Author: Molly Pettit

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AVID Lesson Study

Many juniors in high school are already dreaming of their future colleges – maybe even this one!

Image Credit: Carlton College Aerial, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carleton_College

For this lesson study assignment I chose to bring in a lesson I would be teaching in the classroom soon. This lesson was designed for an 11th grade AVID class. The AVID Program develops and distributes standards-driven curriculum to AVID instructors; within the constraints of this curriculum, I tried to build in opportunities for student choice and personalization of the content during the 90-minute block period.

The lesson included three segments:

  1. An Icebreaker – chance for students to team build, problem solve, and have fun together.
  2. Introduction of the College Binders – Students learn how keeping an organized binder can help them throughout their college research and application process.
  3. Binder Building – Students have time to build and organize their college binders.

At the end of the lesson, students will have created a college research binder that will grow with them throughout their junior and senior years. Students will make choices of what to include in their binders based on their interests and what elements of the college search process will be most important to them. This part of the activity is asking students to anticipate and order their needs throughout the search process, higher-level thinking!

At the end of the class, students will write a reflection on the day’s essential question: What is the importance of keeping an organized college research binder?

Reflection: It was helpful to get the input of my fellow student teachers! One classmate suggested to start the content portion of the lesson with a quick-write, asking the students what excites them about going to college, and what parts of the college search process are causing them stress. I would ask students to share these with a peer, and then ask a few students to share out with the whole class. I thought this was a great idea because I remember how stressful and daunting the college research process can be. I hope to help relieve some of that anxiety by focusing on what excites students about going to college, and that they are already taking steps towards their goal.

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MyMaps Dream Vacation

I had a fun time using Google MyMaps to create a map of my dream vacation, which I was finally able to take about two years ago. This map shows our adventure as we traveled around Mexico City, and across Mexico to the Yucatán Peninsula.

I like how MyMaps allows you to zoom in and out, seeing the whole scope of our journey as well as the individual places we visited within a neighborhood. I liked being able to differentiate walking, driving, and flying paths as we used all three modes of transportation frequently.

The only hesitation I have is the inability to upload and use your own photos. I had to be coached through a publishing process to add the photo of myself, and I would have used many more of my personal photos if this ability were integrated into the program. However, I appreciate how the program only allows the use of photos in the public domain. This eliminates a lot of stress and hassle for students and their teachers!

I would be interested to use this in teaching my two social studies courses this year. Students could use this tool to attach historical or current information about a specific country or city, add relevant news photos or videos about current events in those places, or draw lines between places to highlight specific connections.