SERVICE-LEARNING AT THE HIGH SCHOOL LEVEL May 19, :30pm

Goals for this Session  Understand the basic principles of S-L  Address challenges to implementation at the High School Level  Share resources to meet challenges  Look at successful models

NEEDS ASSESSMENT What are YOUR challenges/questions?

Common Impacts of High Quality Service- Learning on Students/Youth  Increase in academic engagement including affective, behavioral, and cognitive;  Increase in valuing school;  Increase in academic achievement;  Increase in social-emotional outcomes such as resilience, managing conflict, respect for diversity and character development (caring, bonding, social responsibility);  Increase in civic outcomes including knowledge, skills, and dispositions.

Service-Learning Components  Investigating a Community Issue Through Research and Community Needs Assessments  Planning the Ways Students Will Address the Issue  Action – Performing the Service Activity  Reflection – Thinking About Impact on Others and Self, What Worked and What Did Not, Relationship of Oneself to the World  Demonstration and Celebration – Showing Impact on Others and Self

New Standards for High Quality Service- Learning Practice  Duration and intensity;  Link to curriculum;  Mutually beneficial partnerships;  Meaningful service;  Youth voice;  Diversity;  Reflection;  Progress monitoring.

Common challenges in High School Implementation  Block scheduling  Multiple teachers  Class duration  Others?

MEETING THE CHALLENGES Discussion and Brainstorming

Project Examples: US History and Voter Mobilization In a U.S. History Course, students learned about the Civil Rights Movement. Two important components of the Civil Rights Movement were the grassroots voter registration, education, and mobilization work done by many activists and the advocacy effort aimed at passing the Voting Rights Acts of 1964 and The class decided to enhance their understanding of voter mobilization by collaborating with Operation Rainbow/PUSH, a national civil rights organization located in Chicago. Operation Rainbow/PUSH provided educational and logistical support to help students develop their own voter turn out campaign. At the culmination of the campaign, the teacher guided students through a process of reflection to help them connect their experiences to the classroom study of the Civil Rights Movement and understand the decline in voter participation over the past decades.

The Economics of Hunger In an Economics course, the teacher wanted students to understand the economics of hunger. Using concepts such as supply and demand, government intervention, and wage/price controls, the teacher hoped to demonstrate that hunger is not an individual issue, but is the result of various forces at work within society. In order for students to get a better understanding of the magnitude of hunger, they spent a day at the Greater Chicago Food Depository packing and re-packaging food for distribution among local food pantries. As a follow-up activity, student teams were asked to identify a local food pantry, research the organization, and volunteer at least one afternoon. Student groups returned to class and reported their findings. The teacher incorporated their findings into a broader discussion about both private and public responses to hunger.

Environmental Science and Invasive Species In an Environmental Science course, students learned about the concept of biodiversity and its importance in the natural world. During their studies, students read about a variety of threats to biodiversity in nature including invasive species. The teacher made a contact with a local forest preserve and organized a trip to study and plant and animal life at the preserve including invasive species. The students spent part of the day clearing a prairie area of invasive buckthorn. The class decided to return to continue their work clearing invasive plants, because they learned that native plants only flourish if invasive plants are contained. After the trip, the teacher guided students through a process of reflection where they considered various strategies to contain invasive species and discussed what might be done to control the introduction of invasive species.

Immigration in Chicago A World Studies class examined immigration issues around the world as part of their course work. In order for students to gain a deeper understanding of the problem, the teacher partnered with a local community organization to enable students to work in their community on the problem of immigration. Prior to discussing a project, the teacher led students through some teambuilding activities in order to prepare them for working on a project together. To begin work on the project, the teacher invited guest speakers in to discuss the local issues related to immigration. One speaker discussed the problem of work conditions for day laborers, many of whom are immigrants. A second speaker discussed immigrant documentation, specifically referencing a federal initiative that enabled documented immigrants to help family members who were not documented. The students decided to work on the federal initiative to document family members. After receiving training in the documentation process from lawyers specializing in immigration issues, the students hosted a day at a local congregation to begin the documentation process of immigrants. Two hundred local residents attended on that day and received assistance from students and legal experts. The teacher completed the experience by tying the action back to classroom work and helped the students to reflect on their work together.

General Strategies for advancing S-L in High Schools  Have teachers focus on their objectives for one course or one unit within a course  Acknowledge that teachers need guidance regarding what service-learning is and how it could work for them  Provide examples of what others have done in the area of high school service-learning  Talk to other high school faculty who are engaged in service-learning

Continued…  Conduct a community needs assessment to help lay some basic groundwork for teachers new to service-learning  Hold a retreat and invite community and corporate partners, and other adults that might be interested in a partnership  Devise a project template with multiple classrooms. Then have smaller groups work on the various components which could include: identifying vision, goals, objectives, resumes, obstacles, timeline, plan of action, and 5 critical factors for success  Solicit support from students  Conduct training in segments that are separated by field  Train teachers in cooperative and project-based learning

FUTURE WEBINARS Topics of interest?

Resources  Teri Dary and Betsy Prueter  and  and  DPI LSA E-brief (ongoing)  DPI Service-Learning website   CNS Resource Center   NYLC   K-12 Service-Learning Project Planning Toolkit  12_SL_Toolkit_UPDATED.pdf 12_SL_Toolkit_UPDATED.pdf