Service Learning

What is service learning? According to NYLC, it is an approach to teaching and learning in which students use academic knowledge and skills to address genuine community needs.

Meaningful Service Quality Service Learning: Age appropriate Addresses relevant issues Interesting and engaging Encourages understanding Visible outcome

Link to Curriculum Quality service learning: Clear learning goals Aligned with curriculum Learn to transfer knowledge

Pro & Con = SHOUT OUT What are your thoughts??? Pro’s & Con’s about using, creating and implementing Service Learning

Advantages of Service- Learning Truly endless advantages of Service-Learning Hands-on learning experiences Provides connects to real-life applications Benefits both the school and the community Increases a student's self-efficacy & their development as a person

Interview with Laura H. How have you seen service learning affect your students? “Students have learned valuable life skills tied to our projects that have had clear curricular ties”. “The great part about service- learning, is that with a real life project, there is a reason to read informational text, or write persuasive papers, or calculate budgets with decimals. Students learn how to speak and make presentations, and conduct themselves with adults with ever increasing levels of self- confidence. I had a former student come back last year and speak to my students about how many times she went back to the experiences she had with service-learning projects as she faced new tasks as a junior high and high schooler”.

Disadvantages of Service- Learning Requires time and dedication from teachers (?????????????????) Organization, transportation, supervision Parental, administrative, & school board approval $$$$$

How do you plan service-learning? “Even though service- learning in its best sense should start with student voice, a wise teacher needs to plant seeds and ask questions that start to get students thinking. It is very helpful for a teacher to start to identify genuine needs and start asking BIG questions that cause students to think about solutions. From there, it's a matter of helping guide students to create a meaningful project to address that need. Sometimes the hardest part is trying to figure out how to reign in all the wonderful ideas that students come up with.” Advice for future teachers: “Start small! It's easy to let things get out of hand and become difficult to manage. Partner up with another teacher and get students to collaborate and share their success!” Advice from Laurie Hansen

-As Laurie said, this starts with the students. -What are some needs in the community. List of ideas found at… Initial Idea

4 Stages of Service-Learning 1. Preparation - identify needs of the community, research, plan, relating back to academics 2. Action - carry out plan, apply what they’ve learned 3. Reflection - take experiences and apply to the broader community and self 4. Demonstration - provide evidence of what was gained from experience

Service-Learning Cycle What is the Need? What should we do and how? What can we learn from this? What is the meaning? How is the community culturally diverse? What is the impact? Discover new perspectives. Celebrate personal growth and accomplishment

1. Preparation - find childrens books with similar theme, discuss these themes with other classmates 2. Action - read books to kids, discuss the themes, and have them draw why they liked the books 3. Reflection - How did you communicate your knowledge? How could you do this with another subject? 4. Demonstration - share your child’s picture with the class and talk about your experience Reading with Children Workshop

Life-Saving Workshop 1. Preparation - Research deaths in the United States related to sudden medical emergencies and read news articles about lives saved by everyday people and how anyone can make a difference. 2. Action - Learn how to use an AED and save a persons life. 3. Reflection - Do you feel as though you can go out and make a difference in the community? How does the community benefit from your experiences in this service-learning project. 4. Demonstration - Go out into society and use your new learned skills to make a difference by saving a person’s life.

Discuss the service-learning projects you came up with. Consider how you would plan this project and what you want students to take away from it. Group / Class Discussion