Inspiration from AVID

Why reinvent the wheel? Let’s work smarter, not harder!

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AVID (Advancement Via Individual Determination) is a college and career readiness program that targets first-generation college-bound students. Part of the program involves peer tutoring, so we can take inspiration from the AVID model and make it our own.

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Notable features:

AVID Elective Classes

These are elective courses students can take during the school day.

Utilizing time blocks during the school day provides structure and consistency.

Teacher-facilitators can monitor behavior and manage grading, enabling peer tutors to spend their time on teaching and learning.

If, like the AVID model, we promote our program as an elective course, we could eliminate the need to create an attendance-tracking infrastructure on our LMS.

Peer Tutoring

Students are empowered to take on the role of teachers.

Tutoring sessions follow a set structure to maintain consistency and keep student-tutors on track:

Students walk into the room with specific problems they want to solve.

Students decide who goes first within their peer group. The first student writes the problem on the whiteboard and explains it to their peers.

Peer-tutors use a process of asking targeted questions to help the tutee advance through the problem and arrive at the answer themselves.

Peer-Tutors take Cornell Notes on the tutoring session to practice notetaking skills, process the information, and create a reference for later use.

Once the tutee has worked through the problem with the help of their peers, they talk through it one more time, start to finish, without assistance. This final walkthrough serves as a self-assessment.

The process repeats with the other students in the peer group. The peer group provides the tutee with their Cornell Notes so they can revisit and study their practice problem with the steps to solve it outlined.

Emphasis on Soft Skills & Equity

Peer tutoring provides a unique opportunity for explicitly teaching and practicing the soft skills that employers seek.

Teaching soft skills and allowing students to put them into practice in a structured environment is an equity initiative. It teaches marginalized / historically excluded students the skills they need to thrive in college or careers.

Emphasis on Notetaking & Organizational Skills

Students learn the Cornell method of notetaking to provide structure.

Students practice taking Cornell Notes until it becomes second nature. Students also use the Cornell Notes as study guides, demonstrating the intrinsic value of the notetaking process in an authentic way.

Some AVID programs involve binder checks to assess organizational skills. In the AVID program, these skills are taught explicitly and practiced often.

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Making the Note-Taking Process More Accessible.pdf

1.1 MB

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More Inspiration from AVID:

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