Communities of Practice Guide

Upon completion of this experience, participants will:
• Design and empower AVID Site Teams to produce collective educator agency and transform outcomes for students.
• Create and nurture an intentional culture in a school that aligns with the AVID Tertiary and Career Readiness Framework and ensures students get what they need.
• Understand systems thinking and apply that knowledge to AVID implementation and refinement.
• Implement WICOR® as a means for bolstering rigour in their school, with a focus on ensuring high-quality instruction across all classrooms.

The Creating Engaging and Rigorous Classrooms Community of Practice is designed to engage primary and secondary educators in cultivating a community of learners by preparing teachers and school leaders to scaffold student success with rigorous content. Educators will explore the framework of AVID Digital Learning: The 4 A’s® to meaningfully integrate blended learning strategies with Writing, Inquiry, Collaboration, Organisation, and Reading (WICOR®) student-centred instructional practices to differentiate instruction and increase student agency. Participants will learn strategies to build connected communities through relational capacity activities to foster supportive and equitable learning spaces.

Upon completion of this experience, participants will:
• Model and blend WICOR with digital strategies to provide students with quality instruction and learning opportunities in a 21st-century environment.
• Foster an academic mindset to create supportive and equitable learning spaces through student engagement and relational capacity strategies.
• Design and implement learning opportunities to promote student agency in blended learning environments.
• Empower learners through the use of student-centred instructional practices for differentiated learning spaces.

The Cultivating Writing Schoolwide: Secondary Community of Practice is designed to engage and empower secondary educators of all learning areas (except for English) with knowledge and strategies to increase skills and confidence in writing as a powerful tool in a 21st-century learning environment. Educators across all discipline areas will gain strategies for teaching the writing process and building an understanding of the academic modes of writing (argumentative, expository, narrative, and descriptive), as well as writing for a range of academic purposes. Participants will explore the power of metacognitive writing to cultivate both literacy and student agency. This collaborative experience allows educators, regardless of familiarity with the instruction of writing, to explore strategies to help students access rigorous content and write like content experts.

Upon completion of this experience, participants will:
• Build student agency by incorporating the AVID Focused Note-Taking Process to empower students to take charge of their learning in their classrooms.
• Cultivate learning-through-writing essential instructional practices through the critical reading and writing processes.
• Leverage the four modes of writing as tools to build disciplinary literacy schoolwide.
• Exercise educator agency by incorporating the writing process as a learning tool to develop a deeper connection and access to content.
• Integrate metacognition into instructional design with intentional opportunities for reflection and feedback.

The English Community of Practice is designed to engage English educators of Years 6–12 in the intentional integration of speaking and listening, and writing to communicate. Participants will be able to explore strategies necessary to provide access to rigorous nonfiction, fiction, and nontraditional texts and to foster a culture of effective communication, and development of voice with clarity and confidence. Participants will engage thoughtfully with the writing process to create and share ideas that will support deeper implementation of writing in the English classroom, impacting students’ ability to create and effectively share knowledge and innovative ideas.

Upon completion of this experience, participants will:
• Cultivate an understanding of disciplinary literacy and AVID’s core processes for implementation supporting both educator and student agency.
• Leverage the power of academic speaking and listening skills necessary for students’ success in tertiary studies and career.
• Understand the collaborative writing process to leverage meaningful feedback creating multiple opportunities for student engagement and authentic experiences.

The Instructional Coaches and Elective Educators Community of Practice is designed to engage Years 6-12 educators in the use of AVID instructional practices. Participants will engage in Writing, Inquiry, Collaboration, Organisation, and Reading (WICOR®) instructional strategies through a hands-on approach to ensure students’ engagement, access to rigour, and future readiness and success. This experience will provide tools to connect with a diverse population of learners.

Upon completion of this experience, participants will:
• Articulate the Why of AVID and AVID’s mission, and how it connects to them in their role.
• Understand what this Why looks like in action through WICOR strategies.
• Create a plan to apply these methodologies in their classroom and schools.

The Mathematics Community of Practice is designed to engage Mathematics educators of Years 6–12. The learning focus builds on strategies that emphasise the use of Writing, Inquiry, Collaboration, Organisation, and Reading (WICOR®) as learning tools. Participants will engage in learning how to use a variety of digital tools, including an interactive notebook, designed to enhance rigorous instruction and student engagement through dynamic activities.

Upon completion of this experience, participants will:
• Develop all students’ reading, writing, language, and thinking skills by implementing WICOR-based lessons to increase rigour and positively impact student learning.
• Implement all aspects of the Focused Note-Taking process through the use of a digital Interactive Notebook in order to increase student engagement, comprehension, and retention of mathematics content.
• Advocate for content-specific, rigorous coursework schoolwide to promote a culture of student success, academic achievement, and tertiary readiness.
• Implement successful collaborative structures and digital tools and articulate tertiary readiness skills to elevate the level of rigour in content-area classes.

The Science Community of Practice is designed to engage Science educators of Years 6-12 in the use of AVID instructional practices. Educators will experience learning using collaborative structures to build science literacy through inquiry. They will engage in rigorous instruction using a variety of digital tools and Writing, Inquiry, Collaboration, Organisation, and Reading (WICOR®) strategies. Learning topics include interactive notebooks, focused note-taking, reading and writing for disciplinary literacy, and collaborative structures to enhance inquiry.

Upon completion of this experience, participants will:
• Develop all students’ reading, writing, language, and thinking skills by implementing WICOR-based lessons to increase rigour and positively impact student learning.
• Implement all aspects of the Focused Note-Taking process through the use of a digital Interactive Notebook in order to increase student engagement, comprehension, and retention of science content.
• Advocate for content-specific, rigorous coursework schoolwide to promote a culture of student success, academic achievement, and tertiary readiness.
• Implement successful collaborative structures and digital tools and articulate the tertiary readiness skills to elevate the level of rigour in content-area classes.

The Secondary Implementation Community of Practice will focus on the academic and organisational skills needed to effectively advocate for AVID students and to build AVID schoolwide focus across a school. Participants will explore AVID implementation; Writing, Inquiry, Collaboration, Organisation, and Reading (WICOR®) strategies; the 10 Steps of the Tutorial Process; and student agency and opportunity knowledge using updated AVID resources.

Upon completion of this experience, participants will:
• Apply the components of the AVID Tertiary and Career Readiness Framework to activate agency through the 10 Steps of the Tutorial Process.
• Reflect, plan, and determine resources to apply to the 10-Step AVID Tutorial Process in order to develop student agency and empower students to find success in rigorous coursework and other collaborative environments.
• Deepen their knowledge of how to utilise resources to scaffold relational capacity, collaboration, and strengthen community as a means of building a brave and supportive learning environment.

The Transforming Literacy through Content-Area Reading Community of Practice is designed to engage Primary and Secondary educators in realising what happens when we leverage reading in all content areas to eliminate literacy gaps. Participants will explore diagnostic teaching opportunities that build students’ content-area reading skills to help minimise the divide that exists between students who read at the expected level and those who do not. Participants will engage in collaborative activities to understand the importance of disciplinary literacy and how providing students with a variety of texts can expand their comprehension and content knowledge. Participants will also experience the AVID Critical Reading Process and explore ways to gradually release the responsibility for the process to their students. This collaborative experience will empower every educator with the knowledge, strategies, and skills to develop a culture of reading for accessing rigorous content in all year levels.

Upon completion of this experience, participants will:
• Identify reasons students struggle with literacy within their specific year level/content area.
• Outline specific action steps for integrating, increasing and making literacy relevant.
• Leverage the power of building background knowledge for increasing access to content and unlocking comprehension.
• Wrestle with how to make reading a core function of learning in their classroom or content area.
• Identify the “why” behind the various forms of texts used within their content area and year level.
• Develop an action plan to increase and diversity types of texts used to more fully engage students.
• Examine what it means to teach diagnostically by focusing on balancing the relationship between student skills and content knowledge.
• Determine action steps for transferring ownership of the reading process through the gradual release of responsibility.