1. EFFECTIVENESS OF AVID STRATEGIES
ACTION RESEARCH
EFFECTIVENESS OF AVID STRATEGIES

2. PURPOSE
The purpose of this study is to describe the effectiveness of incorporating AVID research-based strategies (i.e. note-taking and costa level of questioning) on increasing students’ critical thinking skills in social studies. By using the AVID strategies, this study will help me and, hopefully, other teachers in heightening their awareness in identifying and/or modifying the AVID strategies to be effective in improving instruction in the classroom.

3. RESEARCH QUESTION TO BE ANSWERED
How can I use note-taking and costa level of questioning to improve student learning?
How can I use costa level of questioning to develop students’ productive thinking as well as facilitate each student in knowledge construction and incorporate students’ ideas into subsequent dialogue?
What happens to the students’ academic performance on higher-level multiple choice assessments when I insert verbal and non-verbal clues doing the lecture, writing and/or highlighting important information on the smart board as well as using higher level of cognitive questioning at the time of note-taking?
What happens to the students’ academic performance and their quality of writing when I allow students to engage in integrative processing, individually and collaborative, after note- taking?

4. INNOVATION/CHANGE THAT I WILL IMPLEMENT
I plan to introduce a modified note-taking system that will help my students develop long term retention and deeper understanding of the material through Costa Level of questioning, reflecting, reviewing, assessing and summarizing.
I plan to teach my students how to develop their questioning skills to improve their critical thinking skills and processing of their notes through an activity called Costa Level of Juggling. In this activity students will interact with their notes using WICOR (Writing, Inquiry, Collaboration, Organization, and Critical Reading). After taking notes and/or interacting with a text, students will be put in pairs. In their pairs, they will write a level 1 question; they will pass their level 1 question to the next group and that pair will write a level 2 question based on group 1 level question; last, after writing a level 2 question, the group will pass it to the next pair and they will write a level 3 question based on level 2 question; the questions will be given back to the original pair and they will have to answer all questions accurately.
I plan to implement a variety of WICOR activities to increase students’ interaction with the text and/or lecture notes in order to increase their thinking skills.

5. PARTICIPANTS
Twenty-seven sophomore students, who are required to take Civics and Economics as a requirement for a North Carolina High School Diploma, will participant in this study. The majority of the students are African- Americans and were identified as meeting 3 or more of the below criteria:
State Test scores ranged in 40 to 50 percentile
Grades are mediocre
Attendance is sporadic
Desire and Determination is low
First in Family to Attend College
Historically Underrepresented in 4 year Colleges
Economically Disadvantaged