AVID Monthly
April 13th, 2022
The AVID juniors spent the weekend of April 1st-3rd in Chicago visiting Loyola, the Shedd Aquarium, and eating delicious Chicago-style deep dish pizza! I hate to boast, but the students were AMAZING and I think everyone would admit it was a wonderful time!! I couldn't have been more proud of how the students represented themselves, OHS, and the AVID program. I guess this means we need to plan a senior trip for next year!!! ;)
With the start of term 4, we usually begin to see some students disengage from schoolwork - especially seniors! Hopefully we can work together and encourage all students to continue working hard in order to finish the year strong. Have an excellent holiday break.
Jaime Regan
AVID District Director and Elective 11 and 12 Teacher
AVID Strategy of the Month - Quick Writes
Harvard's Research on Active Learning
Writing has long been recognized as a powerful tool for learning (Rivard, 1994). While traditional writing focuses on students’ abilities to express ideas with correct language usage, the “Quick Write” is an instructional approach that activates students’ knowledge and presents new material. It can be used in a broader range of disciplines (Fisher & Frey, 2008).
A quick write is a “brief written response to a question or probe” that requires students to rapidly explain or comment on an assigned topic (Green, Smith & Brown, 2007; Nunan, 2003). Quick Write can be used at the beginning, middle, or end of the class (Mason, Benedek-Wood & Valasa, 2009). Instructors may give a prompt or pose a question and give students several minutes to form a written response, either as a review or synthesis of learned materials or as preparation for new content. If placed at the end of class, Quick Writes may involve students writing about what they learned, what problems they encountered, what they liked or disliked about the lesson, and whether they understood the concepts (Literacy & Learning, n.d.).
Also called Write Now (Riller, Zambo, Cleland & Ryan, 1996), a Quick Write is often followed by students sharing their writing orally (Cleland, Rillero & Zambo, 2003). It can serve as a basis for more collaborative learning activities, such as student-led discussions (University Writing Council, 2011), or Pair-and-Shares (Guillaume et al., 2007). Some “off-shoots” have been developed, including “One-Minute Paper”, or admit/exit slips (Brozo & Simpson, 2003).
Quick Writes are a nimble instructional tool applied across classrooms and subjects, ranging from economics (Crowe & Youga, 1986) to psychology (Butler, Phillmann & Smart, 2001) to nursing and child development (Ward, 2013). Although more extensively used and studied in elementary and secondary education, it has been proved as an easily implemented and adaptable strategy that can be integrated across classrooms and contents (Readance, Moore & Rickelman, 2001; Mason, Benedek-Wood & Valasa, 2009).
Quick Writes present a more acceptable way to use writing as an instructional tool. Research has long supported writing as an instrument to facilitate learning (Deshler, Palincsar, Biancarosa & Nair, 2007) as it enhances conceptual understanding (Abell, 1992) by asking students to “pay closer attention to details, organize data more logically, and structure the arguments in a more coherent way” (Kober, 1993, p. 45). In reality, however, students have reported dread or hatred for writing because they have yet to develop confidence and competence as college writers (Ward, 2013). Quick Writes differs from traditional writing as students can let their thoughts flow freely without focusing on correctness and revision (Tompkins, 1994). It presents writing as a non-threatening and informal opportunity for students to express their thoughts (Fisher & Frey, 2008).
Because of these benefits, a Quick Write can serve as an opening of a class for students to connect previous knowledge to new learning (Cleland, Rillero & Zambo, 2003). It can also be used to promote reflection and recall of learned concepts, summary of content, and expression of thoughts before oral presentation to others (Mason, Benedek-Wood & Valasa, 2009; University Writing Council, 2011). It provides a timesaving form of writing practice for students to become clear and fluent thinkers and writers (Ward, 2013).
As a result, Quick Write can be used to promote critical thinking (Tierney & Shanahan, 1991) and communication skills (Kober, 1993). It has also been found to especially benefit low-achieving students (Mason, Benedek-Wood & Valasa, 2009) because teachers can detect gaps in student understanding for remediation (Green, Smith & Brown, 2007).
This benefit links to another popular usage of Quick Writes as an assessment tool. In science classes in particular, Quick Write has become an instrument of formative assessment to obtain information for instructional modification and to gauge improvement in student understanding (Bass, 2003). As students are given more flexibility in their response, the frustration that accompanies traditional tests can also be eliminated (Green, Smith & Brown, 2007).
Written by Danxi Shen, Ed.M., Harvard Graduate School of Education
AVID 9 Course Update - Mrs. Adria Braley Jaeggi
In Term 4 of AVID 9, we are focusing on reading personal narratives and writing our own. Personal narratives are true stories about the author that focus on a specific and significant event or pattern of events that took place in the past. While basic narrative writing is often introduced in elementary school, it is important that students continue to reinforce their storytelling skills throughout high school, as some of the highest quality college admissions essays and scholarship applications are founded in narrative communication -- descriptions of the specific events that directed the applicant to a specific school or to apply for a specific scholarship. Currently, we are reading a series of personal narratives by professional authors to learn about the characteristics of strong narrative writing. Later in the term, students will have the opportunity to write and revise their own personal narratives. I encourage families to check in with your AVID 9 students later in the term to learn about the topics of their narratives!
Navy Pier
Gino's East Pizzeria
College of the Month: Loyola University
Location: Chicago, Illinois
Founded: 1870
Annual Tuition: $47,808
Most Popular Majors: Nursing, Biological Sciences, and Marketing Management
Graduation Rate: 77%
Acceptance Rate: 71%