AVID's WIC-R:  Writing, Inquiry, Collaboration -  Reading
the Basic Guidelines for the AVID Curriculum

WIC-R stands for “writing, inquiry, collaboration and reading”.  These are the methodologies used in AVID elective classrooms, subject area classrooms and schools.

Writing allows students to think in complex ways.  Writing contributes to self-knowledge.  Writing helps clarify and order experience.  Writing helps students to be better readers.  Writing enables students to “do better” in school and at universities.  Writing is basic to thinking, learning and growth.

Inquiry employs skillful, higher-level, open-ended questioning methods.  In collaborative learning groups the method of instruction used by the teacher/tutor is inquiry.  Students are taught to think for themselves instead of chasing the right answer.

Collaboration’s purpose is to bring students together to take responsibility for their own learning.  Research shows that students learn best when they are actively manipulating materials through making inferences and then generalizing from those inferences.  Collaborative groups encourage this kind of thinking.

Reading instruction in middle and high school is most often concerned with helping students read increasingly more difficult text and helping students read to learn.  Three factors are most helpful for insuring successful comprehension

• Connecting to prior knowledge
• Understanding text structure
• Using text processing strategies (during and after reading)