EDSS 541 RR#7

Reading Response #7

Identify the key elements and process for Service Learning

                The first step in identifying what service learning is should be explaining how it is different than regular community service. Although community service is a valuable aspect of an adolescent’s young life it is something separated from curriculum and or educational standards. Service learning is possibly the same action, such as a beach cleanup etc, but with education and student emotional, social and intellectual growth as the priority of the activity. Service learning is an educational opportunity that can also double as community service but community service is not guaranteed to be considered service learning.   

                The key element of any service learning project is the connection that each student will make with the material, each other, the instructors, the community and themselves. The outcome of service learning is the authentic experience that is produced by doing and not just saying, practicing and not just professing, living and not just thinking. In the world of education it is the primary goal of the instructor to have the students be able to make connection and relevance to the material. It is one thing to be able to say, quote, and or regurgitate the material but it is more important for the students to be able to apply the material as well.

                The process of a successful service learning project can be a fairly complex collection of planning, collaboration, creativity, and reflection. The most important part of a project will be the design and planning since at the heart it is intended to be an application of the standards so it will be built around the objective. Just like our lesson plans for our various content areas, the service projects should be backwards designed. After the objective is defined, the next piece is the action, event, and or group in which explores the objective and how the standard/objective will be completed and or shown. This is the other major planning obstacle whereas you first need to find the purpose and standard of the project then you need to plot out the logistics, without either your project will not succeed.

                Once the overall backwards planning and logistics are ironed out then there is the actual preparation of the project itself such as student readiness. The students must know and understand the rationale of why a beach cleanup has anything to do with history or why homelessness can be a product of racism. There should be an integrated series of lessons leading into, during and especially after the project’s completion. The final step in a successful service project will be reflection in regards to the students reflecting on their experiences and the instructors reflecting on the outcome of the project.