AVID tutorials promote teamwork in Goodrich, Moore classrooms

May 29, 2026

Lincoln Public Schools students like Antonio, Itzayana, Kami and Sayo are learning life skills together through valuable AVID tutorials.
 
Advancement Via Individual Determination (AVID) programs at both Goodrich and Moore middle schools are providing many key academic and prosocial learning foundations. The tutorials process has become one of the primary engines of this growth. Students present questions about subjects ranging from trigonometry to photosynthesis in small groups, and their classmates help them figure out answers to their problems.
 
Antonio and Itzayana said they have enjoyed the student-led lessons. The Goodrich eighth graders said the tutorials have helped them improve their test scores and form closer bonds with their classmates.
 
“If there’s something we don’t understand in class, we can bring it in here,” Antonio said. “We can have multiple people working on it instead of one person trying to figure it out on their own.”
 
“It’s really helpful,” Itzayana said. “If my friends have a question about something, I can help them take the steps they need to take to successfully get their answers, and I know they’ll do the same for me.”
 
Kami and Sayo said they have experienced the same benefits at Moore. They and other AVID seventh graders form Tutorial Request Form (TRF) groups of four to six students. Every person then has a chance to seek guidance on their Point of Confusion (POC) question from the other members of their AVID alliances.
 
Group members cannot give the questioner a direct answer. Instead, they have to pose their own questions to the presenter to help them work through the subject matter and figure out the solution.
 
“I like how it’s all led by students,” Kami said. “You have the students around you helping you, and you’re all depending on each other.”
 
“It’s different to learn from students instead of teachers,” Sayo said. “You kind of interpret what they say differently because they’re the same age as you.”

 
The AVID program includes a series of elective courses offered to LPS students in grades 6-12. In addition to enhancing academic skills in subjects such as reading, writing and math, the classes also foster key skills such as teamwork, self-esteem, critical thinking and relationship building.
 
David Seizys leads AVID classes at Goodrich and Nate Miller guides AVID students at Moore. Both said they have been impressed with the way the Dragons and Mountain Lions have embraced the tutorials concept.
 
“It has been amazing to see my classes work through this process,” Miller said. “It truly is remarkable to watch students teach students. The different skills students are using throughout this process are truly high-level thinking and questioning.”
 
“They work with their assigned group to get help understanding their area of confusion,” Seizys said. “It is an orchestra of student learning led by students using questioning techniques, sharing knowledge and having a group setting to maximize their learning.”
 
The tutorials process begins each week when students fill out their Tutorial Request Forms with several graded areas. Students must list vocabulary about their subject that classmates can learn from. For example, one presenter at Moore listed the words input, output, oxygen and glucose as part of his question about photosynthesis in plants.
 
Students must also include an initial question and a tutorials question. They study their initial question to see if it can be simplified in any way to make it easier for people to understand. If it can, they note those changes on the TRF and present the revised question to the group.
 
Antonio said the tutorials have helped him decipher several difficult scientific concepts, such as genes and blood traits. He has become more confident in science class because of his AVID teammates’ support.
 
“It’s been really helpful,” Antonio said. “It’s a lot of science information in a short amount of time, so bringing it here to AVID helps me understand it all.”
 
Antonio, Itzayana and Sayo felt the tutorials increased the trust in their AVID classrooms as well.
 
“We’ve built a community in AVID where we feel comfortable bringing anything in to share,” Antonio said. “No one judges anyone. It’s really become a safe space.”
 
“At the start of the year, everyone was shy and wanting to keep to themselves, but since we all work together, we all know who we are and what we need help on,” Itzayana said. “We know what we can learn from everyone.”
 
“It’s a chance to hold everyone more accountable because the teacher is not always right there,” Sayo said. “There's four other groups that he looks at too, and he’s trusted us to give us a chance to lead ourselves.”
 
Kami and Itzayana said they would like to remain in AVID classes throughout middle and high school. They felt those life skills would lead to many uplifting moments.
 
“Personally, I’d like to continue AVID because I care about my future,” Kami said. “I want to go to college and be ready for that and be ready for my career.”
 
“I can see how I’ve improved since I joined AVID,” Itzayana said. “It’s been really helpful for me so far, and I think it will be really helpful for me in the future as well.”
 
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