LiterateLife

Two weeks ago my AVID site team attended the AVID conference in Dallas, TX (just a hop, skip and jump from home in Arlington). I attended the Science Write Path I strand, instead of the English Language Learners strand (which I attended last year, since I am an English as a Second Language teacher), because this year my job description changes a bit. I will be going into the Science classrooms to support ELL students in class rather than pulling them out. THis is a great opportunity for me. I am not sure how this will work logistically though.

I don’t want to be a glorified homework helper, only assisting the students to complete their Science worksheets. On the other hand, is it fair to take up these students’ homework completion time to instead  give them intensive instruction on their science curriculum?

Or am I more a resource for the teacher in how to present the curriculum more effectively for ELLs? I know that my principal wants ne to help these teacher use more AVID methodologies in their classrooms. Less book-worksheet and more “let’s be scientists” and explore our world, sharing our learning through writing and speaking about it.

This will be an interesting endeavor that I will, of course, share here on my blog!

How cool are the science interactive notebooks, an AVID method that blends right brain and left brain to help kids really learn science concepts!

The right side of the notebook is always “input”: notes, information, etc. The left side is student “output” utilizing 4 colors, poetry, art, creative thinking and representing of science concepts.