The Case for Service Learning

Facts about student engagement in school in the U.S. (Steinberg, 1996) Over one third of students do not take school seriously and get through the day by fooling around with classmates Half said their classes were boring Two-thirds say they cheated on a school test 90% copied homework from someone else 80% say it is not important to get good grades in school 20% say they don’t try hard in school because they are worried about what their friends might think 20% say disengagement is a result of confusion or difficulty of subject matter, particularly in math and science

Engagement Research Ames (1992), Strong, et al. (1995) and Anderman & Midgley, (1998) show that teachers who are most successful in engaging students develop activities that address intellectual and psychological needs, including work that: Develops their sense of competency Encourages self-expression and originality Allows them to develop connections with others Gives them some degree of autonomy

Engagement Research, cntd. Other researchers recommend: Ensure course materials relate to students’ lives and highlight ways learning can be applied in real-life contexts Allow students to have some degree of control over their learning Assign challenging achievable tasks Stimulate student curiosity about the topic Design projects that allow students to share new knowledge with others Develop caring and trust between teachers and students

Service Learning is a Promising Practice for Engaging Students! What is it? A way of teaching & learning that connects meaningful service to the community with classroom instruction Why is it useful? It supports the best practice recommendations of the experts for engaging students in their learning.

To engage students, Service Learning must be done well! Research shows repeatedly that without high quality, there is limited benefit to students.

Service-Learning Components INVESTIGATING a community issue through research and community needs assessment PLANNING the ways students will address the issue ACTION--performing the service activity REFLECTION--thinking about the impact on others and self, what worked and what did not, and the relationship of oneself to the world DEMONSTRATION--showing the impact of the project on self and others (especially to an authority figure) CELEBRATION of the impact

Support Our Troops Example in Chassell INVESTIGATE Guest speaker: the National Guard Internet research: What do troops need? What is already supplied? Create a baseline: a needs statement that measures the current situation

PREPARE What will the service be? Who are my partners? How will the kids contribute? What skills will the kids need--academic and civic? Do we need any “sensitivity” training? What content info is relevant? What are my learning goals?

ACTION Writing poetry & letters Working in a writing group for the writing process Gathering & organizing donations Promoting our project in the school & community Packing the boxes

REFLECTION: done throughout! Investigation: What did we learn from Mr. Collins? How could we help him? Preparation: What is a free verse poem? What is a metaphor? What are the features of a personal letter? What do we need to be sensitive about? Is my writing effective and vivid? Action: How could we organize our donations? How can we promote our project in the school & community?

DEMONSTRATION / CELEBRATION Viewing photos together Enjoying our voice thread with snacks Designing a display case Sharing about our project through a bulletin board near the gym

How does service learning connect to the common core standards? Examining the connection to English Language Arts & Literacy in History/Social Studies, Science, and Technical Subjects

What is embedded in the common core literacy standards that makes service learning a good vehicle for reaching them?

The heart of the standards: Make sure students are college and career ready by the end of high school

Common Core Literacy Goals in general… Create readers, writers, speakers, and listeners across content areas Develop literacy as an integrated skill for all fields, including social studies & STEM Provide students opportunities to conduct research and to produce and consume media in all content areas Address college and career readiness skills through general, cross-disciplinary literacy expectations

Fact: The New ELA Core Standards recognize that teachers in other content areas must have a role in helping students develop literacy skills. The reality: students are not ready to encounter the complex informational text required in college or the workplace. The new common core standards have a special emphasis on informational text and inter-disciplinary literacy.

Is Service Learning the vehicle…..to take us to our destination? …mastering literacy skills for common core standards …being ready for the real world

Features of the Service Learning Car… Students are in the driver’s seat of their learning Promotes career readiness and job skill identification through real world contexts Provides an opportunity for curriculum integration across content areas Fosters teamwork, leadership, mutual achievement, and social development

References Billig, Shelly. RMC Research Corporation, Michigan Department of Education, Common Core State Standards Initiative,