Service Learning Commons^™

We The People... Project Citizen, Civic Center For Education

Curriculum

We the People... Project Citizen is a civic education program for middle school students that promotes competent and responsible participation in state and local government. It actively engages students in learning how to monitor and influence public policy and encourages civic participation among students, their parents, and members of the community.

Mapping Community Assets Workbook, Diane Dorfman

Curriculum

Asset mapping, drawing a map of what is valuable in our communities, is an exercise in community development. If you are looking for a way to begin work towards organizing local people to take an active role in the place where they live, it is a good idea to start with what you know. If you don't know the place where you live, how will you know how to take advantage of all there is to offer? How will you know how to build a strong, active community without the foundation of assets that are already right there?

This workbook …

Cis Middle School Community Service Handbook 1998-99, Cis Middle School

Curriculum

Our educational philosophy stresses the development of the whole person. Its concerns extend beyond the focus on academic and intellectual achievement and encourage responsible citizenship in the world outside the classroom.

Expanding And Sustaining Partnerships: Characteristics Of Successful University Community Partnerships, Judith A. Ramaley

Public Administration Faculty Publications and Presentations

The Community Outreach Partnership Centers (COPC) Program requires adaptations in the university environment. We must examine and reinterpret (1) the roles and responsibilities of faculty;(2) the design of the undergraduate curriculum; (3) the structures of the university that create the capacity and support to sustain different working relationships with the community; and (4) our definitions of success and quality.

Challenges And Strategies For Success With Service-Learning In Preservice Teacher Education, Jeffrey B. Anderson, Terry Pickeral

Service Learning, General

This study examined challenges to the use of service-learning in preservice teacher education and also strategies used to overcome those challenges. We surveyed 123 teacher educators, education deans, and state department of education service-learning coordinators to gain their perspective regarding challenges most critical to the use of service-learning in teacher education. We then interviewed 42 of the survey respondents to obtain detailed descriptions of specific strategies used to overcome challenges. Results indicate the most critical challenges relate to lack of time for teacher educators to plan and implement service-learning, an already overcrowded curriculum, and a lack of alignment of service-learning …

The Status Of Faculty Professional Service And Academic Outreach In New England, Sharon Singleton, Cathy Burack, Deborah Hirsch

New England Resource Center for Higher Education Publications

In 1994 the New England Resource Center for Higher Education surveyed New England colleges and universities about the professional service faculty are engaging in, and the policies and structures that support such activities. Information was obtained from 120 institutions. As seen through a wide lens, there is considerable institutional commitment to faculty professional service. A majority of respondents reported that service is both a stated part of their institutional mission and that faculty, administrators and staff supported that commitment. However, a sharper focus reveals a gap between statements and practice: only a third of the respondents were able to demonstrate …

A Curriculum Addressing Issues Of Hunger And Food Security For Minnesota Youth, Fighting Hunger In Minnesota

Curriculum

Children have an incredible capacity for understanding the problems of other children, but often lack the opportunities to participate in the solutions. In order to provide children with that opportunity, Hunger Partners of Minnesota has produced "Kids for Kids: Fighting Hunger in Minnesota." "Kids for Kids" is designed to help children develop an awareness about hunger, understand the extent of the problem in their community and state, and motivate them to respond to their community's needs.

Teaching The Presidential Elections: A Social Studies/Service Learning Teaching Unit For The Middle Grades, Lisa M. Greco

Curriculum

Teaching the Presidential Elections by Lisa M. Greco is the first in a series of exemplary curriculum units on social studies and service learning developed by public school teachers and compiled by the Eastern Regional Information Center, School of Education, University of Massachusetts Amherst.

The idea for a series of curriculum units came from the National Service Learning Cooperative and the K-12 Learn and Serve America Clearinghouse who are affiliated with the ERIC Clearinghouse on Social Studies and Social Science Education. Both organizations wanted to showcase models of integrating service learning into history and social studies classes in elementary and …

Women's History Through Quilting, Tricia J. Lea

Curriculum

Women's History Through Quilting by Tricia J. Lea is the second in a series of exemplary curriculum units on social studies and service learning developed by public school teachers and compiled by the Eastern Regional Information Center, School of Education, University of Massachusetts Amherst.

The idea for a series of curriculum units came from the National Service Learning Cooperative and the K-12 Learn and Serve America Clearinghouse who are affiliated with the ERIC Oearinghouse on Social Studies and Social Science Education. Both organizations wanted to showcase models of integrating service learning into history and social studies classes in elementary and …

Enhancing The Middle School Curriculum Through Service Learning, Ron Schukar

Curriculum

On a warm April morning, 80 eighth-grade students from North Middle School in Aurora, Colorado, gathered in nearby Sand Creek Park to erect bat houses. "Why bat houses?" a local news reporter asked. "To control the insect population," one of the students answered. "We have reclaimed this park for all the plant and animal species that live here and for the people of our community who want to enjoy the surroundings," another student offered. "Because of the water and foliage, insects, especially mosquitoes, are a problem. We don't want the city to apply insecticides in the park, so we are …

Service Learning And Teacher Education: Mapping The Territory, Carole Cook Freeman

Service Learning, General

Since the mid-1980's there has been a renewed interest in progressive approaches to the education of intending teachers¹. In the context of this progressive teacher education activity, several distinct, but related, ideas converge and become the theoretical base for teacher education practices involving (community) service learning.² Among these ideas are renewed interest in authentic field experiences, multicultural education, child advocacy, democratic education, social justice, school reform efforts, autobiography and teacher thinking, and an emphasis on community service in K-12 education. In addition, teacher educators increasingly recognize the gap between the backgrounds of those who intend to teach …

Rewarding Faculty Professional Service, Kerryann O’Meara

New England Resource Center for Higher Education Publications

Scholars of higher education have long recognized that existing reward systems and structures in academic communities do not weight faculty professional service as they do teaching and research. In the past five years, however, many colleges and universities have found innovative ways to define, document, and evaluate faculty professional service in traditional promotion and tenure systems. Other institutions have created or expanded alternate faculty reward systems, including faculty profiles in service, merit pay, and post-tenure reviews emphasizing service. Based on data from a nation-wide sample, this paper discusses innovations in rewarding faculty professional service and offers conclusions and recommendations.

Animal Tracks Urban Communities Action Pack, Sara Bradley, Cathy Mcfarlane Nolan, Cheryl Dixon, Elenor Hodges, Charles Wilkinson

Curriculum

This guide includes Discovery, Awareness, Action and Appendices.

Teacher-Leader Cadre Institute Training Program, Teacher-Leader Cadre Institute

Curriculum

Phase I: Basic Training; Phase II: Educational Training Program Service Learning; Phase III: Integration & Follow-up; and Phase IV: Peer Coaching.

Organizational Structures For Community Engagement, Sharon Singleton, Deborah Hirsch, Cathy Burack

New England Resource Center for Higher Education Publications

In a time of public scrutiny of higher education, there is good reason - both for the survival of the campus and the survival of the community around it -- for institutions to promote outreach. Yet even within those institutions with formal structures -- mission statements, faculty handbooks, and presidential leadership that support community service -- the practical considerations -- work assignments, evaluation mechanisms and institutional rewards -- present real challenges. Service-enclaves are structures that exist or are developed within institutions that allow faculty and staff to work collectively as they serve their communities. While individual service work is no …

Shared Consequences: Recent Experiences With Outreach And Community-Based Learning, Judith A. Ramaley

Higher Education

Recently, William M. Sullivan asked "whether [higher education] has the ability and the will to respond through leadership, institutional design, teaching, and research, in creating a new form of intellectual life for the public good" (Sullivan 1996). A call has been issued for our nation's research universities to embrace public engagement (Kellogg Commission on the Future of State and Land-Grant Universities 1996), and to acknowledge that "higher education should be about values - the values of informed citizenship, the values expressed in a sense of responsibility ... "(Atwell 1996).

Educating A Committe Citizenry, Faith Gabelnick

Higher Education

If we want our students to acquire the democratic virtues of honesty, tolerance. empathy. generosity. teamwork, and social responsibility, we have to demonstrate those qualities not only in our individual professional conduct but also in our institutional policies," writes Alexander Astin in "What Higher Education Can Do in the Cause of Citizenship"' (Chronicle of Higher Education, October 6, 1995).

Getting Started: Growing A Service-Learning Curriculum, Kathryn E. Dewsbury-White

Curriculum

The Michigan K- 12 Service-Learning Center is a part of the School of Education at the University of Michigan. Supported in part by the Michigan Department of Education with funds from the Corporation for National Community Service and the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, the Center is dedicated to the promotion of service-learning as an effective strategy for educating young people from diverse communities.

The Center provides assistance, consultation and clearinghouse services to school districts, community organizations and universities in the state of Michigan and surrounding states in the Great Lakes region. The focus of the Center is to assist in infusing …

Community Service Throughout A School System, Anne Bishop

Service Learning, General

Teachers crave moments when student interest is high, questions flow freely, and learning is vivid enough to be retained. One such moment occurred when an elementary student in an environmental service project with wetlands volunteers said, "I learned that there are different types of wetlands and ours is a freshwater wetland that we are helping to stay fresh." These moments happen more often when students actively engage in experiences that involve helping others than during lecture, pencil and paper exercises, or assigned reading. Combined, service and learning become uniquely powerful (Kendall 1990). Facts learned in the classroom become a springboard …

Large-Scale Institutional Change To Implement An Urban University Mission: Portland State University, Judith A. Ramaley

Higher Education

In response to calls for accountability and effectiveness, public universities are reviewing their missions and are adopting measurable mission-specific goals. An emerging distinctive institutional type is the urban university, an institution characterized by the nature and extent of its responsiveness to the research and educational needs of complex metropolitan regions. This paper concerns the national environment for organizational change, a model for change, and a case study of one urban university that has pursued comprehensive and systemic change in its academic and administrative environment to direct resources to the support of its distinctive urban mission.

Implementing Service Learning In Higher Education, Robert G. Bringle, Julie A. Hatcher

Higher Education

The current interest in service learning provides universities with a unique opportunity to engage their students in community service, expand their educational agenda, and build reciprocal partnerships - with the community. This article discusses the implementation of service learning by delineating a set of activities for four constituencies: the institution, faculty, students, and community.

Community Service To The Elderly A Service-Learning Model: Guidelines For Replication, James M. Mccrea, Sherry G. Cottom

Curriculum

At the University of Pittsburgh, Generations Together, an Intergenerational Studies Program develops programs that bring young and old together in ways that benefit both generations. The University Challenge for Excellence Program (DCEP) works with entering students who are often first generation, mostly African-American, and who may be in need of special assistance during their first year. UCEP seeks ways to raise their self esteem, give them a sense of purpose, connect them to the University, and ultimately to retain them at Pitt through graduation. In 1994, these two university programs joined together with the Housing Authority of the City of …

Animal Tracks Water Action Pack, Karen Romano Young, Charles Wilkinson

Curriculum

This guide contains: Discovery, Awareness, Action and Appendices.

Community Service Leadership Conference, Bill Sigismond, Gary Thompson

Curriculum

Materials from the Community Service Leadership Conference, Saturday, February 3, 1996.

A Glipse Of A New Experiential Learning Theory Paradigm, John S. Duley

Service Learning, General

A pseudo NSIEE Occasional Paper printed as memorabilia for the Wingspread Service Learning History Project Conference, December 2-4, 1995. This was first presented as the closing Keynote address at the 1980 NSIEE conference in San Francisco. It was reworked on the basis of correspondence with Bob Sigmon and conversations with other illuminaries. I reworked it in its present form in June 1988 and submitted it to the then editor of Occasional Papers. For probably several good reasons of which I am not aware, it was not published. So on this occasion I have taken the liberty as a former editor …

Bridging Two Worlds: Professional Service And Service Learning, Deborah Hirsch, Ernest Lynton

New England Resource Center for Higher Education Publications

Authors of this essay, also published in the NSEE Quarterly, argue that proponents of service-learning and faculty professional service should join forces to pursue a common agenda of community outreach. At a time when colleges and universities are being urged to help solve society's problems, the faculty represents a virtually untapped resource. Certainly, there are presently - and always have been - individual faculty working in the community as consultants or as supervisors and guides for students. If the campus is to make a significant impact, however, the institution must be able to deploy departments, divisions, interdisciplinary centers and …

Tip Sheets: Risk Management In School-Based Service-Learning, Lisa Gray

Curriculum

Included in packet:

• Risk Management and Liability Tip Sheet
• Service Leaming Program Coordinator Job Description
• ASLER Standards for School-Based Service-Learning
• Students In Action (SIA) volunteer application
• Service Leaming Volunteer Contract
• Student Progress Report
• Parental Approval form
• Medical Release form
• Service Leaming Agreement and Release form
• Volunteer Driver Checklist

Service-Learning Guide Book: Designed For Curriculum-Based Service-Learning, Steven W. Dieleman

Curriculum

This guidebook includes: Part One -Essential Components of Service Learning; Part Two-A Process for Designing Service-Learning Opportunities with Students; Part Three-Administrative Forms for Service Learning; Part Four-Student Assessment and Reflection in Service -Learning; Part Five-Changing and Improving Schools and Communities through Service-Learning; Part Six-School-Business Partnership Promoting Student Achievement and Service-Learning; Part Seven-Examples of Service-Learning

Developing Active Citizens: Community Service Learning In Social Studies Teacher Education, Rahima C. Wade

Service Learning, General

How are social studies teacher educators to prepare teachers for working in a society fraught with social, environmental, and economic problems? If the true mission of our profession is active citizenship, we must help our students learn the value of engaging in long-term efforts to revitalize our democratic society and the skills to respond compassionately to those whose daily needs cannot wait for societal transformation. This article is based on the premise that social studies teacher educators are in a unique position to develop future teachers' commitment to giving their students opportunities for active involvement in the community and the …

Curriculum Integration And The Disciplines Of Knowledge, James A. Beane

Service Learning, General

At a conference on curriculum integration, a speaker who admitted that he had only recently been introduced to the concept said, "From a quick look at various readings, it seems that the disciplines of knowledge are the enemy of curriculum integration." Unwittingly or not, he had gone straight to the heart of perhaps the most contentious issue in current conversations about curriculum integration. Simply put, the issue is this: If we move away from the subject-centered approach to curriculum organization, will the disciplines of knowledge be abandoned or lost in the shuffle?