March 2006

Supporting Summer-School Students

Garfield High School, Karin Engstrom, College and Career Specialist

Students typically attend summer school to make up credits or get ahead for the coming year. One way to help both types of students is with online courses through the DLC.

Karin Engstrom, the College and Career Specialist at Garfield High School in Seattle, worked with a group of students taking online courses last summer. She offers sage advice for helping summer-school students reach their true potential.

Engstrom says that "staying in communication, more than anything else, and really being a mentor" are the two essential ingredients to successfully supporting summer-school students.

Start with accountability and structure

The first thing Engstrom had students do was sign an agreement. This ensured that students understood what was expected of them during summer school. Engstrom also created a notebook with all the syllabi and orientations from the students' online classes. "They couldn't get away from me," Engstrom says. "Once the students saw I was tracking their progress, that made a difference."

Engstrom had students complete their course orientations at the school so that she could walk them through if they got stuck and because she finds that students don't necessarily think that the orientation is important.

"It's structure. It's great!" Engstrom exclaims. "It helped students. I think they would say that they liked this process."

Communicate with students and online instructors

Students were required to come to school twice a week for two hours to check in with Engstrom and work on their courses. Since summer-school classes are condensed semester-long or year-long classes, students did a good chunk of their coursework at home. "That's why the check-in was important," Engstrom says.

Engstrom introduced herself to the online instructors right away, and let them know how she was supporting students on her end. And the instructors copied Engstrom on emails to the students. "I could read those and keep up on things and back them up," Engstrom explains. "The online teachers were great with the students. Very communicative, reinforced their work, but also tough on them. It was very rigorous."

Engstrom adds: "I believe in online classes, because they work. They're not for every student, but there are lots of students who take to online classes like water."

Be the students' cheerleader

"What students need is a mentor," Engstrom says. "And that's what I was. And I loved it."

Engstrom believes that a mentor is important, because a mentor supports students and holds them accountable but doesn't grade them. Engstrom feels that the fact that she isn't grading students allows for a different kind of relationship. "I'm there to be their cheerleader and encourage them. And that's an important part of the learning process."

"I have high expectations of students taking initiative. I don't accept excuses. I raised six kids. I know they can do it." And with a mentor like Karin Engstrom, the students know they can do it too.

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