Advancement Via Individual Determination (AVID), is a college readiness program designed to help students develop skills that will prepare them for college.
Not many people are familiar with AVID. Usually some may think it’s the class for students that are failing classes who are seeking help, when really it may be the opposite. At the end of the semester, if a student fails AVID, they will be forced to leave the class, due to lack of interest.
Every class period, students make a Tutorial Request Form (TRF). TRF’s are a form that students fill out for any issues they are having in any of their classes, such as a tricky calculus problem, or confusion about a passage in AP English III. When they arrive to class, tutors will take up their TRF’s and start tutorials where they are asked their Point of Confusion, or POC. Students then all proceed to help one another with their POC’s.
Fridays are the only day students do not have to fill out a TRF, also known as fun Fridays. They have socratic seminars, team building exercises, or any type of icebreaker AVID teachers, Sheila Sterling or Christi Boswell can think of, such as Scattergories or Charades.
Their recognizable Cornell note taking system was devised in the 1940s by Walter Pauk, an education professor at Cornell University. Every two weeks or so each class has C-Note checks. Cornell notes are a type of study guide that every AVID student has done at least once in their life.
“My honest feelings towards C-notes are that I use them all the time,” said senior, Katy Wade. “Sometimes I have to scramble to get them all finished with questions and summaries but other than that it’s been branded in my brain that that’s the only way to successfully take notes and study them.”
In the fall, each grade is due to go on their annual college field trip. Each class has gone to colleges such as Baylor University, Texas Wesleyan, or UT Tyler where they learn the history and prerequisites of each campus.
From the moment students join, to the day they graduate, each student has become a part of a new family.
“My favorite part about AVID is having a support group,” said senior, Braidon Bland. “[It’s] a group of friends that asset me with class work and tutorial learning to help me improve my academic grades and challenge me to go beyond what I believe I can achieve….also, the parties are pretty dope.”
