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What is Service-Learning?
 Picking
up trash by a riverbank is a service.
Studying water samples under a microscope is
learning. When students collect and
analyze water samples and the local
pollution control agency uses the findings
to clean up a river...that is
Service-Learning.
Service-Learning
is education in action:
developing critical-thinking and
problem-solving skills; taking on real
issues such as hunger, homelessness, and
diversity; and valuing people of all ages
with talents to offer. It is a method that
entwines the threads of experimental
learning and community service, meeting
educational objectives through real-world
experiences.
Learn More:
Educators
What
are the key elements of Service-Learning?
Core Academic
Learning
The service enhances the knowledge, value,
or skill goals of the class or school. The
Service-learning experience is an effective
instructional strategy that is designed to
help students meet state content standards
identified for the course.
Meaningful
Service
The Service-Learning experience helps to
increase
students’ sense of civic responsibility,
meets a real need in the community (as
defined by the community), is appropriate to
the students’ age or development, is well
organized, and results in a valued outcome.
Student
Voice
Students help to plan, implement, and
evaluate the Service-learning project. This
helps to ensure student buy-in, ownership,
and empowerment.
Collaboration
Students understand the relationship between
the school
and the community and the value of
school-community partnerships. All
stakeholders (including administrators,
social service agencies, community members,
students, and teachers) are involved in
planning, implementing and evaluating the
Service-learning project.
 Reflection
Reflection takes place before as
preparation, during as a way to
troubleshoot, and after to process service
activities. It allows students to understand
and reflect on the significance of their
Service-learning experience and how applying
skills and knowledge affects their
community, themselves as individuals, and
their own learning.
Students learn best
when learning
is used…
is completed cooperatively…
and when it’s for a meaningful purpose.
Jill Addison & Don Hill (1966)
Service-Learning is an educational strategy
that can work for all students in
all subject areas, in all grade
levels, and the possibilities are countless…
Elementary School
4th grade students
combine science, art and language arts as
they examine the local watershed and discuss
water conservation strategies to protect the
local water supply with a community partner.
They then prepare informational posters for
their school about water conservation (Life
Science- Living organisms depend on one
another and on their environment for
survival. Investigation & Experimentation-
Scientific progress is made by asking
meaningful questions and conducting careful
investigations). As a basis for
understanding this concept and addressing
the content in the other three strands,
students should develop their own questions
and perform investigations.)
*Source: California Department of
Education. Reprinted, by permission, CDE,
1430 N Street, Suite 3207, Sacramento, CA
9514.
Middle School
8th grade science
class designs, creates, and maintains a
community garden in a deserted lot in the
back of the school, providing a focal point
for geology, ecology, and agricultural
lessons at the school, and regular growing
produce that is donated to the community
shelters. (Life Science- Principles of
chemistry underlie the functioning of
biological systems. Investigation &
Experimentation- Scientific progress is made
by asking meaningful questions and
conducting careful investigations)
*Source: California Department of Education.
Reprinted, by permission, CDE, 1430 N
Street, Suite 3207, Sacramento, CA 9514.
High School
Spanish, science
and/or math classes examine the cost of not
recycling and the impact it would have on
the local community. Students create a flyer
for families in the community explaining the
value and the how to regarding recycling in
Spanish and English. (Biology/Ecology-
Stability in an ecosystem is a balance
between competing effects. Investigation &
Experimentation- Scientific progress is made
by asking meaningful questions and
conducting careful investigations. Math/
Probability & Statistics- Students know the
definition of the notion of independent
events and can use the rules for addition,
multiplication, and complementation to solve
for probabilities of particular events in
finite sample spaces.)
*Source: California Department of Education.
Reprinted, by permission, CDE, 1430 N
Street, Suite 3207, Sacramento, CA 9514.
Public education
does not serve a public. It creates a
public. And in creating the right kind of
public, the schools contribute to
strengthening the spiritual basis of the
American creed. The question is not ‘does or
doesn’t public school create a public?’ the
question is, ‘What kind of public does it
create?’
Neil Postman (1996), writer & sociologist
For information
about Service-Learning projects and
participation, check out these links:
Operation R.I.S.E.
Initiative launched by the Mississippi
Center for Nonprofits to gather resource
information to facilitate efficient,
effective hurricane recovery efforts in the
nonprofit sector
Veterans History Project
Group that collects and preserves stories of
wartime service through personal narratives,
correspondence, and visual materials
Champions of Caring
Organization that promotes sensitizing,
educating, and empowering youths to take
active roles in their communities
For more
Service-learning resources check out these
links:
Youth
Service California
Service-Learning site that connects
educators to workshop groups and provides
training and support for programs
California Department of Education –
CalServe Initiative
Provides research and instructional
strategies for educators, as well as links
to local and national Service-Learning sites
National
Youth Leadership Council
Provides training and consulting
resources, as well as access to skilled
professionals and customized training
methods
Service Learning
Lessons:
Kindergarten - Social Studies & Science
First Grade - English
Second Grade - Math
Third Grade - English
Third & Fourth Grade - Math
Fourth & Fifth Grade - Social Studies &
Science
Fourth, Fifth & Sixth Grade - Social Studies
Sixth Grade - Math, Language, Arts & Science
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Research
 DID
YOU KNOW...
That you can learn math, science, history,
and language by volunteering in your
community?
Between January and March 2005, the
Corporation for National and Community
Service, in collaboration with the U.S.
Census Bureau and the nonprofit coalition
Independent Sector, conducted the “Youth
Volunteering and Civic Engagement Survey.”
The survey gathered information from 3,178
American youth between the ages of 12 and 18
on their volunteering habits and experiences
with school-based service projects, as well
as information related to positive youth
development. The results are remarkable-
38 Percent of students participate in
school-based service (estimated 10.6 million
students nationwide). 64 percent of students
who participate in school-based service do
so as part of a class.
School-based Service
increases volunteering, and students who
participate in school-based service are more
likely to have volunteered through an
organization within the past year than
students who have not participated in
school-based service.
Family volunteer history affects
school-based service- students from families
with parents and/or siblings who volunteer
are more likely to participate in
school-based service than those who do not
come from participatory families.
To view the
complete survey, visit
www.nationalservice.gov
Findings from Individual Studies and Surveys
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Service Learning Newsletter
Read our Current Issue
-
Summer 2007
Spring
2007
Winter
2007
To
receive the Service Learning Newsletter
please contact Katie Lincicum at:
klincicum@volunteercenter.org
Help Service-Learning grow in Orange County!
Join the Orange County Service-Learning
Consortium or share your Service-Learning
projects with local educators by contacting:
Bette Weinberg
Regional Service-Learning Lead and
Certified Service-Learning Coach
Volunteer Center Orange County
bweinberg@volunteercenter.org
(714) 953-5757, ex. 135
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