Ideas for Enriching English Classes:
Writing
Intergenerational Writing:
Students in sophomore English interviewed elderly residents of the Gig Harbor community who had lived there for most of their lives and then wrote a book based on the interviews and research. This service project tied to the tenth grade English curriculum in the interview process, research paper writing, and essay writing.
Writing Children’s Literature:
Sophomore English students write a book for elementary students. This service activity is linked to the curriculum through journal entries, papers on childhood heroes and other childhood topics. This activity enriches the elementary curriculum and develops an intergenerational relationship between 10th graders and primary students. The books that are written by the high school students are permanently bound and students can donate the books to the elementary students or loan.
Writing About Public Issues:
Students can use their writing skills to help inform others about public issues or to share their own perspectives. Through letters to the editor, Amnesty International and on line projects, students can inform and influence others.
Reading and Literacy
Check out the Best Practices section for some very effective programs that enable students to use their own reading skills to help others.
Reading
Read with comprehension, write with skill, and communicate effectively and responsibly in a variety of settings.
Kids Care
PALS
Tutoring Research
Building Effective Curriculum
Curriculum-Based Planning Process
Project-Based Planning Process
Assessing Student Learning
Essential Questions
Reflection
Links to Resources
Reaching Out to Community Partners
Partnerships
Youth Voice
Linking Service Activities to the Essential Learnings
Goal One–Getting the Tools: Read with comprehension, write with skill, and communicate effectively and responsibly in a variety of settings.
Reading
Communication
Goal Two–Adding the Content: Know and apply the core concepts and principles of mathematics; social, physical and life sciences; civics and history; geography; arts; and health and fitness.
Math
Science
Civics
History
Arts
Goal Three–Exploring the Content: Think analytically, logically, and creatively, and integrate experience and knowledge to form reasoned judgments and solve problems.
Community Service-Learning for Creative Foods
Madrona Corps
Research related to goal three
Goal Four–Connecting Learning, Life and Work: Understand the importance of work and how performance, effort, and decisions directly affect career and educational opportunities.
Evergreen Exit Projects
Forks Study Skills
Migrant Education
Nooksack Valley
Pasco High School
Talbot Hill Ventures
West Valley City School
Service-Learning Internships
Ways to Enrich Classroom Teaching
Five questions can help you design a service-learning project that is aligned with a chose class topic or content. ( Questions developed by Jim and Pam Toole) This project-based approach to teaching and learning can provide students with authentic tasks through which they can learn and apply core classroom.
Teaching Others:
Could you teach what you have learned ( skills or knowledge) to an audience beyond the classroom?
Developing a Product or Performance:
Could your efforts be shaped into a product or performance to be given to someone beyond the teacher?
Problem Solve:
Could you help solve a real concern in the school or the community?
Address Policy:
Could you use what you have learned to advocate for a change in public policy?
Develop Philanthropic Ventures:
Could you write a grant or raise money to fund a project or social entrepreneurial venture?
Ideas for:
English
Social Studies (History, Civics)
Foreign Languages
Math
Science
Arts
Health
Technologies
Horticulture
Marketing/Business
Overview of Service-Learning
“For me, service-learning is the right thing to do for professional renewal, enrichment and meaning. It has been a way to bring both my heart and my students’ hearts into this thing I do: teaching. Teaching is a tough job; it demands a great deal of perseverance, honesty and hard work.”
-Roland MacNichol, former Teacher-Leader at Gig Harbor High School
What is Service-Learning?
Service-Learning is…
- Civics students helping new immigrants to pass their citizenship tests.
- Elementary students building a bird sanctuary as part of their study of bird migration.
- Middle school students capturing the history of an abandoned mining town.
- Industrial Design students designing and building a wheelchair for a child with multiple sclerosis
Service -Learning is a method of teaching through which students apply newly-acquired academic skills and knowledge to address real-life needs in their own communities.
Effective Service- Learning:
• Enables students to use classroom skills and knowledge in real-life situations.
• Connects youth with people in their communities and provides valuable service to the community.
• Fosters civic responsibility and a sense of caring for others.
• Provides structured time for reflection on the experience.
COMMUNITY SERVICE VS. SERVICE LEARNING
Service learning is initially a difficult concept for people to understand. That is because people immediately think of volunteerism . People need to understand the distinction between community service and service-learning. Service learning is a method of teaching which connects classroom content to the community in a way that is helpful to others. The primary emphasis is on enriching the learning that happens as students apply their knowledge to a community context. By contrast, the primary purpose of youth community service is to provide service to the community and to foster an ethic of service.
Is It Community Service
or
Service-Learning?
The outcome of Community Service-Learning
- Initiated and coordinated by either adults or students
- Initiated and coordinated by students, with adults as guides or mentors
- Students are asked to become involved with an existing project, or develop their own project
- Students do a community needs assessment, and develop their project choice based on their selection of a “real community need”
- Students may earn credit hours for community service participation
- Service project is incorporated into to the school curriculum
- Learning may or may not be present
- Academic learning component is intentional
- Reflection is not usually a part of the activity
- Students are required to complete a series of structured reflection activities
- Evaluation of the service activity is optional, and assessment-based: “How did we do?”
- Evaluation of the service activity is required (as an outgrowth of the reflection process) and is relationship-based: “How does this relate to what I am learning in school? To my future career? To my role in my community?”
Ideas for Enriching Health classes
Service as a Healthy Activity
Knowing that service promotes a sense of well being, many schools are including service in their overall health curriculum. By encouraging students to have a volunteer experience, health teachers hope to provide the skills and experiences students need to be able to make service a lifetime habit.
Students Applying Their Skills
- Take Emergency Medical Technician (EMT) training and join the local volunteer ambulance crew.
- Help the Red Cross collect blood.
- Conduct blood pressure screenings.
- Youth as Health Educators: HIV/AIDS Peer education is a perfect venue for service-learning projects that can be directed toward student-to-student efforts as well as student to community projects. Many groups also participate in mall-based health and wellness projects by setting up and staffing booths that provide information about HIV/AIDS. Some participate in AIDS Walks to raise money for local AIDS task forces, provide support to people who are living with AIDS by running errands for them, and reading to them.
- Teach first aid to younger students and to the public.
- Teach basic home emergency skills to young children who are home alone.
Ideas for enriching Marketing and Business classes:
Project Ideas:
Students from Central Valley High School implemented a variety of service activities within their School-to-Work efforts. For example, they have designed and built a central receiving station for Goodwill Industries.
REAL: (Rural Entrepreneurship through Action Learning) This project enables high school students in rural communities to develop enterprises which they can “take with them” as graduates. A graduate started a business in a high school that currently employees and contributes to the economic well being of the rural community.
Credit Union: Students at Grand Coulee High School run a credit union that serves the community as well as youth.
Riverside School-Based Enterprises: The following small business incubators have successfully operated at Riverside High School in Chattaroy, Washington:
- Printshop
- Thrift and Gift Shop
- Computer technology
- Youth Employment Agency
Campaign to “Stop Hunger in North Carolina”: Students reserach the occurence of hunger within their state. They prepare presentations and make posters to make others aware of the problem. Students volunteer at the local Food Bank at least one evening each month. Students collect food for a food drive, or plant a row in the school garden just for the Food Bank.
Faculty • Students • Community • Publications
Culminating Projects • PeaceJam Northwest