Developing Service Learning in Middle Level Schools

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Developing Service Learning in Middle Level
Schools

• The What, Why, Where, When, How and Who of
  Service Learning
• Dr Dwight and Ms Rose Redmon-Holliday
• P.O. Box 678, Murray, KY 42071

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What is Service Learning?

• Service learning
• Is an instructional methodology for use with all
  students and curriculums, but especially young
  adolescents
• Involves students in real settings where they
  apply academic knowledge and previous experiences
  to meet real needs
• Provides concrete experiences for young people to
  learn new skills, think critically, and test new
  roles in an environment that encourages
  risk-taking and rewards competence

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Still More What it is

• Links service opportunities and academic learning
• Encourages students to make contributions to the
  community
• Constitutes an integral part in the life of a
  school and its community
• Involves preparation for, reflection on, and the
  celebration of service
• Stresses youth participation in all stages of
  planning

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• I felt really good that I did something for
  someone else instead of just thinking of me. I
  learned not to be afraid of people who are
  hungry, not to waste food, and how to cook.
• - seventh grade student, Redlands Middle
  School, Grand Junction, Colorado

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Four Elements of What

• Preparation
• Service
• Reflection
• Celebration

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Preparation

• Focuses service learning activities to specific
  learning outcomes and preparing the students to
  perform the activities.
• You can link service learning to specific
  learning outcomes occurs in two ways
• Start with a particular service focus or theme
  and link to specific learning outcomes, or
• Start with a specific learning outcome and work
  to develop a complementary service activity.

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In a Health Class

• Students will learn the importance of a balanced
  diet
• Students will connect diet with food availability
• After visiting, students decide they can help the
  neighboring food shelf with a garden to provide
  fresh vegetables

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Service

• Service must possess two qualities
• It MUST be challenging, engaging, and meaningful
  for the students (address intellectual
  developmental stage for young adolescents)
• It should address a real need, so that students
  perceive the activity and their participation as
  relevant and important.
• Service is enhanced when students take an active
  role in designing the experience. The more they
  are involved, the more ownership they take of the
  program

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HeadlineStudent Killed in Car-Bike Accident

• Students in a self-contained classroom lost a
  classmate when his bicycle was hit by a car.
• In response, they propose a bicycle path to be
  constructed in his memory.
• After struggling with the city council, theyve
  raised enough money for the construction slated
  to begin that summer.

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Reflection

• The third element integrates the service and the
  learning, and differentiates the experience from
  voluntarism or community service.
• This encourages students to reflect on the
  service experience and allows them to understand
  the meaning and impact of their efforts, linking
  what they have learned with what they have done.
• Operational definition of reflection is the
  active, persistent, and careful consideration of
  the service activity the students behavior
  practices and accomplishments. It means asking
  the basic questions What am I doing and Why?
  What am I learning?

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I once hated to have students reflect, but now I
have choices

• Pictures of projects hang outside the classroom
  door -- each captioned by the students within
  that class
• Journals from student participants line the shelf
  near the door, each crammed with notes to and
  from each other
• As part of their Lang Arts class, students write
  Letters-to-the-Editor concerning their projects
• In a Civics class students work on their own web
  page and blog, including quotes of support from
  their Congress-people and Representatives
• A special needs student speaks slowly into her
  tape recorder of the experience from today

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Celebration

• Celebration is sharing across systems and
  organizations and among individuals involved in
  service learning. The students celebrate learning
  and achievement and the acquisition of knowledge.
• Celebrations can be on-going (incremental
  learning and service) or culminating (completion
  of units or projects) -- a book of essays,
  pictures, a party, a picnic, or youth outing.
• Celebrations involve community recognition,
  including the school community. Since service is
  more than doing good or simply helping the needy
  it is essential that celebrations recognize what
  the students have accomplished and contributed.

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Celebrate, Celebrate, Dance to the Music

• A student who seldom talks has the final solution
  as to where to plant the class garden his
  grandpa says they can use his back acres
• We finally have an appointment with the City
  Council
• Yesterday we handed over a check for the 345.92
  we raised in our penny drive for the Food Shelf
• We did it there is a new bridge being built to
  cross the creek at the back of the school yard
• Notes, Pictures, Plaques, Parties, a Thank You
  they are all celebrations! Celebrate it all!!!

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The Why Benefits

• Adult models for young adolescent students (cross
  generations).
• Student self-direction in applying classroom
  experience to real life.
• Parental involvement allows parents to see their
  student in new ways.
• Improves relationships between teachers and
  administrators as well as between students,
  teachers and parents.
• Service to the community can build bridges
  between schools and communities.
• Perceptions about students change as adults see
  the positive impact of adolescents.

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The Where of Service Learning

• Community Service Class
• Mandatory Service
• Collaboration with community-based
  organizations
• Targeted Service
• Club linked service
• Career and vocational
  education courses
• In-School service
• Special Events
• Summer
  Service

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About that Where

• Development of a Community Service Class where
  service is built into the class and the teacher
  makes students aware of service opportunities and
  prior to any service being performed they are
  trained in service learning protocol.
• Mandatory Service made a requirement for
  graduation the argument for and against this type
  of service is lengthy. Some argue that it is the
  fundamental responsibility of citizenship and all
  should perform service. Others think it is
  contrary to the definition of service allowing it
  to be required.
• A Collaboration with community-based
  organizations A school and community
  organization collaborate to meet the needs of
  that organization. The school organizes the
  service to meet those needs.

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• Targeted Populations Targeting under served
  populations (like mentally or physically
  handicapped). The working of mainstreamed
  students and the challenged students working hand
  and hand to accomplish a project (the service is
  infusion rather than the population themselves)
  The same with the elderly or other groups under
  served in the community.
• Club linked service School organizations and
  clubs are required to perform community service
  and the school can assist the clubs achieve these
  requirements (food drives, clothing drives etc.).
• Career and vocational education courses
  practicing the skills they learning various
  classes to assist the needy and less fortunate do
  work that they might be unable to (house repairs
  from Carpentry Classes or yard work with Ag
  students).

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• In-School service tutoring, mentoring or in
  school assistance of any kind can be considered
  service.
• Special Events Schools participate in short term
  or seasonal projects. In response to a pressing
  need in the community (food drives at
  Thanksgiving, or Christmas, or raise funds for
  charitable groups or events). 9/11 brought a
  large number of Middle school students and groups
  to raise money for the fire fighters and
  policemen of New York City. Meets the young
  adolescent need to solve problems and give back
  to the community.
• Summer Service many opportunities exist for
  students to work and have summer jobs which
  allows many organizations to give their permanent
  employees time off and hire the youth for the
  summer. Some organizations provide funding for
  just these types of opportunities.

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• The kids realized that somewhere tonight people
  are sleeping out in the rain.
• Steve Dibb, science teacher, Waseka Middle
  School, Waseka, MN

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The HOW of a Service Learning Program

• Attitudes and belief are more vital than
  structural conditions.
• Even if the structure exists,
• nothing will occur without buy-in.

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How?(This is the Leader Part)

• Identify the problem/issue/concern
• Research/Brain-Storm solutions
• Write/Create a plan of action
• Act, Observe, Record
• Reflect, Revise, Recreate
• Celebrate

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Identify the problem/issue/concern

• Listen to your students concerns
• Help identify some over-riding issue
• Attach it to curriculum and content -
• Do you need to be interdisciplinary?
• Will this involve other groups?

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Research/Brain-Storm solutions

• Do the research first. They cant provide
  solutions to things they know little about.
• Involve outside agencies/groups as much and often
  as needed
• Provide several possible service scenarios

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Write/Create a plan of action

• Identify the problem and the proposed solution
• Identify the Why!, How!, Who! of the project
• Student roles are important but each student
  manages their own set of notes class notes are
  kept safe and updated

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Act, Observe, Record

• Implement your students plan
• Observe and discuss progress
• Record progress and problems include
  discussions and possible adjustments

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Reflect, Revise, Recreate

• Create reflection models (written, visual, et al)
• - students reflect individually, based not only
  on their observations, but also class discussions
• Is there a need to revise the plan?
• - use discussions to change as needed

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Celebrate

• the big things the little things
• every step every group
• Watch for the hidden contributors those in
  the shadows student or community
• Celebrate not only the service but the
  learning
• Celebrate successes, learn from failures!

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Questions to ask as teacher-leader

• Are academic goals clearly tied to service
  learning?
• Is academic achievement clearly tied to service
  learning?
• Do I need to provide more education about a
  specific issue?
• Are all students engaged and challenged?

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• It teaches the special kids what its like to be
  givers rather than receivers of services.
• -- Jill Eisner, special education teacher,
  Harpers Choice Middle School, Columbia, Maryland

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Core Program Elements

• Orientation and Training
• Meaningful Service
• Structured Reflection
• From the work of Mark Langseth,
  Service-Learning Core Elements,
• The
  Generator (Spring, 1990), NYLC

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Orientation and Training

• Responsibilities / how to perform the actual
  service work
• Information on the individuals intended to be
  served
• Information about social/contextual issues
  related to the service
• Information about the service site (agency or
  schools purpose, functions)
• Problem-solving around difficult situations that
  may arise
• Group-building among participants

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Meaningful Service

• Is the program designed around a real community
  need?
• Are the students and the school/agency placement
  contact people significantly involved in defining
  and designing the service experience?
• Are the school/agency placements committed to the
  program goals and willing to work in partnership
  to achieve them?
• Is the service engaging, challenging and
  meaningful to the student?
• Do the school/agency contact people work
  effectively with students?

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Structured Reflection

• Guard against reinforcing inaccurate perceptions
  and biases
• Assist in problem-solving specific situations,
  issues, etc.
• Provide on-going education on general issues
  related to the service (family, socioeconomic,
  cross-cultural, developmental issues in cross-age
  programs)
• Help with values clarification as students
  confront new situations
• Integration of service and related learning with
  the rest of ones life
• Community building among participants

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The Who

• EVERYONE!

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Why everyone?

• Every student, every adult, every person can both
  give and receive a service.
• Your aim should be to mesh the giver and the
  recipient so that both develop an increased sense
  of self-esteem, of personal worth, of competence,
  and of confidence.
• In giving we grow in receiving we assist in
  growth and thereby grow ourselves.
• Increased interactions can increase the ability
  to work cooperatively with and to trust others.

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Everyone Benefits

• The more outside the realm of comfort we can push
  our students the more positive their attitudes
  toward living and working with people of diverse
  backgrounds can become.
• The more our students become involved with their
  community the more likely they are to continue to
  be active in that community.
• The more experiences students can gain the more
  realistic become their ideas about the world of
  work.

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Principles of Good Practice

• Reward learning NOT service
• Maintain academic rigor
• Set specific learning goals for students
• Establish criteria for selection of the activity
• Provide educationally sound measurements of
  learning
• Minimize the distinction between community
  learning and classroom learning
• Be prepared for uncertainty and variation within
  student outcomes
• Maximize the community links

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My Fav Four Resources

• Growing Hope A sourcebook on integrating youth
  service into the school curriculum. National
  Youth Leadership Council (NYLC), 1910 West County
  Road B, Minneapolis, MN 55413
• Route to Reform K-8 service-learning curriculum
  ideas. NYLC, 1910 West County Road B,
  Minneapolis, MN 55413
• The Complete Guide to Learning Through Community
  Service (Grades K9). Allyn and Bacon, 160 Gould
  Street, Needham Heights, MA 02194
• Youth Service A guidebook for developing and
  operating effective programs. Independent
  Sector, 1828 L Street NW, Washington, DC 2003

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• Service Learning is as Simple
• (And Complex)
• As that