AVID Course Syllabus
Montbello High School
Teacher: Malcinia Conley
Phone: 720-423-5700
Email address: Malcinia_Conley@dpsk12.org
Room: 181
COURSE DESCRIPTION: Advancement via Individual Determination (AVID) is
designed to prepare students for higher education through high level reading, writing,
cooperative learning and inquiry skills. The primary focus will be on Learning Logs, The
Tutorial Processes, Organization Skills, and Services Learning.
GRADING POLICY: Assignments will be given a point value based on the following
scale:
Organization
Homework
Class work/Tutorials
Participation
SSR
30%
10%
30%
15%
15%
Grading Scale
100-90% = A
89-80% = B
79-70% = C
69-60% = D
59%-0% = F
TUTORIALS: Once a week (usually Thursdays) students will be expected to bring
specific questions from their other classes and work together in groups to solve them.
Ideally there will be tutors in addition to the instructor direct them through the process.
Tutors will not give out answers, but help the students find the answers themselves.
ORGANIZATION SKILLS: Students will be expected to keep a 3” three ring binder
with all the notes and materials. They are required to organize their binder according to
AVID’s best practices. The binder should have notes in chronological order for each
class.
LEARNING LOGS: Learning logs provide a formative assessment of students learning.
Learning logs should be completed every day. It is important for student to use complete
sentences and higher level thinking.
CRITICAL THINKING SKILLS: Students will engage in activities intended to
increase the learning process. These activities include writing assignment, Socratic
Seminars, group problem solving class projects and goals setting.
SUSTAINED SILENT READING: Sustained Silent Reading (SSR) on a daily basis
gives students the opportunity to simply practice the skill of reading. Reading on a
regular basis improves language usage, vocabulary, and general comprehension and is an
extremely valuable use of every student and teacher’s time. SSR will begin with the bell
and will last for 25 minutes. Students are responsible for bringing their own reading
materials.
Typical week of AVID:
Monday
No Class
Tuesday
SSR reading
Wednesday
No Class
Thursday
SSR reading
SSR reading
Binder check
Learning Logs
Learning Logs
WICR
Learning
Activity
Friday
Tutorials
Learning Logs
Learning
Activity
CLASS RULES AND EXPECTATION: All students are responsible for maintaining
appropriate behavior in class at all times. There are a few simple rules and expectations
for students to remember when coming to class:
1. Participate actively in all class discussions.
2. Be in your seat when the tardy bell rings and began SSR reading.
3. There is no talking while teacher or another student is speaking.
4. Students are expected to respect themselves, classmates and teachers.
5. Students are expected to come to class prepared everyday.
6. Do not sleep in class.
7. Cell phones are not to be seen or heard during class. Do not make calls or text
messages on cell phones during class.
MATERIALS: Binders are essential in AVID. It should be a 3 inch (3-ring binder) with
2 or more pens and pencils, 1 or more erasers, 1 zipper pouch, 1 or more highlighters,
notebook paper, and subject dividers (for each academic class). Students are required to
bring an independent reading book for SSR.
I encourage you to take advantage of my web page, which you can access from the Montbello webpage and the
Parent Portal, where you can access everything from your student’s grades to their attendance and such. I also do
home visits, to inform you about your students progress.
Student Name (printed) ___________________________________Student’s Signature_________________________
Parent/Guardian Name (printed)______________________________________________________________________
Parent/Guardian Signature________________________________________________Date______________________
Home address___________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________
Home phone ________________________________________Cell phone ___________________________
Work phone _________________________________________Email address_________________________