Thanks to all who responded. We have some great information- some very detailed
information! Seems the key to Advisory is organization and teacher involvement...
I have experience at two different schools with advisory. One worked, one didn't.
At the school where the advisory period worked, we were blocked with other core
teachers. In other words, the science, English, math, and reading teachers were in
the same block and for the most part we had the same students. This was great when
we needed to discuss discipline or grades and to conference with parents or
administration.
This school had set rules for the entire building and teachers who did not follow
the advisory "rules" were severely reprimanded and ultimately looked for other jobs
the next year. This seems harsh, but the pay off was great. Our school went from
low scores to being exemplary in two years!
Every advisory class did DEAR (drop everything and read) for the first 15 minutes.
Teachers and administrators had to read as well. P.E. and coaches had to pick up
books and read. This was a great motivator for our kids. Once we read, we had 5
minutes to write in our journals (teachers included). We wrote the name of the
book, author, pages read, and a brief insight into what we had just read. These
were collected weekly by reading teachers (or English) and students were given one
daily grade based on the week's reading. After DEAR, each day students studied one
of the core subjects. Mondays were science, Tuesdays were math, Wednesday was
history, Thursday was English, and Friday was reading. Each block of teachers was
responsible for getting the materials to their block. For example, the English
teacher gave the other teachers in her block the materials for English--each
teacher ran copies for their own advisory classes. I truly believe the DEAR and the
teacher paid off. Our kids really knew their stuff on the TAKS (Texas Assessment of
Knowledge and Skills).
The school I'm currently at is not using the advisory period to further learning.
The first year, advisory was a joke. Teachers considered it free time, and since it
came at the end of the day, they were tired, and let the kids run wild. The next
year, there was some improvement. This year, the administration is trying to get a
handle on the advisory, but I still see it as a failure (due to the previous
school's huge success). I have brought up DEAR and they seem to be deaf to it. I
really believe that silent reading of books that the students chose helped their
test scores and their reading comprehension and even made some NEW readers out of a
few of them.
The advisory period is a great thing if it is implemented school-wide, if teachers
take it seriously, if administrators maintain control of it, if students are given
work that will improve their grades, knowledge, understanding, comprehension, etc.
If the advisory period is a glorified home room, it will fail. Teachers will give
up and students will have "free time."
----------
We are in the same position as you are. Next Friday, a group of us is going to
attend "Creating Sustainable Advisory Groups." The event will be lead by Joe
Dimartino. I may know more after that.
----------------
Our advisory period is once a week for 45 minutes. At the upper grades, it is
mostly focused on getting the students prepared for the portfolio presentation. At
gr. 9 and 10, it is mostly goal setting, study skills, etc. I do a 9th grade adv.
and I hate it. The time does not seem productive. We are theoretically supposed
to be establishing a relationship with our students to provide personalization, but
23 have a high mobility rate in our district and 23 students in the advisory, so
students really don't talk about personal issues. I think it's more productive in
the upper grades, but the teachers with those students say that it's not enough
time to really help the students prepare their portfolios. Good luck!
---------------
We just started Advisories in our high school this year. They are based on a model
from Soldatna (sp?), Alaska, where our current principal worked for many years.
Basically, our structure is this:
1. Students are all with their own grade in groups of about 15 to 20
2. All classroom teachers have an advisory, even the special services
teachers. They only ones on the professional staff who don't have one are the two
counselors, the band/choir director, and myself as librarian. This is for various
reasons, but mine is that half of the advisories are held while the other half of
the student body is at lunch and I need to keep the library open.
3. Each day has a theme for the advisories. Some of the themes have to do
with our state test, activities to boost skills in the core curriculum areas, a
game/activity day, reading day which is also meeting day, etc.
4. The advisory teachers for the same grade meet on a fairly regular basis
or coordinate via e-mail so that they are all doing the same thing generally.
5. Passes are highly restricted during these times; students must have
permission from both ends in order to leave one room to go to another or to the
library.
6. These periods are 30 minutes long.
Hope this helps! Let me know if you want more and I can connect you or
other interested staff members with my principal or other teachers.
------------
Our school has an advisory program. I do not know exactly how it was started, but
I can tell you how it runs. We are a small High School of about 650 students in
Brooklyn, NY. The advisories are broken up by grade level and gender. Usually
same gender teacher and students--not always. I am a women and have a male
advisory. We meet with our advisories four times a week. The students lunch
periods are split so one half the period they go to lunch and one half to advisory.
Helps with over crowding in the lunchroom as well. On Wednesdays the students
spend the entire period at lunch and the advisors go to meetings as a group with an
administrator to decide on projects or activities for the grade.
-------------
Here's what I can tell you after having the program at my previous school and an
attempt to start it here.
As I said before, you absolutely MUST have 100% buy-in from both faculty and
administration AND a lot of good planning. If not, don't bother. I'd suggest that
you spend at least a year talking about the program and what you want it to
accomplish. This is NOT a homeroom program, nor is it a substitute for the school
counselor. Instead, it is a way to connect to those kids who are likely to get lost
in the cracks.
The top kids will always do well, no matter what seems to happen. The bottom kids
have all sorts of support (Special Ed, counselors, etc.). The kids in the middle,
though, often are ignored. They generally don't cause any trouble, get average
grades, and after being in your room for a year you still can't picture them. Those
are the ones you are trying to reach.
There are two ways of matching students and teachers. One way gives each teacher a
portion of each class, and the kids stay with the same teacher for as long as they
are at the school. The other way assigns kids for the first semester or year, and
then lets them pick their own teacher adviser. Either way can work, as long as you
don't have any real personality conflicts. If a teacher or student just can't stand
the other one then a change needs to be made.
One of the issues you will need to decide on prior to starting the program is
exactly when you will meet as a group and what you will do
during that time. All groups must have some of the same rules, but there ought to
be some room for flexibility. I'd suggest that groups ought to meet during school
time for at least one period per week. They may meet outside of school time for
social activities if desired, but that shouldn't be a requirement.
I've mentioned the need to have the faculty and administration 100% on board with
this. Two other groups also need to be supportive: students and parents. Students
need to know that faculty aren't trying to become their buddies, but that they are
willing to listen to student concerns that don't relate at all to the teacher's
class. Parents also need to understand that the teachers aren't taking over their
role (even if some parents want us to), but that we recognize that some students
will want to take to an adult during the school day.
Let me know if you have any other questions, and I'll try to help. I really think
that such a program, if done correctly, can be a big help
to some kids. There will always be those kids who don't want any adult to pay
attention to them, and we have to recognize that sad fact of life.
-------------
This is our first year with an advisory hour. We still have some kinks to work out
but overall I'm happy with the results so far.
We have the hour once a week - 7th hour on Wednesday but only during full weeks.
The students are divided up by class into small groups of 6 to 7. The premise is
the students will have the same teacher throughout high school for advisory.
We've studied character, sex ed (sophomores & seniors), resume building, job
skills, college prep (scholarship apps, ACT prep, etc) for juniors & seniors. The
students are required to keep a binder as a "portfolio" to build upon. Our goal is
for the students to have a completed portfolio by the end of their senior year. The
school day was extended 10 minutes each
day to compensate for the hour missed each week.
We are a small school (about 150 high school) so the small groups were fairly easy
to do. We have used the Love U2 series and the Sex Smarts series as well as the 7
Habits For Highly Effect Teens for some of the curriculum. We are discussing adding
the book "Mentor, the Kid and the CEO" to the program next year for sophomores and
juniors. Our program is still a work in progress.
-------------------
We just started one. The kids who don't do well on TAKS- our state test- were
strongly encouraged to stay after school for tutoring but never wanted to stay. We
have created this 25 minute period every day for that tutoring. The kids who are
not in a tutoring session stay in their homeroom and they can read or do homework.
That means everyone,
including me, has to fill in covering homeroom classes. So far it has worked out
well. Out of 18 kids I really only have to get on to one of them to read or do
homework- instead of sleep or bug others!!
-------------
We have what we call tutorial every day. It's an extra 30 minutes built into the
schedule between 2nd and 3rd hours. Grade reports are run weekly. Any student
having failing grades remains with the teacher in the classroom or goes to another
classroom for extra help. Those who don't have to stay are free to come to the
library and go other places as well.
Monday and Friday are closed tutorial meaning they can't be anywhere except a
classroom. The freshmen lost theirs this week because of so many failing grades.
This is considered a privilege and can be taken away.
We also have certain days that are specified as advisory days. We have students
and teachers both serving as freshmen advisors.
-------------
WE do an advisory period once a week, on Tuesdays, during what is called Head
Master's Break. That is the time used for assemblies on Mondays and Thursdays, and
free time for activities/makeup test/etc. on Wednesdays and Fridays. This is the
time for the advisory group to come together and discuss things relevant to their
class, college issues, exam prep, and general community building time, and we play
games and go outside when the weather is nice. They also are assigned snack
duties, and someone brings enough for the whole group--bagels from Panera and
Dunkin Donuts being the favored snack. It is the time to discuss grades after they
are issued, and to discuss any issues a student may be having.
I have a freshman advisory, and I will continue to have a freshman group
for a while. A teacher may decide to have a sophomore group, and they stay with
this same group until graduation. I like getting new kids each year.
We have duties that go with being an advisor in a specific class, and
must chaperone certain field trips and events throughout the year. At the end of
the year the freshman and sophomores go on a trip to an amusement
park, and all the advisors are asked to go along.
Each class/year is supervised by a class dean, who coordinates and
arranges activities for the advisee groups.
---------------
My high school (9-12) had an advisory period for three years. It was held everyday
of the week for the first fifteen minutes of the day. The same group of kids
stayed with the same staff member until their graduation. In my opinion, if an
advisory program is going to be successful you have to have 100% buy in from the
staff. The reason we don't have advisory anymore is that some of our staff were
dedicated to it and gave 100% and others didn't devote anytime to it and their
groups suffered. This caused resentment among staff and the program was disbanded.
I felt like the program was worthwhile and was sorry to see it go. I think part
of our problem was we tried to dictate and plan to many things for teachers to do
during advisory when we should have just let people come up with their own ideas.
Also, you find yourself spending more of your own money on your group and that got
to be a burden for some of us. Good luck!!!
--------------------
It doesn't work very well. The students just end up sitting around and talking. If
a class isn't graded they won't do anything. It ended up to be a waste of time.
--------------------------------
We do a once a week 30 or 60 minute advocacy plus a once a week 10 minute advocacy
checkin during morning break. We use that time for a lot of things: community
service projects, speakers, class meetings, topical discussions, or just hanging
out and playing games. Students stay in the same advocacy group for all four years.
I've experienced it as both a parent and as an advocate and I think the program is
just great. Whether it's helping a student who is having difficulty with a teacher,
or being the parent who receives the phone call from the advocate just after the
car accident (that would be my daughter - minor accident, luckily) the program
works really well as a way to get to know the students, build a stronger school
community, and to have a trusted adult on campus who can support the kids through
teenage turmoil. I hope you get your program going!
-------------------
We have advisory at our campus, comprised of 3200 students.
Basically...
1. Advisory occurs at least two times every six weeks
2. It's a time to get to personally know these students to create a relationship
with them. In a larger school, kids become anonymous, so they know they have
someone they can talk to, ask questions and get answers from, etc...
3. Time spent during advisory is also academic advisement. Students get their
report cards during this time and we go over them individually, asking students
about why grades went down, congratulating them on successful grades, helping them
get set in a tutorial
4. Anything campus wide that needs to be distributed and talked about with students
are done during this time as well. It's hard to reach all of them in a homeroom,
where academics come first. Once again, it's about those relationships.
Karl Dowell
Media Director
Mustang High School
Mustang, OK
dowellk @ mustangps ( mailto:dowellk@mustangps ) dot org
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