Subject-Specific Strategies:

AVID Strategies

The following is a list of instruction strategies that AVID encourages teachers to incorporate into their lessons. These strategies may be adapted to any subject. They also support the methodologies of the AVID instructional program: WICR (Writing, Inquiry, Collaboration, and Reading)

Carousel Brainstorming

Ideas are gathered quickly and the topic is written as headings on chart paper. Students are divided into groups and given different colored markers, moving clockwise to brainstorm ideas. After all groups have written on each chart, they should do a gallery walk to see the ideas that were added. A good precursor to a formal essay.

Concept Mapping

Allows for connections between new concepts and prior knowledge. Students should be given a list of related concepts and asked to make connections between them. Students can also create their own lists.

Consultants

Designed for discussion of several topics during a class period. Students divide into several groups according to particular topics and serve as consultants to each other. They can be instructed to report briefly at the end of the period.

Cornell Notes

With Cornell Notes, students take detailed notes from class lectures and texts in a wide right-hand margin and develop clarifying ideas or questions regarding these notes in a narrow left-hand margin. This helps students develop long-term retention and a deeper understanding of the material studied.

Dialectical Journal

Dialectical Journals allow students to record their thought in preparation for a discussion with a partner, small group, or the entire class. The following is a list of activities that students may do to interact with lecture notes, text, or video. With each activity, students should divide their papers in half and place notes on the right side. They should then be instructed to respond to these notes on the left side in one or more of the following ways

•  Create a graphic organizer(s) to visually represent the major ideas.

•  Write a one-sentence summary to capture the main idea.

•  Explain the significance of a particular piece of information.

•  Make an inference in terms of what a fact suggests about the time period,
  event, etc.

•  Create an analogy to show the similarity between the relationships.

•  Develop a “what if” statement that speculates what might have happened
  if an event had not occurred or had occurred differently.

•  Make a connection to a similar event that may have occurred recently or
  in the past.

•  Turn the title, heading, or subheading into questions.

•  Create new titles, headings, and subheadings for each section.

•  Write a simile or metaphor for an idea, event, or person.

Meetings of the Minds

With this activity, students should research diverse characters from a specific time period and then engage in a “meeting of the minds” (conversation) in small groups or in a fishbowl setting. To do this, students should choose a character from a unit of study or time period, research him or her, and then write three questions that the character would ask each of the other characters on an assigned topic.

Pair Share

This activity is helpful when it is necessary to have small group discussions of individual issues. After completing an assigned reading, students should share their responses to open-ended questions with a partner. A whole-class discussion should follow

Parking Lot

This technique assesses the level of understanding at various intervals of a lesson. In preparation for the next day's lesson, students should be provided with sticky notes on which to write questions or statements about a given topic or concept. They should place their notes on a large chart that is posted in the room. The chart should be divided into three sections and labeled with headings such as I Don’t Understand, I am Starting to Understand, and I Completely Understand. The teacher should take note of the questions and use them in preparing the lesson. At key points, the students should be able to collaborate and move their sticky notes to the section most representing their level of understanding. The teacher is able to determine a general level of understanding among the students and adjust the instruction accordingly. With this method, students who are hesitant to ask questions orally will have their concerns addressed.

Philosophical Chairs

Philosophical Chairs is a technique that allows students to critically think, ponder and write their beliefs. First, the chair in the room should be arranged in the shape of a horseshoe. Then students should come to class with notes taken on an article, short story, essay, or literary selection. After being presented with a statement that will elicit thought and discussion, they should be told they will argue the merits of the statement and that their choice of seat during the discussion will illustrate their stance. For example, if they agree with the statement, they should sit on the right side of the room. If they disagree, they should sit on the left side, and if undecided, they should sit in the back. At designated intervals, students should be given the opportunity to change sides if they change their viewpoint. A good follow-up to this activity would be to write an argumentative essay.

Problem-Solution Journal

In this journal, students record their thinking about possible solutions to problems being investigated. This strategy assists students in making connections between problems and solutions of the past and those of today. Students should divide into groups and separate their papers into three columns. The left column should represent the problems investigated; the middle column, a brainstorming of possible ideas; and the right column, a list of realistic solutions.

QuickWrites

Quickwrites involve asking a question, giving people a set amount of time for responding (usually between one to ten minutes), and either hearing or reading the responses. The quickwrite can be modified endlessly, depending on the circumstances. Quickwrites encourage critical thinking warm-ups: use the quickwrite at the start of a class to get students focused on a new concept, the material from the last class, or preparatory reading material, etc. Student-directed quickwrites: have students lead the quickwrite session, having prepared a question in advance and thought through a method for fielding the responses. Class-closers: as with the warm-ups, use the quickwrite to prompt reflection through summary, synthesis, explanation, and a question.

QuickSpeak

This activity is the oral equivalent of the quickwrite. A student draws a topic from a stack of index cards, thinks about it for five seconds, and then speaks before the class for a predetermined time. The topics are based on prior reading assignments.

Four Corners

Post four pieces of paper in the four corners of the classroom. Write a controversial topic on the board (for example, Schools should eliminate report cards). Have students move to the corner that best matches their position (Strongly Agree, Somewhat Agree, Strongly Disagree, Somewhat Disagree). If social cliques are a problem, have students write their choice on a card first in order to ensure honest reactions. Each corner will have 2 minutes to discuss and solidify their reasoning/logic. Each group selects a spokesperson to express the group's position. He/she has 30 seconds to express thoughts concisely and persuade their classmates. Other groups must listen intently. After the first corner presents, invite those who have been persuaded to move to the appropriate corner. Direct each group to present their group's position in turn. Allow students to move to the appropriate corners if they have changed their minds.

Jigsaw

The Jigsaw method is a cooperative learning technique in which students work in small groups. Jigsaw can be used in a variety of ways for a variety of goals, but it is primarily used for the acquisition and presentation of new material, review, or informed debate. In this method, each group member is assigned to become an "expert" on some aspect of a unit of study. After reading about their area of expertise, the experts from different groups meet to discuss their topic, and then return to their groups and take turns teaching their topics to their groupmates. 

Gallery Walk and Carousel Gallery Walk

Goal: To establish students’ prior knowledge and/or to set the tone or offer background information before reading a text. This strategy might also be used during or after reading as a way to chronicle and respond to one another’s interpretations or questions related to the text.

Rationale: This strategy allows students to offer ideas and interact with their peers’ ideas in a “safe” manner. It prepares students for a more thoughtful discussion because they have specific ideas.

Steps:

1. Choose quotations, pictures, cartoons, music lyrics, questions, words, or other primary source references that are related to the text you’ll be reading and that will elicit students’ prior knowledge or help them to understand some background information for the text. For example, using pictures of migrant workers from around the country and families living in the dust bowl might help establish background for The Grapes of Wrath. Using words such as apartheid, Nelson Mandela, South Africa, African National Congress, and Gandhi might help establish background for Cry, the Beloved Country. Using quotations from different poets/musicians on what poetry means might help establish students’ reactions to and feelings about poetry.

2. Post each item at the top of a sheet of butcher paper so there’s room below the quotation, question, word, picture, etc. for students to write.

3. Hang the butcher paper around the room in places where students can access them and with enough room between them for students to get around comfortably. If space is an issue, you might do the gallery walk in a hallway, in the library, etc.—somewhere where students won’t be distracted but will have enough room to move around.

4. Students and teacher walk around with a marker in hand, making comments, asking questions, or interpreting what they see on the papers. Students/teacher can respond to the prompt provided and to other students’ thoughts and questions. It’s important to establish what’s acceptable in terms of responding to other students’ ideas prior to this activity.

5. At a selected time, ask students to stop writing and to re-visit each paper, reading the ideas that are written there—it’s like moving from exhibit to exhibit in a gallery.

6. Pull students together to discuss the exhibits and to work through issues and questions that have arisen. This is the point at which the teacher can fill in missing information or help to establish a link between the exhibits and the reading.

Carousel Variation

The goals and rationale are the same as for the gallery walk with the addition of a verbally collaborative component. The carousel allows students to discuss their ideas and determine what they want to write on each paper as a small group. This fosters small group discussion.

Steps:

1. Follow steps 1-3 above, keeping the number of topics between 4-8 (depending on the size of the class).

2. Break students up into small groups so each group is standing in front of a hanging paper. The number of groups should match the number of hanging papers. Each group has one marker, each a different color.

3. Give students approximately 5 minutes, (depending on the topics) to observe/read the prompt, discuss it with one another in the small group, and write their ideas/questions/etc. on the paper.

4. Call time and have each group move clockwise to the next paper. Give them approximately 5-6 minutes to observe/read the prompt, to read the other group’s ideas, to discuss it with one another in the small group, and to write their ideas/questions/etc. on the paper.

5. Continue to move groups clockwise, increasing the time if necessary so they have time to read the other groups’ ideas before writing their own. Each group should visit each paper.

6. After all groups have written on the papers, do a gallery walk to allow each group to read what was added after they wrote—they re-visit each “exhibit.”

7. Pull students together to discuss the exhibits and to work through issues and questions that have arisen. This is the point at which the teacher can fill in missing information or help to establish a link between the exhibits and the reading.