The Complete Guide to Service Learning

The Complete Guide to Service Learning and the Common Core The Complete Guide to Service Learning is used globally to assist in developing engaging teaching methods where students again and again meet and exceed the Common Core State Standards. The process of service learning provides a reliable and practical framework for inquiry, analysis, planning, interdisciplinary thinking, international mindedness, and application of knowledge and skills to meet authentic and verifiable needs. As educators and parents we want the best for our children. We aim to provide optimum learning experiences transferable to children’s lives outside of school that guide them to adulthood with a solid sense of personal efficacy and the ability to make choices and decisions healthy for themselves and our society. For this to actually occur, students benefit from real-world applications of their academic learning while they are still in school, using a research-based approach called service learning. This approach provides them with a laboratory to practice, review, reassess, and reflect upon their service, all with the guidance and support of knowledgeable teachers. With this approach, young children through teens can see the viability and purpose of their study. This process adds rigor to academics because students are depended upon, as well as builds interdisciplinary understandings and deepens learning, all while improving the viability of the Common Core State Standards. At the heart of the Common Core State Standards are seven “Capacities for the Literate Individual,” a “portrait of students who meet the standards.” The aim is to develop students who: Demonstrate independence Build strong content knowledge Respond to varying demands of audience, task, purpose, and discipline Comprehend as well as critique Value evidence Use technology and digital media strategically and capably Come to understand other perspectives and cultures This list and the specific standards outlined in Common Core State Standards provide an outline of what we want students to be able to do, however the how of the process is left to the educators—those who prepare and design the day-to-day programs and curriculum and greet learners as they arrive at this place called “school.” The choice is whether the classroom alone develops this kind of lifelong learner, or whether this is developed in a more authentic context for the application of the learning, whereby students recognize they already are people of value to society. Service learning has distinctive aspects that separate this pedagogy from what we often call “community service” or “project-based learning.” With high-quality service learning, students: Increase academic rigor through relevance and application of content and skills Participate in social analysis as they investigate an authentic community need, typically through action research using media, interviews, surveys, and observation Take initiative, make plans, and follow through on their ideas Engage in inquiry based problem solving Use literature—fiction and nonfiction—to advance knowledge Experience intrinsic growth rather than depend on extrinsic rewards Find out about an array of career opportunities as they develop as social entrepreneurs Make global connections to increase international-mindedness Integrate cognitive and affective development as they develop an aptitude for becoming reflective Apply acquired knowledge and skills in purposeful ways that benefit other people or the planet while showing evidence of learning This parallels many of the desired outcomes listed for the Common Core State Standards. The Complete Guide to Service Learning is used globally to assist in developing engaging teaching methods where students again and again exceed the Common Core State Standards. The process of the Five Stages of Service Learning provides a reliable and practical framework for inquiry, analysis, planning, interdisciplinary thinking, international mindedness, and application of knowledge and skills to meet authentic and verifiable needs. This well-established teaching pedagogy encourages curiosity and leads to discovery. In Chapter Two of The Complete Guide to Service Learning you will find numerous tools to improve inquiry, and research (through the action research approach), and documents to assist with all levels of planning and organization, all the while improving and strengthening the incremental 21st century skills necessary for learning and in life. Read more about these in Chapter 17: Building a Culture of Service. Also, as you read The Complete Guide to Service Learning be sure to look at the Making Connections across the Curriculum documents in each of the thirteen thematic chapters; these have CCSS references. Also, as you download the many tools and documents accessible through the Free Spirit Publishing website that accompany the book, you will find 33 templates of lesson plans—an elementary, middle and high school examples— for each of the 13thematic chapters in the book. You will again notice recognizable standards for both content and skills. In my approach to service learning, you will also find in each thematic chapter a Service Learning Bookshelf to assist with the literacy development of students as they explore and learn about the topics. Can we integrate service learning as a resource for high-level engagement while meeting Common Core State Standards? Absolutely! The Complete Guide to Service Learning is your go-to resource. —Cathryn Berger Kaye, M.A.