COVID has hit everyone—or almost everyone—hard.
For students, the challenges of the pandemic are well known. Learners forced into “hybrid classes” where some students are present in the classroom while others are online are usually left dissatisfied: teachers can’t teach both groups effectively. Meanwhile, new studies are suggesting that COVID-related “learning gaps” and “learning loss” are real. According to the N.W.E.A., elementary and middle schoolers performed up to 6 percentile points worse on reading assessments in 2020–21 than in previous years.[1]
These challenges are also opportunities, however.
In this second series of articles, I will be exploring the benefits of combining private tutoring with online education. While the advantages of in-person learning may be obvious, the 2020–21 year has taught me—as a teacher—that different results can be achieved through online instruction:
- Instead of being at the front of my classroom, I can invite students to turn on their cameras and assume “center stage” on our computer screens. This made my Small Classes and Seminars much more focused on the students themselves than these classes had previously been.
- Similarly, instead of gathering around a single textbook or projecting an image on a distant screen, I can share a particular text or image with any and all of my students, who are able to view it comfortably. To my surprise, this actually facilitated group discussions and presentations, and some of the best which I have ever seen were delivered in my Shakespeare seminar last summer.
- Given the huge amount of online information available to students, online tutoring gives students the opportunity to think more critically about their sources.
Moreover, I know that I am not alone in these experiences. According to Kate Lee, a music teacher at Maine East High School in Park Ridge, Illinois, her students gave exceptionally impressive musical performances during the pandemic, including traditional Nigerian and Assyrian pieces. As Ms. Lee puts it: “Now, I want to give my students more of a voice, so […] they can learn about each other. And they can also learn about themselves, right?”[2]
To be continued…!
[1] Karyn Lewis, et al., Learning During COVID-19: Reading and Math Achievement in the 2020–21 Academic Year, N.W.E.A., July 2021, https://www.nwea.org/content/uploads/2021/07/Learning-during-COVID-19-Reading-and-math-achievement-in-the-2020-2021-school-year.research-brief-1.pdf.
[2] Qtd. in Marcella Bombardieri, “COVID-19 Changed Education in America—Permanently,” Politico, 15 April 2021, https://www.politico.com/news/2021/04/15/covid-changed-education-permanently-479317. Accessed 14 September 2021.
