PFD vs. AVID
I was in AVID for one year and I am in PFD for about 2 years now. Some can say that they are somewhat are alike, and in a way they are because they want to help students in the right way. And although they have somewhat of the same idea, they are completely different.
I was in AVID for one year at Hughes Middle School. As in the class, it never felt like extra, it was one of those easy A classes. We rarely learned concepts and we never really did anything in the class. The only concept we ever learned in the class was Cornell notes. Every two weeks we would have, binder checks which to receive full credit needed at least one piece of paper with completed Cornell notes and an organized binder with dividers. We would also have about three college students tutor the entire class two days a week. Besides that, the only other extra thing we would do was that we had to complete 15 hours of community service for the year. We would also have grade checks every semester where we had to have at least a 2.0. In all, those were the only things that would separate us from all the other students at Hughes Middle School.
I am now in PFD, this is my second year in the program. PFD stands for Preparing for a Degree, but I believe that is an understatement. In addition to preparing the students in the program for a degree, it prepares them for life. It shows us so many different techniques and skills for about everything. We have are own agenda use system that, in my opinion is very useful, reading notes which is very time saving, test taking and studying concepts, project preparations, we take college courses, and on top of that we learn organizational and preparation skills. We have reality checks that really get us to think about our future and how we are really living for our future. We have Grade checks about every month where the lowest grade we could have is a B, and if it was low, we had to go to tutoring. About every 6 months we take the SAT’s or the PSAT’s no matter what age we are to prepare us. AS AVID, we must also complete community service hours; however we must complete 50 hours of it. Every Sunday, we must complete our Weekly goals, this consumes of at least three academic and two social goals where we prepare what we plan on doing that week. We must include what we are going to do and how we are going to accomplish the certain goal. Then, at the end of the week, we must complete the sheet by stating if we accomplished our goal and if not, why and what we would do differently to accomplish it next time. This keeps you knowing what you have to do. We also have sheets that log when what and when we do our homework. In addition, we have Monthly logs, where at the beginning of every month, we ask our teachers that if possible, the fill out a sheet saying what tests projects or any big assignments we would be having in that moth so that we are well prepared for it. As AVID, we also have tutoring; however we are open to five different tutors’ three days a week. In all, PFD shows its students so many different things to be more prepared and organized at school as AVID does not. AVID never helped with social skills, PFD always showed us how we should treat other. AVID just focused on getting into college. PFD says that anybody can get into college, but its focus is not to get into college but to graduate and get a degree from college.
PFD offers so much, it doesn’t even compare to AVID. PFD is life changing, I have grown as I’ve watched other students in the program grow and mature. AVID is just a class you take you never really live it but once you’re in PFD it’s your life, it’s a second family.
Elizabeth M., 11th Grade, PFD Student