1. An Introduction to Service Learning
Bringing Learning to Life
Laura Combs
Cover slide to display as participants log in

2. You should know that the education of the heart is very important
You should know that the education of the heart is very important. This will distinguish you from others. Educating oneself is easy, but educating ourselves to help other human beings to help the community is much more difficult.
-Cesar E. Chavez, social activist
A quote
Discuss quote and how it applies to SL
Quotable quote handout/worksheet?

3. Why is Service Learning important?
Math, Science, Social Studies, Languages, the Arts, technology are all applied, used and placed in context where they really matter to the student
Meaningful
Students benefit
Teachers reenergized
Morale booster
Increases parent student communication
Community partners receive much needed help
See book pg 2.Read definitions from highlighted area. Emphasis Math, Science, Social studies, languages, the arts, technology- all are applied, used, and placed and placed in contexts where they really matter.

4. What is Service learning?
“Service Learning connects school-based curriculum with the inherent caring and concern young people have for their world- whether on their school campus, at a local food bank, or in a distant rain forest. The results are memorable lifelong lessons for students and foster a stronger society for all.”
Cathryn Berger Kaye

5. Service Learning is a teaching methodology that…
Enables students to learn and apply academic, social and personal skills to improve the community; continue individual growth and develop a lifelong ethic of service
Focuses on both the service and the learning
Is appropriate for all students in all curricular areas
Encourages cross-curricular integration
Helps foster civic responsibility
Provides students with structured time to reflect on the service experience
Independent work: Create a T-chart. Service on one side and learning on the others. Add as many adjectives/verbs that you can think of.
Write a 10 word statement that defines Service Learning using words from the t-chart with an illustration or graphic.

6. What service learning can look like
Community Garden (Science, Math, ELA, History, H&C, Health)
Tutoring
Reducing the school districts carbon footprint
Peace making strategies for a Safe School environment (History, ELA, Health, PBIS, LOTE)
“Senior Senior Prom”
???? The options are endless
Read specific examples form page 8 depending on what grade level participants teach.

7. A definition
Service Learning is defined as a research-based teaching method where guided or classroom learning is applied through action that addresses an authentic community need in a process that allows for youth initiative and provides structured time for reflection on the service learning experience and demonstration of acquired skills and knowledge.
Pg 9

8. F A Q The question most students ask
Q: How is service learning different from community service or volunteer work?
A: The education of students and young people is always at its core. Students actively participate in the process of understanding, integrating and applying knowledge from various subject areas as they work to improve their communities.
The question most students ask
“Why am I learning this?” disappears.
Emphasis the curricular connection. The question most students ask, “Why am I learning this?” disappears

9. Quote
“Education of the mind without education of the heart is no education at all”
Aristotle
Comment on the quote

10. F A Q
Q: Can service learning be used with everyone? Or is it only for older or gifted kids?
A: Service learning works for kindergarten through college students and every grade in between. Cross-curricular integration occurs naturally helping students grow, retain what they have learned and improve in several areas simultaneously.
*Refer to “Special Needs and Disabilities Across the Curriculum” handout
Pg 9

11. Students have a “choice and voice”
F A Q
Q: How can I interest my students in service learning?
A: Students are involved in the entire process; identifying the need, researching the underlying issue, and contributing to the plans. Students have a “voice” and are more vested emotionally and intellectually. Service learning infuses relevance, purpose and meaning into whatever content is being taught.
Students have a “choice and voice”
Emphasis students have a “choice and a voice”. Strengths and talents acquired from the Personal Inventory form are displayed in the classroom and utilized constantly.
See handout “increasing Youth Voice and Choice”

12. F A Q Q: Does service learning mean more work for me?
YES-Initially, as you learn to use service learning as a teaching method and finding ways to integrate more engaging and youth-driven curriculum into your curriculum.
OVER TIME- The academic results and increased student engagement along with the satisfaction of impacting positive change in the community are well worth the effort!!
As you become more familiar with the methodology, the curriculum connections and community partnerships appear more easily.
Explain that as the teacher becomes more familiar with the methodology, the curriculum connections and community partnerships appear more easily.

13. F A Q
Q: Service learning is reaching out to the community What is community? How do I define it?
Communities can have different meanings in service learning that are influenced by geography, culture, situation, and need, so its definition often depends on the nature of the service learning activity or who’s doing the defining.
Perhaps the service learning activity may be working toward improving interpersonal relationships or safety on school campus. Community in this case would be defined as school campus, population, immediately surrounding area and parents.

14. Community continued
Other schools extend their communities geographically and socially to include the surrounding neighborhood, city and region.
Some communities are international in nature, even if the students never leave the school grounds. Examples of off site locations for service learning include: a local watershed to help with plant restoration, a refugee center where students assist with child care during adult English language classes. In these situations, community usually includes agency partners.
Recognizing and becoming active in a community builds a foundation for civic responsibility that will last a lifetime.
Recognizing and becoming active in a community builds a foundation for civic responsibility that will last a lifetime.

15. F A Q Q: Are there different kinds or categories of service?
A: Service can take many forms. Usually the “service” in service learning can be classified as…
Direct Service
Indirect Service
Advocacy
Research
These four are explained in detail on the next four slides.
Each of these four are explain in detail on the next four slides

16. 1. Direct Service
Students’ service directly effects and involves the recipients. The interactions are person-to-person and face-to-face, such as tutoring younger children or working with refugees. Students engaged in direct service learn about caring for others who are different in age or experience, develop problem-solving skills by following a sequence from beginning to end, and see the “big picture” of a social justice issue.
Four kinds of action handout

17. 2. Indirect Service
With indirect activities students do not see the recipients, however, their actions benefit the community or environment as a whole.
Students engaging in indirect service learn about cooperation, working as a team, taking on different roles, organizing and prioritizing.

18. 3. Advocacy
Through advocacy students provide a voice for an issue, particularly when members of a population may not be able to speak for themselves.
Student advocates learn about perseverance and understanding rules, systems, and processes.

19. 4. Research
Research activities involve students finding, gathering, and reporting on information in the public interest.
By participating in research-based service learning, students learn how to gather information, make discriminating judgments, and work systematically.
Independent work: Have them fill out the Fours kinds of Service Learning worksheet with examples of each.

20. President Barack Obama
“We need your service, right now, at this moment in history. I’m not going to tell you what your role should be; that’s for you to discover. But I am asking you to stand up and play your part. I am asking you to help change history’s course.”
-President Barack Obama, upon signing the Edward M. Kennedy Serve America Act, 2009
Independent work: Research the Edward M. Kennedy Serve America Act, 2009

21. F A Q
Q: Is one type of service learning better than another?
Each of the service categories offers unique benefits to the community and the students. All types of service can provoke questions that continue to engage students in study and learning. Students involved in service continually apply and develop their knowledge in ways that meet and enrich the academic curriculum.
Read from pg 11 related to indirect service.

22. FAQ Q: Does service learning develop youth leadership?
A: Absolutely! A well defined Service Learning experience offers ample opportunities for students to consider their own ideas and those of others, think critically about what occurs, anticipate possible outcomes, adjust plans, articulate their intentions in both written and verbal forms and assess the outcomes of their endeavors, all essential leadership skills.
The role of the teacher or adult facilitator is to note the areas that students need to develop and to provide that development i.e. interviewing skills, analyzing surveys, preparing press releases.
Communication is enhanced in the process ;listening, speaking, writing and calculating, symbolism, body language and interpretation. Emphasis that it is the role of the teacher or adult facilitator to note the areas that students need to develop and to provide that development i.e. interviewing skills, analyzing surveys, preparing press releases.

23. F A Q
Q: Does involvement in service learning help students stay in school?
A: Research confirms that when asked, a majority of students identified as “dropouts” stated they would have stayed in school if their classes included the process of service learning or pedagogies like service learning.
2006 study, The Silent Epidemic: Perspectives of High School Dropouts revealed 81% of the respondents said that “if schools provided opportunities for real world learning…it would have improved my chances of graduating from high school.”
See pg 12, mention that A survey in the 2006 study, The Silent Epidemic: Perspectives of High School Dropouts revealed that 81 % of the respondents said that “ if schools provided opportunities for real world learning…it would have improved my chances of graduating from high school.”
SL provides opportunities for analytical, creative and practical thinking- the 3 components to achieving “successful intelligence”

24. F A Q
Q: Can service learning inform students of possible careers? A: Most service learning experiences introduce students to community members from varied backgrounds who work in government, business and nonprofit agencies.
See pg 13

25. The Five Stages of Service Learning
Investigation
Planning and Preparation
Action
Reflection
Demonstration
If we keep in mind that the Common Core Learning Standards are the ingredients, then the Five stages are the recipe.
The 5 stages are linked together and can be experienced simultaneously. They are the sequence. These are explained on the following slides.

26. All Service learning begins with investigation via…
Stage One:
All Service learning begins with investigation via…
Personal Inventory; investigation of resources within the student population.
Community need; social analysis, documentation and monitoring
Make sure all have the handout The Five Stages of Service Learning” and discuss. See pg 16 to offer further details.

27. Preparation and Planning
Stage Two:
Preparation and planning offer a wide variety of activities as the teacher and students set the stage for learning and social action. Students explore, research and discuss:
Books, Internet, Interviews
Examine primary source materials
Consult Personal inventory
Pg 16 in book and flyer (5 core components)

28. Action “In doing we learn.” Stage Three:
This is the actual service portion of service-learning.
Must have value, purpose and meaning as students acquire academic skills and knowledge.
Learn, make mistakes, and succeed.
Timeline
“In doing we learn.”
-George Herbert, poet
Pg 16 goes into much further detail, important to elaborate…

29. Reflection Stage Four:
Reflection integrates the learning experience with personal growth and awareness.
A “pause button”
Students put cognitive, social and emotional aspects of the experience into the larger context of self, the community and the world.
Assess, Develop, Understand
Final Reflections may include ways to gauge results; community partners and others may also share reflections. Feedback from adults help students use reflections to elevate their ability to observe, question and apply their knowledge to other situations.
Reflection may occur before, during, and after implementation through the use of different approached and strategies. Final reflections may include ways to gauge results, community partners and others may also share reflections. Feedback from adults help students use reflections to elevate their ability to observe, question and apply their knowledge to other situations. Adults that interact with students must model reflective behaviors.

30. Another quote…
“Even if you are on the right track, you’ll get run over if you just sit there”
-Will Rogers, humorist
Discuss

31. Clarifying your purpose
What do you want most to accomplish from engaging your students in service learning?
KEEP REFERING BACK TO THIS QUESTION
The answer to this question influences…
The Five Stages of service learning
Community partners sought
The way students are grouped during the process
The way you integrate academics into the process.
Understanding first what you, as a teacher, wants to achieve for your students will guide you along. Excellent examples are found on page 33-34

32. Overarching themes reported by teachers from their SL Experience
Improved observation and analytical skills
To see modern applications on issues studied in ancient civilizations
To learn how to write editorials
To understand the interworking of government at different levels
To develop appropriate communication through interaction with elders
To examine the impact of global warming on everyday choices
To clarify misunderstandings, perceptions and biases about a population
To replace bullying with respectful behaviors
To examine conflict resolution strategies while studying wars
Improved retention of knowledge through application
Independent work: Write your overarching purpose on the Planning for Service Learning Document.

33. Through Service Learning, students can have a myriad of opportunities to….
Ask questions
Listen and retain
Observe
Identify similarities and differences
Work independently, with partners and in groups
Identify and apply skills and talents
Acquire assistance as needed
Be resourceful
Gather and manage information
Summarize
Test hypotheses
See book pg 50

34. “From what we get, we can make a living; what we give, however, makes a life”
Arthur Ashe, Athlete
comments

35. K-12 Service-Learning Standards for Quality Practice
1) Meaningful Service
2) Link to Curriculum
3) Reflection
4) Diversity
5) Youth Voice
6) Partnerships
7) Progress Monitoring
8) Duration and Intensity
Make sure all have received and printed handout for further oral explanations. Read detailed explanations from handout.

36. LEARN & SERVE