lessons.
If you’re at Kennedy High School on Wednesdays this school year, consider wearing a shirt from a college or university as a way to promote the school-wide college-going culture!
AVID Resources
WICOR Strategy of the Month
Language Function Sentence Frames
Highlighting the language functions that underlie writing (or speech or reading) can guide students through the metacognitive process of “thinking about their thinking.” By design, language functions align with specific knowledge, comprehension, and perspectives on specific topics, content, or theories. Language-function templates support students as they organize their understandings while guiding alignment of the expected outcomes and key points expected to be addressed in their written responses.
Templates like these are tailored to specific content and a specific writing task. Given that need, the templates below are simply examples and are not intended to be used directly with students; rather, they are intended to provide a starting point for thinking and discussion to springboard development of language-function templates authentic to the task and to supporting all students, from emerging students (apprentice) to accelerating students (mastery).
AVID Weekly Article of the Month
Elementary: Vet makes 3-D leg for Pete the parrot
This article is about a parrot who lost his foot and the veterinarian who created a new foot for him.
Secondary: Teen’s job search can help build adult skills
In this article the author discusses some possible
reasons why teenagers might be having difficulties finding jobs. She also offers some advice to help make them more marketable.
All AVID Weekly articles, lesson plans and activities are archived monthly and are available in the following Google Folders for anyone to access and use:
AVID Support and Events
FREE AVID Elementary Workshop (8:30 - 3:30)
- October 26: Fairbault, MN
- November 15: Columbia Heights, MN
- To register go to my.avid.org-event registration-Central Region Events
FREE AVID Elective Teacher Workshop (8:30 - 3:30)
Topics include using the “WHY” to inspire achievement and deepening your CCI knowledge-schoolwide domains
- October 11: Woodbury, MN
- October 12: Minneapolis, MN
- October 24: Edina, MN
- November 14: Fridley, MN
- To register go to my.avid.org-event registration-Central Region Events
FREE AVID Site Team Workshop (8:30 - 3:30)
- November 9: Eagan, MN
- To register go to my.avid.org-event registration-Central Region Events
FREE AVID Showcases (9:00 - 1:30)
See AVID implementation, share best practices, and learn more about AVID hands-on. The showcase experience includes AVID Elective/Elementary and content class observations and a chance to speak with experienced AVID site team members and students.
- November 14th: Pullman Elementary, South Washington County
- November 16: Nicollet Middle School, Burnsville
Online AVID Support
Daily/weekly elective class lesson plans
Informational/instructional videos, handouts and downloads covering many AVID Essentials, including Writing, Inquiry, Tutorials, Data and Site Teams.
*If you would like access to any of these resources and do not currently have an account on my.avid.org, contact Kelly Killorn-Moravec
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