programs

AVID, Advancement Via Individual Determination

is a global nonprofit organization that operates with one guiding principle: Hold students accountable to the highest standards, provide academic and social support, and they will rise to the challenge. AVID’s kindergarten through higher education system brings research-based curriculum and strategies to students each day that develops critical thinking, literacy, and math skills across all content areas.

“The AVID curriculum, based on rigorous standards, was developed by middle and high school teachers in collaboration with college professors. It is based on best teaching practices in writing, inquiry, collaboration, organization, and reading, and it is supported by state and national content standards. AVID curriculum is used in the AVID Elective and content-area classes in AVID schools to guide teachers and students, while planning strategies for success, by focusing on time management and study skills (“AVID Secondary”)”.

At Mott Hall Science and Technology Academy, all students are given the opportunity to apply and interview for one of 30 seats per grade in our AVID elective classes. These students meet three times a week, following the AVID curriculum.

Although there are limited seats for our AVID program, its practices have been embedded in instruction for all of our classes. Learning-centered around WICOR, Cornell notes, Socratic Seminars, “confirm, extend, challenge” and many other AVID practices can be seen actively.

For more information, please contact our AVID program directors,  Ms. Hernandez, or Mr. Moore.

Citation: “About AVID” & “AVID Secondary”. AVID Center, 2016. Web. 15 Sept 2016.

International Baccalaureate Program

The International Baccalaureate Middle Years Program is a framework that provides students the opportunity to connect the content they learn to real-world issues and big ideas. In preparing them to be productive global citizens, the program considers a student’s development holistically: physically, mentally and emotionally. Throughout a student’s journey in our school, they also hone different approaches to learning which are skills such a critical thinking, communication and reflection.

This impacts a student’s learning since they begin to make connections between big ideas from different classes, although the content may be different. Students who dream of becoming doctors, lawyers, athletes or authors are given the opportunity to apply what they learn in class to authentic assessments which have them take on such roles and solve issues they may face. Classes also celebrate different cultures, exploring traditions, beliefs and practices students’ may not have previously encountered.

After three years of citizenship in Mott Hall Science and Technology Academy, our senior students complete a culminating project called the Community and Service Project. This project asks students to identify a local or global issue and to either raise awareness of this issue or indirectly or directly take action to address this issue. It also provides our students with the opportunity to show different aspects of the learner profile, utilizes their strongest approaches to learning and tie their project to a global context that is most important to them.

In 2004, Mott Hall Science and Technology Academy became the first New York City Public School to be authorized as a Middle Years Program. This achievement was a testament to the vision our principal had for our school at its inception and the hard work of our teachers, students, staff, and families.

Please visit www.ibo.org or contact our program’s coordinator, Ms. Otomo at yotomo@motthallsta.org 

New York Edge

“New York Edge (formerly known as SASF) is a non-profit organization and one of the largest providers of school-based after-school programs in New York City and the metropolitan region. They impact more than 20,000 students in grades K-12 typically in underserved neighborhoods.

Students from well-to-do families have every advantage.

Their private schools provide mentors, tutors, have vibrant arts programs, with visits to the Met and MOMA, and excellent student orchestras.

But in our Public School — Arts programs have been slashed, and a majority of students are so financially challenged that they qualify for free lunch.

New York Edge operates free after-school programs for 20,000 students in over 150 New York City public schools. Over the years they became known as SASF, an acronym that didn’t explain what they do. In research, many respondents thought they were merely a sports program they gave kids a few basketballs and let them loose in the gym. When in fact, they had vibrant academic programs, like chess, robotics, and college prep courses.” (“New York Edge”).

In our school, the program runs from 3:00-6:00 PM, Monday through Friday. The clubs that are offered for Fall 2016 are:

• Basketball
• Chess Club
• College & Career Readiness
• Dance/Step Team
• Drama/Theater Club
• Fashion Design
• Fitness/Healthy Cooking
• Leadership
• Martial Arts
• Self Defense/Martial Arts
• Soccer
• STEM/Robotics/Legos
• Visual Arts
• Volleyball

For more information, you can call 718-293-4017.

CITATION: “Homepage”. New York Edge, 2019. Web. 9 Feb 2019.

After-school Enrichment Program/Saturday Academy

In order to offer the best support for our students, we offer after-school and Saturday enrichment programs to strengthen academic skills and content knowledge. From late September until late April, our after-school program is available on Wednesdays and Thursdays from 2:30-4:30 PM. During this time, students receive homework help and work with their content teachers in English Language Arts and mathematics. Students also explicitly work on skills such as answering multiple choice or short and extended response questions from previous New York State exams. Our after-school program also utilizes an online program called “i-Ready”. This adaptive software presents your child with level appropriate readings, questions or mathematical programs to encourage growth at the pace of the student. For the 2018-2019 school year, the after-school program will start in October 2018.

Saturday Academy begins in December each Saturday from 9:00AM-12:00PM in our school. The academy differs from after-school as students follow a uniform i-Ready curriculum, differentiated by grade. The teacher picks a topic or skill that presents a challenge for the students assigned to them, and uses passages for modeling, group work and independent work. Breakfast is served for students who arrive at 8:30 AM.

Writers’ Odyssey

Founded in 2014 with the vision of Dr. Awosogba and our Generation Ready consultant, Mr. Dale Worsley, the Writers’ Odyssey provides students and teachers a full day to write for enjoyment in the fall and the spring. The purpose of this program is twofold: (1) to produce students who can express their understanding of content imaginatively and confidently in a variety of creative writing genres; and (2) to provide students the opportunity to find their voices through their chosen genre as they explore topics of personal interest.

Through this initiative, we aim to:

• Make writing enjoyable
• Take fear out of writing
• Make the act of writing  personal, important and relevant
• Allow students to find their voice, artistically and stylistically
• Provide experiences in a full range of writing in different genres
• Develop students’ understanding of the significance of the stages of the writing process
• Build stamina for writing
• Help teachers and students think like writers
• Demonstrate that content understanding can be expressed in creative ways

At the end of each Writers’ Odyssey day, an anthology of all student work from each grade is compiled and this work is celebrated. An exemplar of an anthology can be found here, “2017 Senior Writers’ Odyssey Anthology”.

For more information, please contact the program’s coordinators, Ms. Ruiz.