How to help online school students thrive
For the past five years, I have worked with students enrolled in online independent study programs. Independent study allows us to delve more deeply into their interests, enriching their learning experience.
I began working with independent study students in the middle of the Covid-19 pandemic, starting with English and history, and quickly found that I was incredibly excited by the work. I loved creating lesson plans, finding new ways to engage my students, and watching their enthusiasm for school grow. One of the first books I read with a student was The Awakening by Kate Chopin; my student grappled with the material and, when on a solid footing, began to seriously debate the issues at the heart of the text. I felt moved by seeing not only what the student had learned but also by what they themselves brought to the table in their own analysis of the text. I relished the opportunity to have discussions with my peers and professors in college about what we were reading and learning; to be able to create this experience for high school students is meaningful to me. Watching them learn not what to think but how to think on their own has been very fulfilling.
My favorite part about teaching independent study students is seeing them begin to take a genuine interest in their coursework. Having majored in history at Yale, my biggest passion is sharing my love of the subject with my students. Several of my students have started their courses feeling somewhat ambivalent about history, often mentioning that they find the subject unrelatable or difficult. To watch a student go from feeling this way to eagerly reading primary sources and doing independent research is one of my greatest joys as an independent study tutor.
I also love to see students become excited about literature. With one of my eleventh-grade students in her independent study English class, we had the opportunity to discuss and analyze The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald. As we read and discussed the book together daily, we circled around the theme of the American Dream, a concept the student was unfamiliar with. For a while, grasping the significance of this theme not only in the book but in American culture generally proved difficult. Something clicked, however, when we began talking about symbolism after finishing the book. Through our continued discussion and analysis, she saw what Fitzgerald had tried to communicate; moreover, she was able to pull examples from her annotated copy to craft an essay. In facilitating a positive learning experience, I was able to watch this student grow as a reader and writer.
A similar transformation is possible even when a student arrives already capable. One ninth grade student came to me having completed most of his coursework for the year, with one exception: World History, which he had set aside, finding it difficult to engage with despite genuine enthusiasm for his other subjects. He was looking for something beyond what the online platform offered — more challenge, more substance, more reason to care.
Early in our work together, we turned to the Code of Hammurabi. Rather than working through the text in isolation, I designed a lesson that asked him to compare those laws to other legal codes from the ancient world, with room to draw connections to modern law as well. Something shifted. He arrived to our next session eager to share his thinking, speaking about Hammurabi's code from a place of real knowledge and genuine opinion. By the end of that unit he could articulate not only what ancient legal codes contained, but how modern law has been shaped by, and departed from, those foundations — a meaningful exercise in both critical reading and historical thinking. Students attend online school for a variety of reasons. High-level athletes or those who need a more flexible schedule find that pursuing an independent study education benefits them greatly. Online school often allows a student to pursue their passions, whether academic or extracurricular, that a brick-and-mortar school cannot.
For families who choose to enroll their students in online independent study programs, including Laurel Springs, Greenways, and Excel, the lack of face-to-face teaching and structure can present difficulties. Students and families can underestimate the challenge of staying on top of work, learning material entirely by oneself, and the lack of consistent feedback. Though online school presents flexibility, students can come to feel burdened by maintaining a learning schedule or structuring long-term projects on their own. A brick-and-mortar school provides concrete deadlines, which online schools often do not. Flexibility can therefore become a problem.
The students I work with most often are not struggling because they lack ability. When parents first reach out, they frequently describe a child who is capable but unmotivated: someone who gets through the work but doesn't seem to be getting much out of it. What I tend to observe, however, is students without structured guidance to anchor their learning.
Online platforms vary widely in the scaffolding they provide. Without consistent prompting, many students skim through assignments rather than engaging with them deeply. Dense texts go unprocessed because there are no guiding questions to slow a student down and direct their attention. Writing assignments get completed without anyone teaching the student how to construct an argument, build a paragraph, or move from evidence to analysis. The work gets done, technically, but the learning doesn't always follow.
These students often don't feel particularly passionate about their coursework either and that absence of engagement compounds everything else. What independent study coaching offers is both structured, consistent time with the material and new ways of approaching it. When a student has someone in their corner who brings genuine intellectual curiosity to the work alongside clear academic expectations, motivation tends to follow.
On the other hand, some students need more of a challenge than their online school offers. Students may find the work too easy or lack the opportunity for serious intellectual engagement with material. Many students also want a more intense college preparatory experience, which independent study tutoring can offer.
What I realized early on is that independent study students, given the one-on-one environment, need a way to feel pulled into the material. They need creative approaches to their learning and a space that facilitates their own critical thinking. Additionally, students need a solid rapport with someone who can support them through their schooling. In an environment without peers, an academic mentor can be a meaningful presence throughout their education. I have noticed that students gain more confidence in themselves when they are pushed to answer difficult questions on their own — when they say "I don't know" and, with time, begin to answer those questions thoughtfully and independently.
As I have continued to work with independent study students, I continuously evolve my teaching to meet the needs of different students. One student may struggle with bringing research material into a coherent outline for a history essay; another may find the language of Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison challenging to comprehend. Each scenario demands taking time to understand not only the particular challenge, but also the student's learning style.
In practice, we meet three or more times each week, in person or over Zoom, for sessions of roughly two hours depending on the student's workload and needs. The rhythm is consistent by design. Within each session we move through the work together: reviewing assignments, working through new material, discussing reading, and addressing whatever the platform has assigned alongside whatever we have brought in additionally. Between sessions, students are given both short- and long-term assignments that keep the work moving forward and build the habit of independent follow-through.
That regularity matters as much as anything else. For students in online programs, the week can easily lose its shape without external structure to hold it. Consistent sessions create the academic cadence that brick-and-mortar school provides automatically.
A consistent independent study instructor can transform a student's academic journey. Whether in person or over Zoom, a tutor who specializes in independent study instruction provides the scaffolding for a truly customized academic experience.