Communities of Practice Guide

This CoP provides educators with a toolkit of practical routines and practices to differentiate for students who are new to learning English or who are not meeting year level expectations in reading and writing. Through intentional lesson design and delivery, AVID Emerge supports academic language and literacy development. Educators use the content of the AVID Emerge Digital Toolkit.

This CoP empowers educators with knowledge and strategies to increase skills and confidence in reading and writing to foster a culture of literacy and gradually release responsibility to students. Educators across all discipline areas will learn how to connect strategies for teaching the writing process with the AVID Critical Reading Process. Educators will build an understanding of the academic modes of writing (persuasive, expository, narrative, and descriptive), as well as reading and writing for a range of academic purposes. They will engage in collaborative disciplinary literacy strategies that build students’ content-area literacy skills and allow them to access rigorous content.

The Creating Engaging and Rigorous Classrooms Community of Practice lays the foundation of instruction that allows students to access rigorous coursework and content. Educators will learn how to use Writing, Inquiry, Collaboration, Organization, and Reading (WICOR®) student-centered instructional practices and explore the framework of AVID Digital Learning: The 4 A’s® to meaningfully integrate digital strategies to differentiate instruction and increase student agency. Participants will learn techniques to build connected communities through relational capacity activities to foster supportive and equitable learning spaces.

The Digital Teaching and Learning Community of Practice cultivates educator agency by empowering educators to engage with and immerse themselves in digital tools and resources that support primary and secondary students. Utilizing the 4 A’s® AVID Digital Learning framework, participants will explore instructional technology trends by delving into critical subjects like digital citizenship, responsible use, and AI in education. Participants will collaborate with fellow educators to investigate how technology-rich environments nurture and elevate Writing, Inquiry, Collaboration, Organization, and Reading (WICOR®) skills.

The Mathematics Community of Practice immerses educators in strategies to teach students how to read, write, think and speak like mathematicians. Through purposeful engagement in Writing, Inquiry, Collaboration, Organisation, and Reading (WICOR®), educators will gain an understanding of how to build foundational skills students need for tertiary and career readiness.

Student Success is a foundational differentiated professional learning experience that examines instructional strategies and methodologies that support the AVID Tertiary and Career Readiness Framework and Essential Skills in learning environments outside the core content areas. Educators will learn the importance of disciplinary literacy, experience WICOR in action, and understand how to craft learning experiences that support rigorous academic preparedness, student agency, and student success skills for their specific role.

This Community of Practice lays the foundation for articulating what future readiness looks like for students and explores how AVID instructional strategies foster student success. Educators will learn to actively engage students in developing employability skills like inquiry, collaboration, and organisation to support their long-term post-secondary studies and career aspirations.

The Elective Tutorials Community of Practice will focus on AVID implementation through immersion in Writing, Inquiry, Collaboration, Organisation, and Reading (WICOR®) strategies; the 10 Steps of the AVID Tutorial Process; student agency and opportunity knowledge. Participants will learn how to empower students and enhance their professional practice by activating teacher agency.