| Article Index |
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| Service Learning: Engagement, Action, Results! |
| Service Learning pg. 2 |
| All Pages |
Gathering Information About a Community Need
All too often investigating the community need is cut short by relying on the obvious. For example, everyone knows there is hunger in the community so why can’t we just step in and start planning a food drive? If we skip investigation, we miss an essential opportunity to conduct “research.” Often a teacher hears the same questions when a research assignment is given, “What do you want me to do?” or “How long does it have to be?” And for the vast majority of students this math equation rings true: Research = Google. In workshops, I dramatically alter this equation to: Research Google, as students and even teachers gasp!
In my approach to service learning, as students gather information about a community need, they explore four ways to do research:
• Media—includes books, Internet, radio, film, newspapers, magazines. If a newspaper has a cover story about homelessness three times in a month, that’s an indicator of need.
• Interviews—usually with a person who has expertise in the subject matter through experience or study.
• Experience and Observation—experience is usually what we bring from our past and observation is our deliberate noticing. This active process draws on many of the multiple intelligences.
• Survey—gathering response from groups of people who may have varying degrees of knowledge about the subject. Students develop diverse skills by compiling, conducting, and analyzing surveys.
Students usually gravitate towards interviews, observation, and personal experiences for their dynamic quality and the first hand learning. These processes also add to the body of knowledge which is the ultimate intention of research. As students genuinely investigate the need through these modalities they move beyond the obvious—there is hunger—to, how hunger exists in our community, and in this revelation the preparation needed and the plan of action becomes more obvious. Who did the work? Who uncovered this? The students! Yes, first graders can conduct interviews that reveal needs and similarly middle school students can design impressive surveys, and high schools students—you get the picture. The result is buy-in. Students begin to own the process.
The Power of Engagement
Youth want to solve problems and improve how we live. The most powerful incentive is engagement. People have long asked me, “How do you motivate students?” One day I realized I can’t motivate anyone; motivation comes from within. What all of us can do is engage a person, and being engaged can lead the person to choose to be motivated. Intrinsic motivation—that’s what we are aiming for!
Your engagement in high quality service learning prepares the young people you reach and teach to be the best students they can be, and to be valued contributors to our collective well-being, now and in the future.
This article is adapted from The Complete Guide to Service Learning: Proven, Practical Ways to Engage Students in Civic Responsibility, Academic Curriculum, & Social Action (Revised & Updated Second Edition) by Cathryn Berger Kaye, M.A., © 2010. Used with permission of Free Spirit Publishing Inc., Minneapolis, MN: 800-735-7323; www.freespirit.com. All rights reserved.
Websites
Visit these websites for exciting opportunities for teachers and students to advance service learning:
Author Cathryn Berger Kaye’s Web portal for books, resources, and curriculum, plus information on scheduling Cathryn for a conference, school or district, university, or organization.
GoToServiceLearning presents examples of best practice service learning experiences meeting state mandated academic standards. Written by teachers, this easy-to-use format is based on the planning tool from The Complete Guide to Service Learning.
Designed for children, classrooms and youth groups, RandomKid takes kids ideas for a better tomorrow seriously and helps them solve real-world problems.
The National Service learning Clearinghouse has materials to support service learning in grades K-12, higher education, community-based initiatives, tribal programs, and programs for the general public.
EarthEcho International's Water Planet Challenge engages middle and high school youth with science-based environmental education materials, tools, and resources to take action that restores and protects our water planet.
Sign up for the weekly briefings from Youth Service America and keep up with grant opportunities and plans for Global Youth Service Day.
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Cathryn Berger Kaye, M.A. is the author of The Complete Guide to Service Leaning: Proven, Practical Ways to Engage Students in Civic Responsibility, Academic Curriculum, & Social Action Second Edition (Free Spirit Publishing, March 2010) and the Service Learning for Kids
