AVID as a System Driver (for AVID Leaders)

Facilitator: Ali Parolo (Baldivis Secondary College) and Steph McDonald (AVID Center Australia)

This three-hour workshop is designed for experienced AVID leaders in Western Australian schools who are ready to lead AVID as a system driver for whole-school transformation.

When AVID operates as a system driver, it transcends the boundaries of a program and becomes a powerful force that shapes the policies, practices, and culture of the entire school and its broader community. This advanced leadership learning session invites participants to engage in deep reflection and strategic planning around four key elements of AVID as a system driver:

1. Shared Vision and Beliefs – Exploring how AVID’s core values and commitments are embedded in the school’s identity, language, and strategic intent.
2. Leadership and Systems Alignment – Aligning school leadership structures, policies, and improvement initiatives with AVID’s principles.
3. Instructional Coherence – Ensuring AVID strategies are not siloed but embedded across learning areas and aligned with whole-school teaching and learning priorities.
4. Culture of Opportunity and Equity – Creating school environments where every student is known, challenged, and supported to thrive in tertiary education and future pathways.

Grounded in the AVID Transformational Leadership Framework and the four educator behaviours—Insist on Rigour, Break Down Barriers, Align the Work, and Advocate for Students—this session empowers leaders to use AVID to drive coherent, equitable, and sustainable change.

Participants will engage in collaborative inquiry and practical planning, focusing on how AVID’s beliefs and commitments can actively inform schoolwide systems and leadership actions. While individual leaders will benefit, schools are encouraged to attend with multiple members of their leadership team to strengthen collective impact and alignment.

Collaborative Study Groups: Strengthening Understanding Through Peer Learning

Facilitator: Faith Atkinson & Shea Tomelty (Fremantle College)

Collaborative Study Groups isowerful strategy that fosters deeper learning through structured academic conversations and peer support. Students work together to clarify understanding, guided by inquiry-based dialogue and collaborative problem-solving. Grounded in AVID’s WICOR strategies (Writing, Inquiry, Collaboration, Organisation, and Reading), Collaborative Study Groups promote student agency, critical thinking, and meaningful engagement with challenging content.

These groups build essential skills such as communication, teamwork, and self-direction. As students take active roles in facilitating and contributing to discussions, they learn to support one another’s growth and reflect on their learning processes. When embedded into classroom routines, Collaborative Study Groups create inclusive, student-driven environments that encourage ownership of learning and prepare students to confidently navigate complex academic tasks across all disciplines.

Embedding and Reinforcing Disciplinary Literacy Use in Classrooms

Facilitator: Katy Crossley (Baldivis Secondary College)

This workshop explores disciplinary literacy, the specific ways of reading, writing, thinking, and communicating that are unique to each subject area. Teachers will learn how to identify and teach key cross-curricular and subject-specific vocabulary that helps students access and express complex ideas in each discipline.

Participants will explore what disciplinary literacy looks like in their own subject and across the curriculum, and learn how to support students in developing these skills. The workshop introduces practical, evidence-based strategies drawn from the AVID framework that can be easily integrated into any classroom. These strategies are designed to strengthen students’ understanding of academic language and build their confidence in using it to engage deeply with content.

With a focus on practical application, teachers will leave the session with a clear understanding of disciplinary literacy and a set of adaptable AVID strategies and vocabulary-building tools that can be implemented immediately in their next lesson—helping students think, speak, read, and write like true subject experts.

From Notes to Knowledge: Mastering AVID’s 5 Phases of Focused Notetaking Process

Facilitator: Alice Green & Travis Power (Fremantle College)

The focused notetaking process improves student concentration and strengthens comprehension. AVID’s 5 phases of focused notetaking—taking notes, processing notes, connecting thinking, summarizing and reflecting on learning, and applying learning—support meaningful engagement and deeper understanding of content.

Incorporating critical reading in the focused note taking process encourages cognitive organisation and reinforces comprehension. Annotation strategies allow students to actively process their notes. When students engage rather than copy, they stay more attentive and retain information more effectively. Thinking beyond the notes and summarising their findings allows students to reflect on essential questions and apply knowledge meaningfully.

By embedding the 5 phases of focused notetaking into our classrooms, we enable all students to become active, invested learners. This approach not only enhances students’ ability to recall and apply knowledge but also strengthens focus, better preparing them for success beyond the classroom.

Interactive Notebooks

Facilitator: Alaska Daly (Baldivis Secondary College)

Are you looking to enhance student engagement, organisation, and understanding in your classroom? This AVID workshop on Interactive Notebooks will equip educators with practical strategies to plan and implement purposeful input and output activities that foster deep learning and student ownership. Participants will explore how to use Interactive Notebooks as a tool for organising content, encouraging critical thinking, and supporting long-term retention of key concepts.

The session will introduce a variety of engaging processing strategies that help students make meaningful connections with the content and reflect on their learning. Through hands-on activities, real-world classroom examples, and collaborative discussions, teachers will gain confidence in designing notebook tasks that are intentional, effective, and adaptable across learning areas.

Whether you’re just beginning or looking to enhance your current practice, this session will provide ready-to-use ideas and a clear framework for embedding Interactive Notebooks into your teaching. Join us to discover how this powerful AVID strategy can bring structure, creativity, and purpose to your lessons, supporting students to become more independent, organised, and reflective learners.

Make Learning Crystal Clear

From Passive to Purposeful: Driving Student Ownership with Clarity and AI

Facilitator: Colin Wood (Verso Learning)

How do we move students from passive participation to purposeful, self-directed learning? This interactive session introduces Clarify-Ed’s Clarity Packs and AI-supported Check-In tools—high-impact strategies that make learning expectations visible, promote meaningful reflection, and help students take ownership of their learning across all subject areas.

Participants will explore how these tools create a shared language for learning, support equitable access to challenging content, and empower students to reflect on progress, identify next steps, and engage more deeply in their learning.

Aligned with AVID’s focus on rigorous, student-centered classrooms, this session offers practical strategies to save teachers time, deepen student thinking, and strengthen schoolwide instructional consistency, supporting AVID-trained teachers with practical, daily-use scaffolds aligned to WICOR.

Participants Will:

• Learn to implement cognitive learning progressions that scaffold success with complex content.
• Practice using Check-In tools to guide reflection, feedback, and goal setting.
• Explore how Clarity Packs support teacher clarity, build student agency, and promote consistent, high-quality practice across a schoolwide context.

Mastering Maths: A Practical Approach with WICOR and Learning Through Doing

Facilitators: Elaine Cass & Dave Seggie (Treeby Primary School)

Treeby Primary School Maths Curriculum Lead and Data Lead, Elaine Cass and Dave Seggie, will facilitate this session delving into the implementation of the WICOR framework and Learning Through Doing, to ensure Mathematical excellence across all grade levels. Discussion around the integral nature of the Plan, Teach, Assess cycle and how this is utilised alongside evidence-based instructional strategies will provide educators with insight into an authentic school improvement journey, demonstrating the positive impact of AVID and LTD on student progress and achievement.

Pathways with Purpose: Empowering Students through the TCR Framework

Facilitator: Jean Iwanyk (Baldivis Secondary College)

Discover how to empower students to take ownership of their future through “Pathways with Purpose,” a dynamic and practical introduction to the AVID Tertiary and Career Readiness (TCR) Framework. This session showcases how Baldivis Secondary College is embedding WICOR, relational capacity, and career competencies to strengthen student agency and connection from Years 7–12.

Participants will experience hands-on activities, including WICOR stations, relational capacity builders, and career-focused inquiry tasks that can be used in any classroom, regardless of subject. You’ll leave with adaptable strategies, templates for Individual Pathway Plans (IPPs), and implementation ideas that align with the Australian Blueprint for Career Development.

Whether you’re a classroom teacher or a school leader, this workshop offers real tools to start meaningful pathway conversations early and often, helping every student see a place for themselves in the future.

WICOR and AI: Practical Applications of ChatGPT in AVID Schools

Facilitator: Earl Clarke (Baldivis Secondary College)

This dynamic workshop explores how ChatGPT can be used by teachers to design high-rigour, WICOR-driven lessons that strengthen student inquiry, writing, collaboration, organisation, and reading skills. Tailored for AVID schools, the session showcases practical ways to integrate ChatGPT into everyday planning, from generating high-level questions and reading scaffolds to designing collaborative learning experiences and structured writing tasks.

Participants will engage in activities where they craft, refine, and evaluate AI-generated resources, learning to align them with AVID’s standards for academic rigour and student ownership. Beyond tips and tricks, the session emphasises ethical use, critical thinking, and empowering students through well-prepared instruction. Whether you are new to AI or looking to sharpen your planning toolkit, you will leave with concrete strategies to make ChatGPT a trusted partner in your AVID journey—while keeping the focus firmly on student growth and success.