1. Back-to-School Night! Sophomore Year
Welcome to AVID
Back-to-School Night! Sophomore Year

2. The Mission of AVID
The mission of AVID is to ensure that ALL students, and most especially the least served students who are in the middle:
will succeed in rigorous curriculum;
will complete a rigorous college preparatory path;
will enter mainstream activities of the school;
will increase their enrollment in four-year colleges; and
will become educated and responsible participants and leaders in a democratic society.

3. What is the theme of 10th grade AVID?
We want all students to MUSE:
Be Meticulous
Be Urbane
Have Sagacity
Edify themselves
These words form the theme for this year AND are the first set of SAT vocabulary words students were given this year.
Muse – to think and reflect on something
Meticulous – detail-oriented
Urbane – Well mannered and well spoken
Sagacity – Having sound judgement
Edify – Learn and uplift

4. What are the AVID Essentials in Grade 10?
Refine AVID strategies for studying, planning, and organization. (Tutorial, Cornell Notes System, Binder Checks, IRCs)
College and Career Exploration
Prepare for College Entrance Exams – SAT and ACT

5. Signed IRC Due (every 2 weeks)
A Sample Week in the AVID Elective
Monday
Tuesday
Wednesday
Thursday
Friday
Tutorial
AVID Curriculum
Binder Check
Signed IRC Due (every 2 weeks)
I Could Be
(Mentorship program)
Twice a week we have specialized study groups called tutorial.
On Wednesdays, students have an organization day. This is where students do Binder Checks and Notes Checks. Every 2 weeks students turn in a grade check, or IRC.
Once a week we students will be involved in an online mentorship program called I Could Be for our that allows them to interact with mentors in a field that they are interested in.
AVID Curriculum includes:
Reading and Writing Curriculum
College and Career Preparation and Information
Collaborative, inquiry-based work (ex: Socratic Seminar)

6. How is this class graded?
25%: Binders
25%: Assignments & IRC
25%: Tutorials
25%: Projects, Essays, Volunteer Work, Extracurriculars, & Portfolio

7. Volunteer/Community Service
AVID students are required to participate in at least 15-hours of Community Service per semester.
Students must complete and return their “Volunteer Log” for credit.
Review Volunteer Criteria Carefully on the Volunteer Log (ex. working at for-profit organizations not volunteer)
Volunteer Activities are one of the things that colleges look for in a college applicant. They want students who are active in their community. Additionally, these opportunities provide students the chance to develop skills they will need in the workforce and to explore career options.
Volunteer work must be for a non-profit, community centered project. Babysitting family members, helping the neighbor mow his/her lawn, or working in a for-profit business are all wonderful things for students to do. However, they do not fall under the type of volunteer work that colleges are looking for when the look over an application. Working for a food kitchen, participating in a coastal clean-up, helping at an elementary school tutoring or running a carnival, and other community activities are more along the lines of what colleges are looking for on applications.

8. Extracurricular Activities
AVID students are required to participate in at least one club/sport/other extracurricular program per semester.
Students must complete and return their “Extracurricular Log” for credit.
Extracurricular activities also include sports leagues outside of school and after-school jobs in addition to clubs and sports at the school.
Some clubs also do community service. They are a great way to get both extracurricular and volunteer credit. Some of the service clubs at SLHS include Jefferson Service Club and Interact.

9. Preparing for College: College Entrance Tests
Most 4-year colleges and universities require:
SAT-I or the ACT (American College Test)
Some colleges also require or recommend the SAT subject tests
Students should take practice tests to become familiar
with test formats:
All students take the PSAT through the school district.
This year, we will focus particularly strongly on test prep, with vocabulary and practice problems to help students prepare.
This year we are preparing for the PSAT, which is a practice SAT test. The SAT is one of the college entrance tests that students can take in order to get into colleges. Right now both the CSU and UC schools want either the SAT or ACT test.

10. Preparing for College:
Grades and GPA
Sophomore year is the BIG year that GPA starts to count.
GPA is an average of the points earned for each class. Colleges look at academic GPA (focus on A-G courses).
A = 4 B = 3 C = 2 D = 1 F = 0
Some Honors and all AP classes are weighted, which makes them worth an extra GPA point:
A= 5 B = 4 C = 2 D = 1 F = 0
See the list of courses in the course catalogue online to see if your honors classes qualify for the extra grade point.

11. Interim Report Card (IRC)
IRC Must be completed with Parents/Significant Adult and signed. (Make sure you have access to Aeries/ABI!)
Students with a D or F in a class MUST get mandatory tutoring within two weeks of the IRC.
If students don’t get tutoring, they lose points in AVID.
The first IRC was due this Wednesday, 9/21/2016

12. Binder Expectations
There is a strong organization system in place using the rings of the binders.
No loose papers!!
Assignment Calendar Complete: Every assignment / every period / every day.
15 pages of Cornell Notes/week
Time management: Just 3 notes each day
Right now we are only on 11/notes a week.

13. Cornell Notes
Cornell notes are a way to interact with notes that force students to look at their notes at least Three more times.
The purpose is to help students retain the knowledge they receive in class and to study more effectively.

14. The reason for Cornell Notes comes from the research of Ebbinghaus and Cornell. Ebbinghaus was a researcher looking at memory and information retention. He found that if you do nothing with the information that you gain, your brain will throw out almost 70% of it before the first day has gone by. Within one week you have lost over 75% of that information. This means that students who do nothing to review or retain the information in their notes will only remember 25% of what they learned if their test comes within one week of learning the material. While teachers do help students retain information by having them practice and develop their understanding in class, but that often isn’t enough practice for most students.

15. Here you can see how Cornell’s research into repetition comes into play. He found that if you interact with the material for just a few minutes every few days, you can bring your retention of that material to near 100%.
Chi-Ming Ho, 2009

16. Which leads us to the 10-24-7 rule
Which leads us to the rule. Students should interact with the information they learn within 10 minutes of learning, then again within 24 hours, and at least one more time within 7 days.

17. Cornell developed this system of interacting with notes to help students retain their information. Students should take notes in the left-hand column. Within 10 minutes after taking the notes, they should interact with and fix their notes. This first repetition includes highlighting key points, circling key words, and putting a star by anything that might be on a test.
The second repetition comes when students begin to write questions in the left-hand column. These aren’t necessarily questions the student doesn’t understand, but are the types of higher-level thinking a student can use on the test.
The third repetition comes within one week. Students write a summary that answers the questions they wrote in the left-hand column.

18. As you can see, once a student does all these things, they have a well-organized and easy-to-review set of notes. Students can review by quizzing themselves using the questions on the left-hand column or by reading over the summary at the bottom.
In 10th grade, the number of required notes increases gradually from 10 to 15 over the space of this quarter. We are still focusing on note quality centered on the quality of the repetitions that students do for each set of notes.

19. Tutorials
Tutorials are like study groups: students ask each other questions in order to help each other understand concepts.
Tutorials are Inquiry focused – they involve the targeted use of questions to allow the student to figure out their problem for themselves.
In 10th grade, we are refining the tutorial process, with a focus on the process of solving a problem and understanding the specific place where a student is getting stuck.

20. Tutorials TRFs are Tutorial Request Forms
These are due at the beginning of each class on Tutorial days.
They are available online as well as provided in class a couple days before Tutorials (to allow students plenty of completion time).
Students must work their problem to their point of confusion (POC).
Students create a question based on POC.

21. Portfolio
The portfolio is like a scrapbook of a student’s best work for the year.
This is created and worked on in the Elective class.
This year, we will be piloting the use of a digital portfolio system, in addition to the physical binder.
This year, the 10th grade students will be working with me to create a sustainable system for a digital (online) portfolio. Students will still add to their physical portfolio binder as a physical back-up for this year.

22. And so much more… College and Career Exploration
Advanced skills in reading and writing
Help with college application process
Support from peers and teachers
AVID is not just Cornell notes and tutorials. When students really invest in AVID, they form a support system that’s akin to a family. Having a strong peer support network has been shown in numerous studies to help keep students taking the most rigorous courses they can, as they have other students to study with and talk to about their work.
In 10th grade, our big focus is on careers and college majors. Students will explore what careers they are interested in and participate in a career mentorship program called I Could Be. We will also connect careers to college majors that might support those careers.
We will also look at more sources to fund college, as well as continuing to research the different colleges that students can attend.

23. Thank you for watching my Back-to-School Night Presentation!
10th Grade AVID Elective Teacher:
Ms. Teryn Kravitz
(510) x
If you have any questions, concerns, or just want to touch base about your child, please contact me via or leave me a voic .