Presenting to Potential AVID Students

When we present to potential students, we want them to make an educated choice to apply or not. I like to weigh the pros and cons of a choice before I make it and I tried to recreate that. Below is a list of the parts that make up the AVID program. It gives potential students a snapshot of an AVID classroom. It is written in such a way that it sounds like there are right and wrong answers. The real message is that there are no absolutes. Every person needs to make their own choice.

Is AVID For You?

Making choices means figuring out the positives and negatives of a situation as a way to help you understand what you should do. Can you figure out which of the following parts of AVID are positive and which are negative? The following list tells you some of the things that make an AVID class special. Some are positive and some are negative. Mark a + next to the positives and a – next to the negatives. The teacher will give you the answers in a few minutes. Talk to others if it helps.

____Learn ways to pay for college

____Field trips

____Improve and practice reading

____Do projects about college

____Improve public speaking

____Extra Binder Checks

____Students learn to help other students

____Students learn to let other students help them

____Parents will get more calls and emails and text messages from the teacher

____Improved goal setting for grades

____Guest Speakers

____Working with others

____Taking the toughest classes in school

____Getting extra help to do well in the tough classes

____Prepare for college

____Team building

____AVID teacher gives you extra help

____Think at a high level

____Students stay in until the 12^th grade

____Students give up an elective (instead of two in middle school you only get one)

____Extra homework

____Extra Cornell notes

____Extra Calendar/Planner checks

____More difficult classes

____Students read about ways to change their lives

____Meet people who will help students with their goals

____Students learn better time management

____Improve and practice writing

____Hard work

____ Sacrifice

____ Problems that are not easily solved

Total Negatives ____

Total Positives ____