The magic of WICOR

When I first found out about WICOR and developed an understanding of how it works, I thought to myself "this is what I thought teaching was". It changed the way I saw my role within the classroom. I describe it as moving from a passive teacher to an active teacher. WICOR is the foundation of teaching and learning within the AVID Program. I use it as a structure for programming and lesson planning and once you see how it works you'll never look back. I have learned that if you provide students with the structure in which to learn, they develop the knowledge and skills required without me, as their teacher, telling them what it is they need to learn. It is showing them how to learn - not what to learn.

So, what is WICOR and how does it work its magic?

WICOR incorporates teaching/learning methodologies in the following critical areas: Writing, Inquiry, Collaboration, Organisation and Reading to learn.

WICOR is a model used to guide students to comprehend materials and concepts, and articulate ideas, at increasingly complex levels with developmental, general education and discipline-based curricula. The WICOR structure aims to improve critical reading and thinking skills using writing as a thinking and communication tool, and fostering collaboration among teachers and students while providing "real world" experiences. 

By using the framework of WICOR to write a program, I am ensuring that students have access to the topic, or syllabus dot point, or concept, or chunk of work, through writing, inquiry, collaborating and reading.

Using WICOR has changed the way I approach planning to teach. For example, the first topic of year 7 history is called “What is History?” My old program required me to have a series of notes on a power point which students copied into books and a teacher lead discussion, after which they would answer a series of questions and write the answers into their books – comprehension style. 

When I introduced the same unit using WICOR, it looked like this:

·         Inquiry – I posited the question – “What is History?”

·         Write – students had 2mins to write down their thoughts

·         Collaboration – in groups (all my classes sit in groups now) students share their thoughts

·         Read – students given a reading with the purpose of answering the question

·         Organisation – as they read students highlight words that they do not understand

·         Collaborate – students compare words with their group to gain meaning. If the group is unable to explain the meanings, these words are discussed as a class.

·         Organisation – Mind map the key ideas under the subheadings in the reading.

·         Inquire: Aim to answer the question “What is History?”

·         Write: Using the key points in the mind map, write a response to the inquiry question

Using this approach, the students are active in their learning. No longer are they passively copying notes and being given the questions to repeat answers too. They have created their own notes from a purposeful reading, developed questions, practiced writing, organised their work – learning skills on how to learn while they are learning. Yes, it took twice as long to teach this section of the syllabus and students were responsible to engage with the work. Some of it even needed to be completed at home – but they couldn’t move onto the next part without completing the first part as the information was not being given to them – they had to engage, be responsible and, more importantly, THINK.

I’ll be honest in saying that it was not an easy, quick fix, to teaching. Students don’t always like it – thinking hurts! It also took me a fair amount of time to re-program what my purpose of teaching was. But when I repeated the strategies in another lesson and I saw students starting to question information and actually think about the process – not just tell me what they’ve been told to – that’s when I felt I was a really doing my job – a real teacher - and WICOR had weaved its magic

From an AVID perspective the importance of WICOR in programming is fundamental to learning and my goal as an AVID teacher is to give students the skills on how to learn by following the following principles:

Writing - consists of an essential, complex set of tools that enhance critical thinking - good writers tend to be good thinkers, and improving cognitive skills enhances one's writing abilities. 

Writing is:

• is a learning tool
• a personal and public communication tool
• a record of thinking

Students who write:

• consider audience and purpose
• engage in various processes to address specific situations
• support their thinking
• demonstrate understanding

AVID strategies that support student writing:

• Cornell note-taking
• learning logs
• Quickwrites and reflections
• process writing
• peer evaluation
• authentic writing

According to the Foundation of Critical Thinking, "thinking is not driven by answers, but by questions," positioning inquiry as foundation to the higher level cognition required for academic success. 

Inquiry is:  

•  uncovering one's understanding   
• asking critical questions   
• engaging in thinking learning and discussion

Students who inquire:

• analyse and synthesise materials and ideas 
• clarify their own thinking
• probe others thinking 
• work through ambiguity

AVID strategies that support student inquiry:

• skilled questioning techniques
• Costa’s levels of thinking
• Socratic Seminars
• Tutorials
•  Investigations
• Guiding questions

 AVID’s high engagement learning strategies involve collaborative activities through which individual students help each other learn, thereby strengthen their own learning.

Collaboration is:

• Teamwork with shared responsibility
•    Sharing of ideas, information and opinions
•   Formal and informal discussion

Students who collaborate:

• Work together toward a common goal
• Develop positive interdependence
• Work in focused study groups
• Support the learning of others through inquiry

AVID strategies that support student collaboration:

•        Socratic seminars
•        Tutorials
•        Philosophical chairs
•        Group activities and projects
•        Peer editing groups
•        Service learning projects

Consistent with its focus on promoting “individual determination,” AVID provides support for the organisation of materials, assignments, assessments, handouts and notes.

Organisation is

•  Managing materials and practising methodical study habits
• Planning and prioritising school, work and social task
• Engaging in mental preparation and goal-setting
• Strategically and intentionally taking responsibility of one’s own learning

Students who organise:

• Develop and use processes, procedures and tools to study effectively
• Manage time through prioritising and goal setting
• Are prepared for courses, participate during instruction, and interact with instructors
• Self-direct, self-evaluate, self-monitor, and self-advocate

AVID strategies that support organisation:

•  Binder and organisational tools
• Calendars, planners and agendas
•  Graphic organisers
• A focused note-taking system
•  Tutorials and study groups
•  Project planning

AVID’s approach to “critical reading” provides research-based strategies designed to help students read more effectively. Skills such as “reading with purpose" can be scaffolded with more complex activities to ensure that students are connecting reading material to prior knowledge, understanding the structure of texts, and using text-processing strategies during and after reading to improve comprehension.

Reading is:

• Strategically gaining meaning, understanding and knowledge from print and other media
•  Purpose driven
•  Interactive

Students who read:

• Understand text structures
• Apply prior knowledge and make connections to other texts, self and the world.
• Make predictions and ask questions
• Create visual images as they read

AVID strategies that support reading:

• Deep reading strategies
•  Note-taking
• Graphic organisers
• Vocabulary building
• Summarising
• Reciprocal teaching agendas