Service Reflection Toolkit Northwest Service Academy, Metro Center, Portland, OR www.northwestserviceacademy.org Why Reflect? We do not learn from doing, we learn from thinking about what we do. Research shows that reflection has some positive impact on the attitudes of the volunteers regarding service.1 However, the lack of reflection has a STRONG NEGATIVE impact on the volunteers’s attitudes about service and the service activity. Reflection is a crucial part of community service, which allows volunteers to look back on, think critically about, and learn from their service experience. Reflection may include acknowledging and/or sharing of reactions, feelings, observations, and ideas about anything regarding the activity. Reflection can happen through writing, speaking, listening, reading, drawing, acting, and any other way you can imagine. Benefits of Reflection2 _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ Gives meaning to the experience (was goal accomplished, how did we do, how is community served by this, how is this part of a larger effort, etc.) Provides an opportunity to establish expectations (individually, team) Can help volunteers understand the limitations and opportunities of the service site or community organization Relieves tension and provides re-energizing and renewal (especially important when service is emotionally challenging) Can create a sense of accomplishment that is crucial, especially where there are limited external rewards Can create a habit of appreciating ourselves Integration of service into the rest of one’s life – developing a “spirit” of service and civic-mindedness Improved service – As volunteers examine the effects of their behavior, they discover ways to improve the quality and quantity of their service. Can create a sense of closure, especially important after a long service period, project, or emotional experience. Personal and Team Development: _ Fosters life-long learning skills– develops an ability to learn from positive and negative experiences _ “Reality Check” – guards against reinforcing inaccurate perceptions/biases _ Volunteers gain a broader perspective of other’s experience _ Builds community among the volunteers _ Personal Problem solving increases personal empowerment, confidence _ Group problem solving creates shared understandings, open communication, and better teamwork _ Clarifies values as volunteers confront new situations _ Provides practice clarifying goals and making choices to accomplish these goals _ Encourages volunteers to do higher level thinking, as they look for root causes of complex issues _ Acknowledges gained skills gained builds confidence “A mind that is stretched by a new experience can never go back to its old dimensions.” – Oliver Wendall Holmes 1 “Key Elements of Service Learning,” Indiana Department of Education, Service Learning Program Info taken from “Learning Through Service,” Kate McPherson, Project Service Leadership, and “Possible Outcomes of Service Learning,” National Youth Leadership Council. 2 What? So What? Now What? This is a well-used and successful model to assist you in designing the reflection activities. Although you can derive learning from each question, focussing on all three will provide broader insights and keep participants from getting stuck on only the facts or just the feelings. 1. What? (Reporting what happened, objectively). Without judgement or interpretation, participants describe in detail the facts and event(s) of the service experience. Questions include: What happened? What did you observe? What issue is being addressed or population is being served? What were the results of the project? What events or “critical incidents” occurred? What was of particular notice? How did you feel about that? Let’s hear from someone who had a different reaction? 2. So What? (What did you learn? What difference did the event make?) Participants discuss their feelings, ideas, and analysis of the service experience. Questions can also be focused on the meaning or importance of the activity to: _ The Participant: Did you learn a new skill or clarify an interest? Did you hear, smell, feel anything that surprised you? What feelings or thoughts seem most strong today? How is your experience different from what you expected? What struck you about that? How was that significant? What impacts the way you view the situation/experience? (What lens are you viewing from?) What do the critical incidents mean to you? How did you respond to them? What did you like/dislike about the experience? _ The Recipient: Did the “service” empower the recipient to become more self-sufficient? What did you learn about the people/community that we served? What might impact the recipient’s views or experience of the project? _ The Community: What are some of the pressing needs/issues in the community? How does this project address those needs? How, specifically, has the community benefited? What is the least impact you can imagine for the project? With unlimited creativity, what is the most impact on the community that you can imagine? _ The Group (group projects): In what ways did the group work well together? What does that suggest to you about the group? How might the group have accomplished its task more effectively? In what ways did others help you today? (and vice versa) How were decisions made? Were everybody’s ideas listened to? 3. Now What? (How will they think or act in the future as a result of this experience?) Participants consider broader implications of the service experience and apply learning. Be aware to strike a balance between realistic, reachable goals and openness to spontaneity and change. Some questions include: What seem to be the root causes of the issue/problem addressed? What kinds of activities are currently taking place in the community related to this project? What contributes to the success of projects like this? What hinders success? What learning occurred for you in this experience? How can you apply this learning? What would you like to learn more about, related to this project or issue? What follow-up is needed to address any challenges or difficulties? What information can you share with your peers or community volunteers? If you were in charge of the project, what would you do to improve it? If you could do the project again, what would you do differently? What would “complete” the service? Whereas the “What?, So What?, Now What?” model focuses on group processing and discussion, ideal reflection activities allow the participants to reflect publicly and privately, utilizing a variety of forms of expression. 2 Designing a Reflection activity: Tips for Success An effective reflection activity should: _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ Have an outcome in mind (i.e. leadership, team building, improved critical thinking, acknowledgment) Be appropriate for the team (age, culture, etc.) Happen before, during, and as soon after the service experience as possible Be directly linked to the project or experience Dispel stereotypes, address negative experiences, increase appreciation for community needs, increase commitment to service Be varied for different learning styles, ages, etc. Actively involve the service recipients for a really compelling reflection session Be facilitated well for maximum participation, creativity, and learning Facilitating a Reflection activity: Tips for Success There is plenty of information and resources available about facilitating group activities. Some specifics for service reflection activities include: _ _ _ Seek a balance between being flexible to address member’s needs, and keeping the process consistent with the theme. In other words, if some notable incident happens during the day, or has been forming for some time, it will probably be on the member’s minds enough to prevent their presence in any other conversation. Thus, even if you have an outcome in mind, what needs to get said may be the most important thing to discuss or reflect upon. Similarly, the conversation cannot be allowed to veer with no focus: Reflection questions often lead to other questions, which lead to other questions . . . while these diversions can lead to great discussion, they can, as easily, go all over the place with little value for participants. Maintain focus by bringing it back to the theme or significant topic, and presenting “so what, now what” questions before leaving a decent topic. Use silence: People need some silence to reflect internally, some more than others do. Ask the question then wait. Ensure that all participants have an equal opportunity to become involved “The meaning of things lies not in the things themselves, but in our attitude towards them.” - Antoine de Saint Exupery The Toolkit Following is a collection of reflection activities, separated into the amount of time required. The intention is for reflection to be available and utilized any time, whether you have fifteen seconds or two hours. Endless supplies of activities are available from combining ideas from activities in the kit. This toolkit is also ever expanding, so please submit your favorite reflection activities to NWSA, Metro Center, 2044 E. Burnside, Portland, OR 97214 15 – 60 second activities: Posed question: Reflection does not require a product or a discussion. Gather the group, obtain silence, and ask a question (for ideas look above). Give a few more seconds of still silence. Posed sensation: Same as above, but ask participants to check in with some sensory stimuli (sound, smell, sight) and make a mental bookmark of the project with that observation. Capturing: Each participant makes a face, a sound, or movement capturing how they felt about the service project. Snapshot: Create a silent snapshot of the service project. One person starts with a pose or action related to the project, everybody else joins the “snapshot.” 3 1 to 5 minute activities: Question discussion: Randomly, or in a circle, each person responds to a posed question (such as “project highlight”) One to Three words: Each person shares one to three words to describe the service activity or how you feel about the service activity or anything else regarding the project. Journaling: Each person responds to a question in writing Poetry/Writing Slam: Take turns; each day somebody else will write a short poem or sentence about the project, then share it with the group. Sculptor: One participant chooses a topic and asks for a set amount of participants to be the clay. The clay people let the sculptor mold them into the sculptor's vision of their topic i.e. invasive plant removal or the plight of someone who is homeless or racism. 5 to 30 minute activities: What? So What? Now What?: To get to each step in the model, allow five to 30 minutes for group processing. Written Reflection: Pose three or four questions, using “what, so what, now what” model, and allow time for writing. (i.e. What you did, why/how you did it, how you could do it better) The Image: Prior to the project, each person writes or draws about the people or objects they will be working with (such as a tree for a tree-planting project or the community being served), the subject matter, or their feelings about the project. Revisit (or re-write/draw) it after the service project and discuss. Senses: Before activity, project, event or even before the first day or service, ask participants to share what they expect to hear, smell, see, touch and taste. The follow up after the day with what the participant actually senses Pictionary: Have a pictionary game about the experience and how you felt. Talk about it as a group. Parables/Stories: Read a piece of pertinent literature and have participants respond and draw correlations to service experience Letter to self: Prior to a project, have participants write a letter to themselves about their personal and career goals regarding the project, or feelings about the project or community. Place it in a sealed envelope, mail it to yourself or hand out again to the team after six months and reflect. Masks: Make a two-sided mask from a paper plate. Draw an image of how others might see you on one side, and how you see yourself on the other. Discuss the contrast. Or, could be work self/free time self, actual work/dream work. Gingerbread Models: Draw a large gingerbread person at the beginning of the day, with drawings/writings of what makes a good (mentor, urban forester, team member, etc.). At the end of the day, share what you did well, how you thought you could improve. Yarn Web: Stand in a circle with a ball of yarn. Each person throws it to another and says one word that explains what they will bring to the next project, something they appreciated in the person they are throwing it to, what they learned, etc. The yarn forms a web supported by the group. Use a thicker string, lower it, and have someone climb on, and try to support a person! (use caution with this one). Cartoon: Draw a cartoon that teaches something important regarding the service project. All on the Wall: Put a large piece of paper up on one wall or all the way around the room. Participants write or draw feelings/thoughts/learnings on the paper. Facilitator leads discussion based on writings. Recommendations: Compose a letter to your site supervisor offering suggestions for working with future volunteers. Lifeline Biography: Draw a line representing and plot significant periods/events (with writing or drawings) influencing who you are. Share with a partner or small group. This can be adapted many ways: do the same except using a river as a metaphor (where were there rapids, meandering, etc.) or do a Service Biography line (when first service experience, what influenced you, positive and negative impacts on your life) Object share: Each person brings in and passes around an object, and shares how the object is like them or the project they just did (pick a specific one) examples include: “what I contributed to the team, how I felt about this project, what I learned, etc.” The object can be something found in nature, a type of food, a book, etc. (pick one!) How did it taste: Bring a mixture of fruits and nuts, have them use these items as metaphors to describe their day, week, project, group interaction, etc, and answer the question, “how did it taste.” The, “what would you like it to taste like?” 4 30 minute to two-hour activities: Song, Poem, Collage, Sculpture, Written Story, Skit: Create something artistic as a large group, or individually then meshed together, to express what happened, how it felt, or what the service experience meant to you. It can incorporate what was learned, accomplished, challenges overcome along the way. Could be presented to people from organizations that helped, parents, community volunteers, etc. Interview each other: Break the group into pairs or triplets and have them interview each other about their service experience, take notes, and summarize a couple of things to the group. Teach: Teach others what you learned through this service experience. Put together instructions or references for learning more about it. Imitations: Each team member picks the name of another team member out of a hat, and imitates that person relating two or three positive traits/contributions to the team, and one quirky habit (something light – judgement is essential) Inventory: Develop an inventory for the community being served or your own community, regarding the problem you are addressing or work you are doing. What are the resources, who are the local leaders, what roles to certain organizations play, what relationships exist, what other work has been done, what are the various attitudes about the project, what are the challenges, where are they, etc. (see CNS document “By the People” for more info.) Media: Build a skill as well as reflect by writing press releases, taking pictures, contacting media, and obtaining some media coverage of the project. Poetry: Each participant comes up with a metaphor to represent where they are in life (or in service) right now. The metaphors are shared in the whole group, writing them on the flip charts. Break into groups of six, each group chooses a metaphor to write about, each person writes (stream of consciousness) for five minutes. Each person chooses two favorite phrases from their writing and weaves them together with the phrases from other participants of their group to compose a twelve-line poem. Appreciation/Acknowledgement Yarn Ball: (see above for more info) Each person states what he or she appreciate about the person they are throwing the ball to. Appreciation Cards: Each person writes their name on a card, or slip of paper. Then, the cards are passed around the circle, and each person on the team writes (and draws, if desired) something they appreciate about that person. When they come back to the person of origin, have each person take time to read the cards and make comments. Whisper-walk: The group forms two lines facing each other. One blindfolded or eye-closed person at a time walks down the middle of the two lines. People on either side of the line step in to the middle (if and when moved to), tap the walker on the shoulder, and whispers in their ear something they appreciate about them. People at the end of the line help guide the person back in line, then they take their blindfold off. Inside Circle: Each team member takes turns sitting in the middle of the circle with their eyes closed (or opposite the group with their back to the group) and remains silent while the rest of the team randomly share things they appreciate about that person. You might even have somebody writing down what was said. Imitate-Exaggerate: Each person in the team picks from a hat the name of one other person on the team, and imitates their positive qualities with exaggeration, until the other team members guess who that is. This can be done with the entire group at once, around some task or decision, then discussed afterwards. Longer-term Project or Team Experience activities: Scrapbook or Memory Box: Create a scrapbook of your memories with the team or project, including pictures, quotes said, skills learned, challenges overcome, etc. Letter to Yourself: At the beginning of the year, write a letter to another person or yourself on something like what your expectations or goals are for the year or why you choose to do service. Collect, save and redistribute at the end of the year. Share and discuss. Team Photo Trading Cards: You can add history, quotes, and service “stats.” Video: Shoot a video about the project or about the topic related to the project. 5 Display/Mural: Create a group or project display/mural, which chronicles the project. If utilized, this can be an excellent outreach tool for recruiting new members or community volunteers, or the public awareness of the project. Newsletter: Pool your service reflections, stories and pictures together to make a newsletter. This can be sent out to members, sponsors, staff, and community volunteers involved in the project. Journal: A little writing, every day, goes a long, long way. Report: Write a report on the project. Use photos! ABC book: Illustrated with one sentence, thought and/or picture for each alphabet letter. For grown-ups, use the project or organization name instead of alphabet! Journaling: A Primer Journaling is one of the best reflection tools. Ideally, the program or project would allow for a ten to fifteen minute period every day for the volunteers to journal; preferably at the end of the day or during/after a debrief. It is helpful if staff or the project leader provides substantial structure to insure quality, conscientious journaling, and even more helpful if the person leading the reflection activity is journaling themself! Regardless of the time allotted, it is important to encourage participants to write whatever comes to mind, and to not worry about grammar, spelling, punctuation, etc. This entails a commitment to confidentiality, that nobody will ever share what the have written unless they want to. You also want to be definite and clear about the time allotted, (five to fifteen minutes) and let them know when it is almost finished. Journaling Methods Clusters: Have people shout out words or phrases that describe the day. Ask each person to take two minutes to write five or six words in random spaces on their journaling page. Give a short speech about the interconnectedness of everything, the web of life, Quantum Physics, or whatever and ask them to do a free write focussing on those five or six items and how they are related. The Critical Incident: Choose an incident that involved the entire team and give them a couple of minutes to think about the incident. Then ask them to write a detailed, factual report of what happened, making sure to answer the four “W” questions, “who, what, where, when.” You can then have participants share their stories to see how they differ from another. Dialogue: A good one for developing observation and communication skills. Ask participants in the morning to pay special attention to conversations they hear throughout the day, including light conversations between staff and volunteers, volunteers and sponsors or stakeholders, etc. Ask them to pay special attention to mannerisms, accents, and the tone of the conversation. Later, have the participants pick a dialogue and duplicate as closely as possible how it went. This should be done in a light-hearted manner on a light-hearted day to avoid a “bashing” session. This is an exercise that gets better with time, as their observation and retention skills improve. Different Perspectives: A great one for developing empathy skills. Ask participants to recall a specific occurrence from the day that involved some degree of conflict. Ask them to assume the viewpoint opposite that which they actually held during this conflict (or the viewpoint they were the least empathetic with) and write a description of the conflict from this perspective. This can include what happened, their role in it, what they want, what they envision as the ideal solution. Good debrief questions are, “How did it feel to do this writing, how were you able to get in their shoes or how was it difficult, what is one thing you realized through this writing.” The Fly on the Wall: Ask participants to take a couple moments to reflect on the day (where they’ve been, what they’ve done, whom they’ve worked with, tools they’ve used). Then ask them to pretend they were a “fly on the wall” observing but not participating in the scene, and write a short descriptive passage based on their observations. You can also use any animal or plant or person that was near the project site. 6 Guided Imagery: Encourage participants to relax, close their eyes, get comfortable, notice their breathing, etc. and read a guided imagery. Then, ask the participants to free-write about what they experienced. The Free Write: The easiest and perhaps most effective journaling method, wherein people that think they “can’t write” or “have nothing to say” realize how much and how well they can write. For a predetermined amount of time participants engage in continuous writing by keeping their pens moving . . . even if only to write, “I don’t know what to write.” It is helpful to trigger the free-write with an open-ended sentence such as “I don’t think I’ll ever forget . . . “ or “If I could do one thing differently, I would . . .” or make up your own! Let participants know when they are nearing the end of the write time, then ask them how it went. The Letter: Have participants write a letter to themselves, a relative, a historical figure, a political figure, etc. describing the project and what it means to them, or ask for some piece of advice, etc. Good Reflection Writing/Sharing Questions: _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ What is service? What is the difference between service and volunteering? Has your definition of service changed? Why? How? Should everyone do service? Describe a problem the team has been having. List possible solutions. Make a list of the skills used and learned on this project. What have been the best and worst parts of this project? Describe a person you met on your project. What are their attitudes about the project, where might those attitudes have come from? What communities/identity groups are you a member of? How might this be related with your commitment to service? Have you ever felt hopelessness, despair, discouragement or burnout related to your service? How have you dealt with this? How can reflection help? What are some of the problems facing the world today? (mind map) How does your service connect or address these issues? Identify a person, group, or community that you got to know this year, who is significantly “other” for you. What are the needs or challenges facing them that particularly got to you? What is one way in which you’ve allowed yourself to be changed as a result of knowing these folks? What community need, work challenge, or public issue have you given the most deliberate, critical, analytical thought to this year? What are some factors and facts you looked at, data you considered? Who or what resources did you consult? Over the next two years, what’s one issue or challenge you would like to be a more respected authority on? How will this be a challenge for you? Dedicating ourselves to service rather than selfishness or our own comfort can be scary. We risk honestly getting to know others who are different, and come face to face, day after day, with pain, abuse, hatred, violence. What are two fears or inner worries you have, that somehow keep you from being the person of service you hope to become? What is something in your life that brings your courage, that gives you hope? What is one way in which you expect the community you are serving to nourish, nurture, or satisfy you? What are two ways you will take responsibility for that community? Summarize the most important things you will take with you from the experience. Your commitment to service can involve many things, including keeping your word (also being realistic when we say “yes”) and resisting the temptation, at least some of the time, to move on to new causes and needs. Think of something this year that you really didn’t want to continue doing, but you kept doing it the best you could. Was there something you got out of that? 7 Service Reflection Quotes “The reasonable man adapts himself to the world: The unreasonable man persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore, all progress depends on the unreasonable man.” - George Bernard Shaw “Nothing will ever be attempted, if all possible objections must first be overcome.” – Samuel Johnson “The universe is made of stories, not of atoms.” – Auriel Rukeyser “You cannot travel on the path until you have become the Path itself.” – Buddha “It is better to light one small candle than to curse the darkness” – Confucius “We didn’t inherit the land from our fathers. We are borrowing it from our children.” – Amish Belief “The best test, and the most difficult to administer is: Do those served grow as persons; do they, while being served, become healthier, wiser, freer, more autonomous, more likely themselves to become servants?” – Robert Greenleaf, Servant Leadership “All . . . are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny . . . I can never be what I ought to be until you are what you ought to be, and you can never be what you ought to be until I am what I ought to be. This is the inter-related structure of reality.” – Martin Luther King, Jr. "A human being is part of the whole, called by us 'Universe,' a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings, as something separated from the rest, a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and affection for a few persons nearest to us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circles of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty." -Albert Einstein "If you want to build a ship, don't drum to the women and men to gather wood, and divide the work, and give orders. Instead, teach them to yearn for the vast and endless sea." - Antoine De Saint-Exupery, The Wisdom of the Sands “Reading (or serving) without reflecting is like eating without digesting.” ~Edmund Burke "Not until we are lost do we begin to understand ourselves." ~Henry David Thoreau "We don't see things as they are, we see them as we are." -Anais Nin “No problem can be solved from the same level of consciousness that created it.” – Albert Einstein “No gem can be polished without friction, nor human perfected without trial.” – Confucious “Not everything that counts can be measured. Not everything that can be measured counts” – Albert Einstein “I was taught that the world had a lot of problems; that I could struggle and change them; that intellectual and material gifts brought the privilege and responsibility of sharing with others less fortunate; and that service is the rent each of us pay for a living . . . the very purpose of life, and not something you do in your spare time or after you have reached your personal goals.” - Marian Wright Edelman 8 ng i n ear L ce rvi tice e S 12 Prac K y the ualit h t wi or Q d ate rds f d Up nda Sta K-12 Service-Learning Project Planning Toolkit 2009 Updated Edition Created by RMC Research Corporation for Learn and Serve America’s National Service-Learning Clearinghouse K-12 Service-Learning Project Planning Toolkit This material is based upon work supported by the Corporation for National and Community Service under Learn and Serve America Grant Numbers 01CACA0012 and 05TAHCA005. Opinions or points of view expressed in this document are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official position of the Corporation or the Learn and Serve America program. © 2009 Learn and Serve America’s National Service-Learning Clearinghouse Photocopying for nonprofit educational purposes is permitted. Printed in the United States of America Cover image (LSA_0067) courtesy of CNCS Photo Office, © Corporation for National and Community Service, Office of Public Affairs Suggested citation for this document: RMC Research Corporation. K-12 Service-Learning Project Planning Toolkit. Scotts Valley, CA: National Service-Learning Clearinghouse, 2006/2009. www.servicelearning.org/filemanager/download/K-12_ServiceLearning_Project_Planning_Toolkit.pdf L122-9/ Planning Your Service-Learning Project: An Introduction Service-learning can help your students become better learners, classmates, and citizens, and can help them make a valuable contribution to their communities. However, to be successful, your project must be organized so that both student learning and service experiences achieve the best results. The materials in this planning guide are intended to help you and your students take the first steps toward creating an effective project. While the materials here are based on the research about what works, this planning guide is not intended to be a comprehensive review of the rationale for using service-learning or the research behind it. Rather, this guide provides practice tools and advice to help you to implement and improve service-learning in your classroom. These materials contain information about the five core components of a service-learning project: • • • • • investigation planning and preparation action reflection demonstration of results and celebration The information is organized into an overview and five chapters, each addressing the components. Assessment is discussed throughout each chapter. Each chapter includes two types of documents: guides and worksheets. Guides include a brief explanation of the particular component of service-learning being discussed, an example of how a realworld project has worked with this component, questions to guide your thinking, and suggested resources for further exploration. Each guide is also accompanied by a worksheet designed to walk you and your students through the process of planning each component of a service-learning project. Woven throughout the phases or components of service-learning, you will see ways to ensure that your program meets the Standards and Indicators for K-12 Quality ServiceLearning. Research shows that when these standards and indicators are in place, outcomes from service-learning are higher. K-12 Service-Learning Project Planning Toolkit Standards and Indicators of K-12 Quality Service-Learning Duration and Intensity Standard: Service-learning has sufficient duration and intensity to address community needs and meet specified outcomes. Indicators: 1. Service-learning experiences include the processes of investigating community needs, preparing for service, action, reflection, demonstration of learning and impacts, and celebration. 2. Service-learning is conducted during concentrated blocks of time across a period of several weeks or months. 3. Service-learning experiences provide enough time to address identified community needs and achieve learning outcomes. Link to Curriculum Standard: Service-learning is intentionally used as an instructional strategy to meet learning goals and/or content standards. Indicators: 1. Service-learning has clearly articulated learning goals. 2. Service-learning is aligned with the academic and/or programmatic curriculum. 3. Service-learning helps participants learn how to transfer knowledge and skills from one setting to another. 4. Service-learning that takes place in schools is formally recognized in school board policies and student records. Meaningful Service Standard: Service-learning actively engages participants in meaningful and personally relevant service activities. Indicators: 1. Service-learning experiences are appropriate to participant ages and developmental abilities. 2. Service-learning addresses issues that are personally relevant to the participants. 3. Service-learning provides participants with interesting and engaging service activities. 4. Service-learning encourages participants to understand their service experiences in the context of the underlying societal issues being addressed. 5. Service-learning leads to attainable and visible outcomes that are valued by those being served. Created by RMC Research Corporation for Learn and Serve America’s National Service-Learning Clearinghouse 1 K-12 Service-Learning Project Planning Toolkit Youth Voice Standard: Service-learning provides youth with a strong voice in planning, implementing, and evaluating service-learning experiences with guidance from adults. Indicators: 1. Service-learning engages youth in generating ideas during the planning, implementation, and evaluation processes. 2. Service-learning involves youth in the decision-making process throughout the service-learning experiences. 3. Service-learning involves youth and adults in creating an environment that supports trust and open expression of ideas. 4. Service-learning promotes acquisition of knowledge and skills to enhance youth leadership and decision-making. 5. Service-learning involves youth in evaluating the quality and effectiveness of the service-learning experience. Diversity Standard: Service-learning promotes understanding of diversity and mutual respect among all participants. Indicators 1. Service-learning helps participants identify and analyze different points of view to gain understanding of multiple perspectives. 2. Service-learning helps participants develop interpersonal skills in conflict resolution and group decision-making. 3. Service-learning helps participants actively seek to understand and value the diverse backgrounds and perspectives of those offering and receiving service. 4. Service-learning encourages participants to recognize and overcome stereotypes. Partnerships Standard: Service-learning partnerships are collaborative, mutually beneficial, and address community needs. Indicators: 1. Service-learning involves a variety of partners, including youth, educators, families, community members, community-based organizations, and/or businesses. 2. Service-learning partnerships are characterized by frequent and regular communication to keep all partners well-informed about activities and progress. 3. Service-learning partners collaborate to establish a shared vision and set common goals to address community needs. Created by RMC Research Corporation for Learn and Serve America’s National Service-Learning Clearinghouse 2 K-12 Service-Learning Project Planning Toolkit 4. Service-learning partners collaboratively develop and implement action plans to meet specified goals. 5. Service-learning partners share knowledge and understanding of school and community assets and needs, and view each other as valued resources. Reflection Standard: Service-learning incorporates multiple challenging reflection activities that are ongoing and that prompt deep thinking and analysis about oneself and one’s relationship to society. Indicators: 1. Service-learning reflection includes a variety of verbal, written, artistic, and nonverbal activities to demonstrate understanding and changes in participants’ knowledge, skills, and/or attitudes. 2. Service-learning reflection occurs before, during, and after the service experience. 3. Service-learning reflection prompts participants to think deeply about complex community problems and alternative solutions. 4. Service-learning reflection encourages participants to examine their preconceptions and assumptions in order to explore and understand their roles and responsibilities as citizens. 5. Service-learning reflection encourages participants to examine a variety of social and civic issues related to their service-learning experience so that participants understand connections to public policy and civic life. Progress Monitoring Standard: Service-learning engages participants in an ongoing process to assess the quality of implementation and progress toward meeting specified goals, and uses results for improvement and sustainability. Indicators: 1. Service-learning participants collect evidence of progress toward meeting specific service goals and learning outcomes from multiple sources throughout the service-learning experience. 2. Service-learning participants collect evidence of the quality of service-learning implementation from multiple sources throughout the service-learning experience. 3. Service-learning participants use evidence to improve service-learning experiences. 4. Service-learning participants communicate evidence of progress toward goals and outcomes with the broader community, including policy-makers and education leaders, to deepen service-learning understanding and ensure that high quality practices are sustained. Created by RMC Research Corporation for Learn and Serve America’s National Service-Learning Clearinghouse 3 K-12 Service-Learning Project Planning Toolkit At every point of planning and implementation, service-learning participants should assess the quality of their approaches to ensure they are meeting the standards and indicators. These guides and worksheets will help you and your students to implement a wellorganized project, including: ¾ choosing a meaningful problem for your service-learning project; ¾ linking the project to your state’s curriculum framework and citizenship and social-emotional learning goals; ¾ developing an assessment plan; ¾ implementing a high quality service-learning activity; ¾ designing reflection activities; and ¾ organizing a demonstration/celebration culminating event. Before you begin your planning, please turn to the Overview to read a description of the core components and ongoing activities of service-learning projects. Created by RMC Research Corporation for Learn and Serve America’s National Service-Learning Clearinghouse 4 K-12 Service-Learning Project Planning Toolkit Service-learning: An Overview 5) Demonstration/ Celebration 1) Investigation At Each Stage Both: Assessment and Reflection 4) Reflection 2) Planning and Preparation 3) Implementing the Service Activity A typical service-learning project includes five components: 1. Investigation: Teachers and students investigate the community problems that they might potentially address. Investigation typically involves some sort of research and mapping activity. 2. Planning and Preparation: Teachers, students, and community members plan the learning and service activities, and address the administrative issues needed for a successful project. 3. Action (Implementing the Service Activity): The “heart” of the project: engaging in the meaningful service experience that will help your students develop important knowledge, skills, and attitudes, and will benefit the community. 4. Reflection: Activities that help students understand the service-learning experience and to think about its meaning and connection to them, their society, and what they have learned in school; and 5. Demonstration/Celebration: The final experience when students, community participants and others publicly share what they have learned, celebrate the results of the service project, and look ahead to the future. Created by RMC Research Corporation for Learn and Serve America’s National Service-Learning Clearinghouse 5 K-12 Service-Learning Project Planning Toolkit Assessment is part of all activities to ensure that you can measure the learning and development that occur through service-learning, and to help you diagnose student needs, provide feedback, and improve instruction. These components are the building blocks of any service-learning project. Now that you have reviewed them, please turn to Chapter 1 to begin planning your service-learning project. Created by RMC Research Corporation for Learn and Serve America’s National Service-Learning Clearinghouse 6 K-12 Service-Learning Project Planning Toolkit Chapter 1: Investigation In the first phase of service-learning, Investigation, you and your students work to identify the community problem that will be addressed. The following graphic shows the steps in the Investigation phase. Investigation 1. Identify the “community” to serve (world, nation, state, or local). 2. Assess community needs (e.g., based on media reports, interviews, expert presentations, etc.) 3. Select a community need using criteria (e.g. relevance to learning, urgency, importance, student interest, and efficacy). 4. Engage in reflection activities. 5. Develop a plan to assess student learning. There are many approaches teachers use to work with students to investigate community problems. Often students engage in a community mapping activity. In this type of activity, the students walk through the community using a set of questions to guide their observations. They note what is going on in the environment (Are the sidewalks or pathways littered? Does the stream look and smell dirty? Are there community agencies around the school that serve people in need? Are there places for the elderly to sit? Are there homeless people sleeping on benches?). Community mapping activities often lead to selection of issues such as working with the environment, the homeless, senior citizens, hospitals, and other agencies that are in the neighborhood. Some people use a school mapping activity with younger children, where they investigate the issues around the school, such as how the outside of the school looks (walls, cafeteria, etc.) and discover that they may wish to engage in recycling or school beautification. Resources you can use for community mapping are in the Resource section. Another common approach to investigating community problems is to review the newspaper. Collect newspapers for about a week or two in advance of the activity, and then distribute them to the students. Have the students identify the various strengths and challenges at the global, national, state, and local level by cutting out the articles in the newspaper and listing them. Newspaper investigations tend to lead to working on service activities that are more global in nature, such as environmental issues, policy-related issues such as transportation, job training, technology-based projects, and working with children of prisoners, helping infants, and so forth. A third approach that some teachers use is some sort of brainstorming activity. Students may be asked to whom they would give money if they were a philanthropist, or which global, national, or state problem they think is the worst and that they would like to do Created by RMC Research Corporation for Learn and Serve America’s National Service-Learning Clearinghouse 7 K-12 Service-Learning Project Planning Toolkit something about. There are several tools you can use for this purpose, as listed in the forms section. No matter which of these approaches you use, it is good to do two other things. First, you should add a research component. Students should be helped to document the nature of the problem that they identified. Younger students can count the amount of litter they see, weigh the waste in the cafeteria, or otherwise document a problem. Older students can research the issue on the Internet or by conducting surveys of neighborhood people, their parents, or others. The idea here is to teach the students how to gather evidence. This evidence should be used to determine a baseline against which they can measure their impact. Being able to do this helps young people realize how much of a difference they can make and raises their sense of efficacy and desire to volunteer again. The second thing you need to do is help students come to a consensus on what community problems they will address. It’s good to have the students work in groups because they learning teamwork and collaboration skills and they are more likely to be successful. However, the students need to feel that they “own” the problem, so teachers need to use some way to have the students identify the one or two problems they will address. Some ideas for helping students come to consensus are in the Resource section. In helping students to decide, you may wish to keep four criteria in mind: ¾ relevance to academic learning – tie in to the curriculum or standards/objectives you want to cover during the school year; ¾ urgency and importance; ¾ student interest/engagement in the project; and efficacy (anticipating that students will actually be able to make a difference). Also be sure that students have voice in making the decisions and that they plan something that will be meaningful to them and to the community. Example: High School - Philadelphia, Pennsylvania At a high school in Philadelphia, the community partner assisted the teacher in helping students to develop a short community survey asking middle school students and community members to identify the top five problems facing their neighborhood and community. The students identified multiple problems and narrowed their interests down to two: helping children who were in the foster child system due to abuse or neglect or helping young people avoid underage drinking. The community partner then arranged for guest speakers on the two topics. The guest speakers on the foster care system included an agency representative that worked to place foster children and a person who had been a foster child and now was a successful lawyer and child advocate. The guest speakers on underage drinking included a community agency representative who discussed the extent of the problem and a physician who discussed how drinking affects the brain and impairs driving ability. After the speakers presented to the class, the students engaged in a dialogue about what to do and what they could best affect in the time they had available within the school year. They decided to see what they could do for foster children. The community partner helped the students brainstorm by reviewing a survey of foster Created by RMC Research Corporation for Learn and Serve America’s National Service-Learning Clearinghouse 8 K-12 Service-Learning Project Planning Toolkit children’s needs and the students also conducted Internet research and interviews of children living in a homeless shelter. The students found out that the children often were rescued in the evening or night time and removed from the setting with only the clothes they were wearing, so in the new setting, they had only used clothing and little of their own. The students decided that the foster children needed to have their own things, so they developed a service project to collect used suitcases to give to the workers who rescued the children. In addition, they collected stuffed animals and storybooks, and raised money to buy t-shirts and other clothing of various sizes. Guiding Questions As you and your students engage in Investigation, answering several questions may help guide you through the process: 1. What is the overall purpose of the service-learning project? What impacts do you hope the project will have on students and the community they serve? 2. How will you facilitate student choice of the “community” they want to serve? 3. What activities and resources will you provide to assist students in assessing community needs? 4. How will you use the criteria of relevance to academic learning; urgency and importance; student interest/engagement; and efficacy to help students select the problem for the project? 5. What content standards and benchmarks will working on this problem allow students to meet? 6. What civic and other learning goals do you hope to meet within the project? Ways to tie the project into academic, civic, and other goals and other aspects of planning are presented next, in Chapter 2: Planning and Preparation. Resources 1. The National Service-Learning Clearinghouse (www.servicelearning.org). The Clearinghouse is a repository for books, research, tools, program descriptions, and many other ideas for planning and implementing your servicelearning project. 2. Kaye, C. B. (2004). The Complete Guide to Service Learning: Proven, Practical Ways to Engage Students in Civic Responsibility, Academic Curriculum, and Social Action, Minneapolis, MN: Free Spirit Publishing. A comprehensive guide to all aspects of planning and implementing servicelearning projects, this book provides background information about servicelearning, ideas for projects in a variety of areas (e.g., the environment and social justice) and a “bookshelf” of youth literature appropriate for different grade levels and service-learning projects. Created by RMC Research Corporation for Learn and Serve America’s National Service-Learning Clearinghouse 9 K-12 Service-Learning Project Planning Toolkit 3. The Corporation for National and Community Service (CNCS), www.nationalservice.org The primary agency responsible for federal initiatives to involve Americans of all ages in service-learning and volunteerism, the Corporation administers Senior Corps, AmeriCorps, and Learn and Serve America for K-12 schools and institutions of higher education. Its website includes information for grant seekers and recipients, as well as a Resource Center with tools for designing servicelearning and community service programs. 4. The National Service-Learning Partnership (NSLP), www.servicelearningpartnership.org A network of teachers, administrators, students, and policymakers committed to expanding service-learning nationwide, NSLP’s website offers resources on planning, reflection, assessment, standards, student voice, funding, and other topics of interest for teachers at varying levels of expertise. Created by RMC Research Corporation for Learn and Serve America’s National Service-Learning Clearinghouse 10 Worksheet One: Investigation Part A. Getting Started How will you help the students identify a community problem? ¾ Community mapping? ¾ Newspaper investigation? ¾ Brainstorming? ¾ Other? How will you help students develop investigation or research skills? ¾ Teach them how to construct and administer a survey and analyze results? ¾ Teach them how to search the Internet, identify sources, and convey information? ¾ Teach them how to interview others? ¾ Teach them how to be good observers and documenters? How will you come to consensus on the one or two community problems to address? ¾ Consensus building? ¾ Dot voting? ¾ Other? How will you ensure that the project has: ¾ A link to curricular objectives? ¾ Urgency and importance? ¾ Student interest and engagement? ¾ Efficacy? K-12 Service-Learning Project Planning Toolkit Part B. Establishing a Baseline List the baseline information to document the problem. The baseline information should be quantifiable so you can revisit and see your impact at the end of the project. Examples: • Currently, our school has 50 pounds of trash every day and no recycling. • Currently, the incidence of children at the homeless shelter with a Vitamin D deficiency is 50%. • Currently, 90% of students at our school think that bullying is a big problem. • Currently, 2 senior citizens in the local independent living center know how to use e-mail. Your baseline statement and sources of evidence: Baseline Statement Sources of Evidence Created by RMC Research Corporation for Learn and Serve America’s National Service-Learning Clearinghouse 13 K-12 Service-Learning Project Planning Toolkit Part C. Weaving in Reflection All phases of service-learning should have a reflection component. You can weave your reflection in as part of the investigation activities or you can reflect on progress at the end of the phase. Examples of reflection activities can be found on the National ServiceLearning Clearinghouse website. Some sample activities include: ¾ If I Had a Million Dollars: A fun way to think about community problems that are important to you by having participants use a pie chart and divide up their funds for philanthropic purposes. ¾ What Worked and How Did I Do?: A reflection activity to help participants examine their own behaviors in helping the group come to consensus, and an investigation of the ways to persuade others. Part D. Assessing Your Effectiveness and Impact How will you know you were successful in the Investigation phase? What assessment tools will you use? Examples: checklist of research skills acquired; rubric on collaborative processes; essay on steps for decision making; assessment of interview skills. Your assessment plan: What you will assess How you will assess it Created by RMC Research Corporation for Learn and Serve America’s National Service-Learning Clearinghouse 14 K-12 Service-Learning Project Planning Toolkit Chapter Two: Planning and Preparation In the second phase of service-learning, planning and preparation, you, your students, and the community members with whom you work will identify the service problem, determine the specific service that will be provided, develop an action plan, identify the academic and other goals the project will meet, engage in reflection, and develop an assessment plan. The following graphic shows the steps in the Planning and Preparation phase: Planning and Preparation 1. Determine the nature of the service to be provided. 2. Identify academic, civic, and other learning goals. 3. Develop an action plan. 4. Engage in reflection. 5. Develop and conduct assessment. Students should have considerable voice in planning and preparation, making most of the decisions with guidance from adults. The action plan should have a detailed plan for how services will be provided, along with persons responsible, team members, timeline, resources needed, and indicators of success. An assessment of readiness for service and training activities should be included in the action plan. Many teachers use this as an opportunity to teach students how to organize projects or work and relate the planning to other relevant aspects of students’ lives. It is also good during this phase to weave in perspective-taking activities so that the students think about what it will be like for the service recipients, community partners, and others involved in the project. Administrative Tasks Making arrangements for students to carry out service-learning projects involves many administrative issues, such as scheduling, obtaining parent permission and involvement, gaining administrator agreement to let students miss traditional classes, arranging for transportation, and managing risk. Forms for organizing these tasks appear toward the end of this chapter. Elementary School - Wirtz, Virginia Fourth and fifth grade students decide to conduct a spring service-learning project that will benefit their local historical park. Some students customize and present a play by a local author about the history of their area, while others serve as tour guides for the park. To prepare students for the project, teachers engaged in several activities, including identifying the Virginia Standards of Learning in literacy, communications, history, and citizenship that the project would meet; forming partnerships with park staff, members of the Historical Society, and the original author of the historical play; planning lessons to teach students about the story, script writing, and public speaking; Created by RMC Research Corporation for Learn and Serve America’s National Service-Learning Clearinghouse 15 K-12 Service-Learning Project Planning Toolkit and familiarizing the children with the park. In collaboration with the service-learning coordinator, teachers also completed several logistical tasks, such as obtaining parent permission for park visits, scheduling transportation and chaperones, arranging a class visit from the author of the historical play, requesting parent assistance in making costumes, and organizing children’s story boards, and writing a coherent script. Guiding Questions As you and your students engage in Planning and Preparation, you may wish to address the following questions: 1. Once you and the students identify a potential problem area, what questions about the problem and possible solutions should they try to answer through their library and Internet research? 2. What is the specific service to be provided? How does the service relate to the overall purpose of the service-learning activity? How does it address the areas of impact that you hope it will have on the students and the community? Will it successfully address the area that you measured to establish the baseline of the problem? 3. How will you facilitate student decision-making about the specific type of service to be provided and the division of labor that is needed to implement the project? 4. What content standards and benchmarks will be met as students plan and provide the service activities? 5. What civic goals will the project address? What civic knowledge, skills (e.g., informed decision making, listening, expressing their opinions), and dispositions (e.g., tolerance, sense of responsibility for others, believing they can make a difference in the world) will be acquired? 6. What other learning do you hope students will gain from the project (e.g., social skills, career exploration, learning to manage conflict, and/or learning about themselves)? 7. How can you ensure that the community partners are part of the vision, planning, and preparation phases? 8. How will you assess the students’ readiness for the project? What do your students need to understand about the social problem, the community and organizations with whom they will work, the recipients of service, and themselves? What skills do they need to have (e.g., communicating with others, conducting experiments, planning activities) What attitudes and values should they have? What strategies will you use to ensure that students have the prerequisite knowledge, skills, attitudes, and values? 9. How will you weave reflection activities into this component? 10. What types of assessment will you use to determine progress toward meeting specific service-learning project goals and learning objectives while they are working on this phase of the project? Created by RMC Research Corporation for Learn and Serve America’s National Service-Learning Clearinghouse 16 K-12 Service-Learning Project Planning Toolkit Resources In addition to the resources listed under Investigation, these resources may also be helpful: 1. Florida Learn and Serve, www.fsu.edu/sl/standards.html Provides several types of resources to help teachers link service-learning to content standards, including profiles of projects designed by Florida teachers in different subject areas and grade levels, lists of the standards each project meets, and a table with all Florida standards and ideas for addressing them at each phase of service-learning. 2. The Texas Center for Service-Learning, www.txcsl.org/stars.php Offers several resources to help teachers plan service-learning projects, including S.T.A.R.S., a comprehensive rubric for assessing your service-learning project. The five points of the S.T.A.R.S. project provide advice on how to weave in student leadership, thoughtful service, authentic learning, reflective practice, and substantive partnerships. 3. Service-Learning and Assessment: A Field Guide for Teachers, www.servicelearning.org/library/lib_cat/?library_id=1727 Developed by a national group of service-learning practitioners, this downloadable guide suggests a variety of naturally occurring classroom and service activities, such as KWL, anchor tasks, and reflection that can be used as standards-based assessments. 4. Compendium of Assessment and Research Tools (CART), www.cart.rmcdenver.com A searchable database of tools for measuring service-learning and other youth development programs. The site provides descriptions of numerous instruments that can be used to measure all aspects of service-learning programs, including their design, implementation, outcomes, and community and school contexts. 5. QNA, www.ecs.org/QNA This searchable database has ways to construct your own assessments of civic knowledge, skills, and dispositions and school citizenship climate. 6. KIDS Consortium, www.kidsconsortium.org Based in Maine, KIDS Consortium is dedicated to facilitating the efforts of teachers, students, and facilitators to create and implement meaningful servicelearning. Two comprehensive guides for planning are available: o KIDS as Planners – A Guide to Strengthening Students, Schools and Communities Through Service-Learning o Reform, Resiliency and Renewal – KIDS in Action Created by RMC Research Corporation for Learn and Serve America’s National Service-Learning Clearinghouse 17 K-12 Service-Learning Project Planning Toolkit Worksheet Two: Planning Part A. Action Planning Form Project Title:___________________________________________________________ Time frame for the Service Activity: ______________________________ Lesson Plans Based on your answers to the questions in Guide 2, create lesson plans for each step in the Service Activity phase of the project. Step One: Researching the problem. Step Two: Selecting a solution. Dates: ________ Dates: ________ Goals: Goals: Materials and Resources: Materials and Resources: Activities: Activities: Assessment Plan: Assessment Plan: Created by RMC Research Corporation for Learn and Serve America’s National Service-Learning Clearinghouse 18 K-12 Service-Learning Project Planning Toolkit Step Three: Writing an Action Plan Step Four: Orientation and Training #1. Dates: ________ Dates: ________ Goals: Goals: Materials and Resources: Materials and Resources: Activities: Activities: Assessment Plan: Assessment Plan: Created by RMC Research Corporation for Learn and Serve America’s National Service-Learning Clearinghouse 19 K-12 Service-Learning Project Planning Toolkit Step Five: Orientation and Training #2 and introducing reflection assignment during service. Step Six: Students begin their service project. Dates: ________ Dates: ________ Goals: Goals: Materials and Resources: Materials and Resources: Activities: Activities: Assessment Plan: Assessment Plan: Created by RMC Research Corporation for Learn and Serve America’s National Service-Learning Clearinghouse 20 K-12 Service-Learning Project Planning Toolkit Administrative Tasks Making arrangements for students to carry out service-learning projects involves many administrative issues, such as scheduling (possibly getting permission for students to miss classes), gaining parent permission and involvement, and managing risk. What challenges do you anticipate related to each issue? What resources (people, financial, etc.) could help you and your students with these challenges? What are your final strategies for addressing each administrative issue? Administrative Issue Challenges Resources Strategies Scheduling the service experience Gaining administrator permission and support Gaining parent permission and support Transportation Materials and equipment needs Potential risks Created by RMC Research Corporation for Learn and Serve America’s National Service-Learning Clearinghouse 21 K-12 Service-Learning Project Planning Toolkit Part B. Project Overview Project Title: Subject area/Grade Level : Service problem: Part C. Linking service-learning to academic, civic, and other learning goals Purpose of the project. Academic Goals: Subject Area Model Content Standards (list the Benchmark or Indicator standard number.) 1. 1. 2. 3. 2. 1. 2. 3. 3. 1. 2. 3. 4. Created by RMC Research Corporation for Learn and Serve America’s National Service-Learning Clearinghouse 1. 22 K-12 Service-Learning Project Planning Toolkit 2. 3. Subject Area Model Content Standard 1. Benchmark or Indicator 1. 2. 3. 2. 1. 2. 3. 3. 1. 2. 3. 4. 1. 2. 3. Subject Area Model Content Standard 1. Benchmark or Indicator 1. 2. 3. 2. 1. 2. 3. 3. 1. 2. Created by RMC Research Corporation for Learn and Serve America’s National Service-Learning Clearinghouse 23 K-12 Service-Learning Project Planning Toolkit 3. 4. 1. 2. 3. Civic Goals 1. Civic Knowledge 1. 2. 3. 2. Civic Skills 1. 2. 3. 3. Civic Attitudes and 1. Values 2. 3. Created by RMC Research Corporation for Learn and Serve America’s National Service-Learning Clearinghouse 24 K-12 Service-Learning Project Planning Toolkit Other Goals (e.g., social skills, career preparation) 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. Created by RMC Research Corporation for Learn and Serve America’s National Service-Learning Clearinghouse 25 K-12 Service-Learning Project Planning Toolkit Part D. Weaving in Reflection Remember that all phases of service-learning should have a reflection component. You can weave your reflection in as part of the planning and preparation activities or you can reflect on progress at the end of the phase. Examples of reflection activities can be found on the National Service-Learning Clearinghouse website. Some sample activities include: ¾ Paseo Wheel: Form inner and outer circles to reflect on the preparation and planning phase. First ask the inner circle to respond to the questions, “What went well and what would I improve to make the planning and preparation phase better?” The outer circle listens, and then summarizes what was said. The outer circle then responds to the question, “What would we tell people to do differently next time?” while the inner circle listens. The inner circle then summarizes what was said. The group comes to consensus on the lessons learned that they want to convey to next year’s class. ¾ Transferring Learning: Remind the students of the action planning process that they used to plan their service-learning project. Then ask them to illuminate the steps they would take to plan a vacation, buy a car, or plan a wedding, using the same approach they used to plan the service project. Look for ways to parallel the steps, engage in the same type of consensus building approach, and the same sorts of assessments (how will you know you were successful?) Created by RMC Research Corporation for Learn and Serve America’s National Service-Learning Clearinghouse 26 K-12 Service-Learning Project Planning Toolkit Part E. Creating an Assessment Plan 1. Plan for assessing students’ readiness to learn and serve: 2. Plan for students’ progress during Planning and Preparation and the Service Activity (Formative assessment) Learning Goal Description of the assessment task (e.g., during student research, pre-service discussions or writing assignments, during the service itself, or on reflection during service) Created by RMC Research Corporation for Learn and Serve America’s National Service-Learning Clearinghouse 27 K-12 Service-Learning Project Planning Toolkit 3. Plan for Assessing Overall Student Achievement (Summative Assessment) Goals Summative Assessment Task Created by RMC Research Corporation for Learn and Serve America’s National Service-Learning Clearinghouse 28 K-12 Service-Learning Project Planning Toolkit Chapter Three: Action - Implementing the Service Activity Once you have completed the investigation, planning, and preparation, the next step in service-learning is to implement the service activity. Because it is the focal point of your project, it is crucial that you, your students, and the community members implement your service activities well. Typically the implementation phase includes training and service provision, along with the reflection and assessment that should be integrated into every phase. A good idea for reflection and assessment is to ask questions to help link the service to academic and civic learning and ask how students feel about the service and their abilities to make a difference. Even if your action plan is excellent, you should anticipate the types of problems that may occur and how you will address them. Many teachers include this in the training that occurs before the service. During the action phase, you want to be sure that the students are: • Engaged, actively exploring, using inquiry and hands-on approaches • Given opportunities to work with an adult other than a family member or teacher • Engaged in perspective taking • Given the opportunity to see that the service is genuinely meeting community needs High School – Humble, Texas At a high school in Humble Texas, seniors participate in a comprehensive, year-long project that meets all the criteria for high quality service. After participating in servicelearning projects through 9th, 10th, and 11th grades, 12th grade students enroll in a Senior Seminar, a capstone service-learning course. During the fall semester, students identify and conduct research on a global social issue about which they feel passionate concern. During the second semester, they work in teams to develop and implement action plans that address the global issue. Action plans must build awareness of the issue, include research, address a community need, and be sustainable after the end of the school year. Specific requirements within the Senior Seminar include: o A formal research paper; o Frequent advisory meetings; o Regular group meetings; o Three oral presentations, including a subtopic speech, social action speech, and a self-portrait (see below); o Reflection assignments including a social action directory, project selection sheet specifying service-learning objectives mastered or practiced, project design sheet, and project evaluation sheet; o A journal with at least one entry per week; o A log of hours spend on designing, planning, implementing, and evaluating the project; o Analysis of group dynamics as they related to workplace tools; Created by RMC Research Corporation for Learn and Serve America’s National Service-Learning Clearinghouse 29 K-12 Service-Learning Project Planning Toolkit o A self-portrait completed in a format of the students’ choice, including video, poetry, sculpture, painting, or another medium; and o A portfolio including all of the research project components: academic samples from each discipline, the self-portrait, a wellness plan, career shadowing reflection, and a social action plan. At the end of the year, students must give a formal presentation using multimedia in which they highlight their individual research and the project itself. Questions Answering the following questions can help you in the Service Activity Phase: 1. In direct service activities, students interact with recipients of service or the physical environment they have targeted for improvement. Given the service problem, what types of direct service activities could the youth perform? 2. In advocacy service activities, students try to address the underlying causes of a social problem by attempting to influence policymakers or elected officials. Could an advocacy component be added to the project to enhance the learning and help students feel an even greater sense of efficacy? 3. How can you adopt, adapt, or create a rubric for students to use that ensures the service activity they select demonstrates the standards and indicators of high quality service-learning? 4. How can you ensure that all students benefit from the service activities and that all students find them to be meaningful? 5. How can you ensure that students understand and find mutual benefit with service recipients? 6. How can you make sure that your community partners are playing a significant, positive role in the lives of the students? How can you maximize the potential for the partners to serve as role models? 7. How will you address diversity issues within the service project, both before, during, and after service? 8. How can you keep students engaged in the service over time? 9. How can you implement service-learning so that teachers and other adults also find the service to be fulfilling? Resources The resources recommended for other phases are also pertinent in this phase. In addition, you may find the following resources helpful, especially those that have guidelines or examples for implementing service projects. 1. Chicago Public Schools Service-Learning Website, www.servicelearning.cps.k12.il.us/Curriculum.html This site provides a toolkit for teachers with background information on servicelearning, a planning tool, rubric for assessing the quality of service-learning projects, and reflection resources and aids. It also offers complete curriculum guides on some topics such as aging, hunger, and poverty. Created by RMC Research Corporation for Learn and Serve America’s National Service-Learning Clearinghouse 30 K-12 Service-Learning Project Planning Toolkit 2. Learning to Give, www.learningtogive.org; also The League, www.leagueworldwide.org With a mission to educate young people about the volunteer sector, Learning to Give offers lessons, units, and resources for teaching about philanthropy and skills for giving back to the community. Lessons are standards-based and searchable by content and grade level. The League organizes the Learning to Give materials into group efforts with events, teams, and points for making a difference. 3. National Youth Leadership Council (NYLC), www.nylc.org As one of the most well established organizations in K-12 service-learning, NYLC offers many types of training, books, and technical assistance opportunities to teachers, including an annual conference called the National Service-Learning Conference. The NYLC website includes project ideas searchable by academic subject, grade level, project topic, and key word. 4. Paul Coverdell World Wise Schools Service-Learning Rubric, www.peacecorps.gov/wws/educators/lessonplans/ Linked to the Peace Corps, this site provides a series of service-learning lessons organized around the idea of the “common good.” Students explore the meaning of common good, then plan and implement a project based on what they have learned. The site also includes numerous ideas for international lesson plans and projects linked to Peace Corps activities. 5. Cesar E. Chavez Foundation, www.chavezfoundation.org The Cesar E. Chavez Foundation is dedicated to preserving the legacy of Cesar Chavez. The website has multiple sample lesson plans for service-learning, all of which are linked directly to the California State Standards and feature step-bystep guides, forms, and articles to read as part of the service-learning units. Created by RMC Research Corporation for Learn and Serve America’s National Service-Learning Clearinghouse 31 K-12 Service-Learning Project Planning Toolkit Worksheet Three: Planning for Reflection Part A: Checklist for Training and Orientation _____ Students have been trained so they know how to conduct the service and what is expected of them. _____ All students have meaningful roles to play. _____ Students have been given guidance on how to perform tasks well together. _____ The community partner understands and is on board with all activities. _____ Students have engaged in troubleshooting conversations (what to do if….) _____ Transportation has been arranged as needed. _____ Needed materials and supplies have been secured. _____ There are enough adult supervisors. _____ All safety and other risk protections are in place. _____ Parent permission forms have been obtained. _____ Permission for pictures and publications have been obtained. _____ The media have been invited (as appropriate). _____ Reflection activities to take place during service have been planned. _____ Explicit links to curriculum have been made. _____ Administrators are aware of and supportive of the activity. Part B: Weaving in Reflection Remember that all phases of service-learning should have a reflection component. During service, it is important for students to have many opportunities of varying kinds to engage in reflection. While writing in a journal is one favorite approach used by many teachers, be sure to give students other ways to reflect either through artistic means, through deliberate dialogue, or any of a multitude of different means. Examples of reflection activities can be found on the National Service-Learning Clearinghouse website. Some sample activities include: ¾ Create a storyboard: A story board is the devise cartoonists, advertisers, and some novelists use to capture the phases or tell the story that is unfolding. Students can storyboard their service activities, reflecting on the planning, and the specific action steps. ¾ Make a mobile or establish another type of metaphor. Students are often asked to represent their thinking in different ways on various tests. This reflection activity can be simple, such as asking, “What type of traffic sign does this experience bring to mind?” where students may say, “Yield” or “Slow down” or even “Caution, children at play.” ¾ Use the plus, minus, delta chart. This helps students identify what they liked, didn’t like and what they would change. Results can be used to revise the next set of activities. Created by RMC Research Corporation for Learn and Serve America’s National Service-Learning Clearinghouse 32 K-12 Service-Learning Project Planning Toolkit Part C: Assessment How will you assess the service phase of your service-learning project? One idea to consider is to use the rubrics on service-learning quality to have the students and other participants rate the experience. Another is to have the students engage in selfassessments about how well they collaborated, worked as a team, accomplished their goals, and so forth. What will you do? Idea for Assessment How, when, and where to administer Created by RMC Research Corporation for Learn and Serve America’s National Service-Learning Clearinghouse 33 K-12 Service-Learning Project Planning Toolkit Chapter Four: Reflection As previously discussed, reflection should be woven through each of the phases. In the reflection phase that occurs after the service, your goal is to name and solidify the learning. During this phase, reflecting on the service-learning experience can encourage your students to: ¾ Connect classroom learning with learning from service, giving both greater meaning; ¾ Question their assumptions both about the causes and solutions of social problems and about those different from themselves; ¾ Improve their problem solving skills; and ¾ Develop a deeper understanding of themselves and their responsibilities as citizens of a democratic society. Good reflection activities are continuous, connected, guided, allow feedback and assessment, and help to clarify student values. As the following diagram indicates, teachers have options for reflection assignments that can meet these criteria. Created by RMC Research Corporation for Learn and Serve America’s National Service-Learning Clearinghouse 34 K-12 Service-Learning Project Planning Toolkit Prompts facts about the service issue, quotes, diaries of those affected by the issue, music, etc. Criteria for evaluation Mode of responding reading, writing, doing, telling academic, civic, social-emotional goals of the project; quality of presentation Options for Reflection Length Audiences teachers, peers, recipients of service, community partners, public officials short, in-class responses, journal assignments, reflection sections of final projects Authors student; student & peer, community partner, or recipient of i Created by RMC Research Corporation for Learn and Serve America’s National Service-Learning Clearinghouse 35 K-12 Service-Learning Project Planning Toolkit Miami-Dade School District, Florida In the Miami-Dade district, the Bureau of Community Services hosts forums each spring for students and community members on issues of importance to the city. Forum topics from recent years have included proposed changes to Social Security law, the Miami Mayoral Election, health care, bullying, and fire safety. In the early part of the school year, students hear presentations by guest speakers from partner organizations associated with the issue, for example, the Gray Panthers. Throughout the year, they carry out an advocacy activity to address the forum topic, such as circulating petitions to preserve the Social Security system. At the forum, a team of students from each school presents their project. These presentations are followed by small group dialogues between students, community partners, and community members attending the forum. Finally, all participants write reflections in which they describe the highlight of the forum, what they learned, what they heard that made them think or surprised them, and what steps they could take next to inform government leaders and policy makers about their issue. Questions 1. What reflection activities could you use to support the academic, civic, and socialemotional learning goals of the service-learning project before, during, and after completion? 2. If you plan to use discussion and journaling, are there forms of reflection you could use to encourage multiple modes of student response? For example, could your students write poetry or fiction about their projects, create paintings, sculpture, or dramatic pieces? 3. What reflection prompts (questions) before, during, and at the end of the project would encourage your students to go beyond simply describing or reporting their experiences? For example, what questions might push them to analyze the causes of social problems, to apply their academic learning to their service experience, or to evaluate the effectiveness of social services? 4. How could you broaden the social context for authoring beyond the individual student to make reflection more collaborative? How could you expand the audience beyond you as teacher to make it more authentic? Resources The resources listed in Guide 1 on Planning and Preparation contain valuable ideas for reflection. Other helpful resources include: 1. A Practitioner’s Guide to Reflection in Service-Learning: Student Voices and Reflection. The authors explain how and why reflection is important in servicelearning, using the words of students themselves, to describe its impacts. They explain different learning styles and give suggestions for matching reflection activities to students’ styles. The book also includes numerous ideas for reflection, using the modes of reading, writing, doing, and telling. Eyler, J., Giles, D., & Schmiede, A. (1996) Nashville, TN: Vanderbilt University. Created by RMC Research Corporation for Learn and Serve America’s National Service-Learning Clearinghouse 36 K-12 Service-Learning Project Planning Toolkit 2. Connecting Thinking and Action: Ideas for Service-Learning Reflection. This guide provides a variety of reflection activities for different subjects and grade levels. Activities are included for each phase of reflection, including the service activity, pre-service, during, and post-service. RMC Research Corporation. (2003). Denver, CO: RMC Research Corporation. www.rmcdenver.com 3. Reflection: A Guide to Effective Service-Learning. Sponsored by the National Dropout Prevention Center, this guide offers tools and ideas for creating learning environments and facilitating reflection during each step of a service-learning project. www.dropoutprevention.org/publica/servlear_pub/servlear_pub2.htm 4. The Disney Channel website. A complete guide to service-learning including ideas for reflection for each step of a service-learning project. www.disney.go.com/disneychannel/learningtoserve Created by RMC Research Corporation for Learn and Serve America’s National Service-Learning Clearinghouse 37 Worksheet Three: Planning for Reflection Using the above chart of options, plan the reflection assignments you will use before, during, and at the conclusion of the service activity. Phase of ServiceLearning Planning and Preparation During the Service Activity Reflection Assignment Prompts Mode of Responding Length Authors Audiences K-12 Service-Learning Project Planning Toolkit During the Culminating Event What goals will each reflection activity allow you to meet? Created by RMC Research Corporation for Learn and Serve America’s National Service-Learning Clearinghouse 47 K-12 Service-Learning Project Planning Toolkit Chapter Five: Demonstration/Celebration Demonstration and celebration of learning and impact are important parts of your service-learning project that can provide you, your students, and your community partners with a meaningful conclusion to the project and an opportunity to think ahead to the future. In an effective demonstration and celebration, students show influential others how they impacted the community and how they themselves have changed as a result of their service-learning activities. A high-quality demonstration and celebration event recognizes and rewards students’ sense of efficacy and motivation to serve and reinforces community members’ commitment to your program. It provides a public forum for students to display their knowledge, which encourages them to synthesize what they have learned through service, provides an authentic context for assessment, and builds community members’ expertise with respect to the community problem. Finally, a high quality demonstration and celebration event engages participants in analyzing and developing potential solutions to the new set of social issues signaled by the end for the service-learning project, further enhancing their problem solving skills and dedication to service. Teachers have several options for demonstration and celebration events, including Demonstrating Impact on the Community • Measurement on a neighborhood quality index • Poster exhibition • Showcase • Portfolio fair • • Development of products such as Power Points, oral presentations, websites, videos, booklets, before/after pictures of the community Testimonials by service recipients Demonstrating Impact on Self • Self portraits • Autobiographies • Story Boards • Pre/post measures of knowledge, skills, or behaviors • • Evaluation of student work by experts, community partners, recipients of service, or panels of judges Sharing insights through issues forums Celebrating Accomplishments • Recognition at a school-wide ceremony • Awards • A tour of the service site to observe progress • • • • Letters of recognition from community partners, elected officials, etc. Service credits on the students’ transcripts Creation of a fund to support future service around the issue Recognition during a traditional ceremony such as graduation WM. H. Turner Technical Arts High School Created by RMC Research Corporation for Learn and Serve America’s National Service-Learning Clearinghouse 48 K-12 Service-Learning Project Planning Toolkit At WM. H. Turner Technical Arts High School, teachers Chris Kirchner and Jose Ugarte, who work with seniors in the school’s Academy of Information Technology and Entrepreneurship, assign a service-learning project designed to improve students’ writing ability, information technology skills, and civic dispositions and competencies. Early in the year, groups of students select a particular social issue (in 2003-04, for example, issues ranged from AIDS in Africa, to Miami’s civil rights movement, to Social Security). Students investigate the issue, and their research provides the basis for an interview that is conducted with local volunteers and/or community activists. At the same time, students gather documents (e.g., newspaper articles, historical images) related to their issue. Research findings, videotapes of the interviews, and excerpts of documents are woven into a documentary, and the documentaries are refined and presented at a culminating event that includes students, teachers, interview subjects, senior citizens, district administrators, and the district’s service-learning staff. Students begin their presentations by acknowledging what they learned from the interview subjects and their project. For example, a student who had interviewed a civil rights volunteer commented, “I learned that history is all around us. It’s not just something in books, but it’s all around us. We just need to unlock it.” Documentaries are shown. At the end of the presentations, in keeping with tradition, students from each group “pass their project on” to a younger student to “keep the legacy going” and donate their videos to an archive in the library for community use. Questions Answering the following questions can assist you in planning your culminating event. 1. Who should plan the demonstration and celebration and what roles and responsibilities will each participant have? 2. What combination of demonstration and celebration activities would be the most meaningful for your students and community partners, and why? 3. What plans for demonstration will best allow your students to meet the academic goals of the project? 4. In what ways could the demonstrations be used as summative assessments? If they are used this way, who will evaluate student performance and what criteria will they use? 5. Which options for planning would contribute most to your students’ civic and social-emotional learning? Which options would contribute most to the community? 6. How will you evaluate the success of the demonstration and celebration events and engage in continuous improvement? Resources Created by RMC Research Corporation for Learn and Serve America’s National Service-Learning Clearinghouse 49 K-12 Service-Learning Project Planning Toolkit The resources suggested in the previous sections offer helpful ideas for demonstration and celebration. In addition, the following resources are especially useful: 1. The Disney Channel Service-Learning Website, www.disney.go.com/disneychannel/learningtoserve/toolkit This site includes a brief explanation of celebration in service-learning and examples of possible activities. 2. Ida, A. & Rose, J. (2003). Service Learning: The Classroom Companion to Character Education: A resource guide for teachers and facilitators, www.highered.nysed.gov/kiap/PCPPU/service_learn/home.html This useful guide to all steps in developing a service-learning project contains creative ideas for culminating events and demonstrations, such as the Au Revoir Circle. It also offers celebration ideas for specific types of projects, including civic, environmental, and peer mentoring projects. 3. Youth summits Youth summits are a popular approach in law-related education in which adolescents, public officials, and others come together to discuss crucial social problems. Youth summits give young people an opportunity to present their ideas for solutions to problems to lawmakers, rather than having solutions imposed upon them. A sample book that addresses youth summits is Leiterman, H. (2000) Youth Summits: Law-related education for violence prevention. Bloomington, IN: ERIC Clearinghouse for Social Studies/Social Science Education, ED446027. 4. Senior Projects, e.g., www.seniorproject.net Senior projects are culminating projects completed by students in their last year of high school. Typically a senior project includes conducting research and generating a research paper on a topic of interest, participating in field work related to the topic and documenting the service or field work that was accomplished, connecting it back to the topic of research, assembling a portfolio, and providing an oral presentation on the research and fieldwork, using a thesis statement, supporting arguments supported by research, summary of field work and what was learned, and conclusions. The oral presentation is generally judged by a panel of teachers, administrators, and/or community members. Many senior projects assign mentors to work with students, and most often schools ask a teacher to coordinate the projects in return for release time. Often senior projects culminate in a showcase of learning. Senior project approaches can be adapted for all levels. Created by RMC Research Corporation for Learn and Serve America’s National Service-Learning Clearinghouse 50 K-12 Service-Learning Project Planning Toolkit Worksheet Five: Demonstration and Celebration The purpose of this template is to help you plan a final event that honors students’ efforts, allows them to share what they have learned and the impact on the community, and build on their service-learning for the future. Title of the event Date and time Location Participants and their roles 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. How will you invite participants to the event? What are your specific activities for demonstration and celebration? Attach an agenda How will you evaluate success? How will you engage your students and others in reflection about the demonstration/celebration? Created by RMC Research Corporation for Learn and Serve America’s National Service-Learning Clearinghouse 51 
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