"How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world."

                                                                                          Anne Frank, Diary of a Young Girl, 1952

    Introduction

Starting a service learning project will be uncomfortable for many social studies educators accustomed to a text based course of instruction.  The potential benefits outlined in the previous module hopefully provide an impetus for a successful service learning experience in the social studies classroom.  

This module intends to offer resources on how to best initiate a service learning project.   One should first envision a plan that would sustain such a project.  Rahmia Wade insists that there are common elements to an effective service project:  careful planning, curriculum integration, structured reflection, student ownership, community input, and evaluation(1).  Consider these elements in developing a strategy to begin your own social studies service project.  

Perhaps the next most important aspect in starting a service learning program or project is to construct community, student, and school partnerships--all of which take time to form and even longer to sustain.  Clayton and O'Steen state that "the strategies that you design for teaching with service-learning will be--must be--sensitive to the place and the people and the history that comprise your context".  To form proper relationships you must take into account who your students are and what they do or don't bring to your course and possibly to service learning, the needs of your community and the resources available in your community to help with your project, the characteristics of the population potentially benefited from the experience, who you are as a teacher and what you bring to the process, the standard course of study, and the requirements of your school and department (2). 

Thus, getting to know your subject, your students, your community, your school and yourself is essential to initiating a service learning project. 

1. Wade, ed. "Building Bridges: Connecting Classroom and Community throught Service Learning in the Social Studies", NCSS Bulletin 1997
2. Clayton, P. and O'Steen, B. (2003) Service-Learning in K-12 Education: Transforming Practice in Middle School, High School, and College of Education Classrooms. Chapel Hill, NC, USA: Southeastern Association of Educational Studies Conference, Mar 2003.

Essential Questions--Initiation

• How do you start a service learning project?
• Would a service learning project be best initiated by the teacher, the student, or in collaboration? Why?

  Resource Links--Initiation

• Jumpstart and Service Learning

  Jumpstart was originally founded at Yale University in 1993 as a non-profit organization focused on the public need for quality early childhood programs and the nation’s growing commitment for service education.  Jumpstart collaborated with scholars Patti Clayton and Myra Moses in developing a service learning resource guide located in section II of this website.  This guide offers a path for institutions of higher education to implement a service learning program into a wide range of disciplines.  The guide provides structure and advice in promoting the value of civic engagement, leadership and service to students.  Dr. Clayton and Dr. Moses currently direct the Center for Curricula Engagement at N.C. State University.

• National Service Learning Partnership A network of over 10,000 members--students, parents, policy makers, community leaders, business people, and educational specialists-- dedicated to the use of service learning in the classroom.  The Partnership is funded through grants from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation and State Farm Companies Foundation.  It is sponsoered by the Adacemy for Educational Development.

• Coalition of Essential Schools Northwest Service Learning Network  The CES Service Learning Network goals include implementation of service learning across all of the core disciplines. The CES Network includes hundreds of schools that reflect "personalization, democracy and equity, and intellectual vitality and excellence".  These essential schools focus on effective practices in standards-aligned interdisciplinary studies, community-based learning and performance based assessment.   This site would be an excellent resource in the understanding of each of the NC Service Learning modules.

• Service Learning YouTube Channel  This site is co-hosted by YouTube and the National Service Learning Partnership for promotion of service learning in the classroom.  Current examples of service learning ideas and stories are available for viewing.  Teachers are also free to subscribe to the site for email updates of service learning video clips. 
• The Corporation for National and Community Service  The Corporation for National and Community Service is the nation's largest grantmaker in support of service and volunteering.  Senior Corps, Americorps, and Learn and Serve America are all Corporation programs which provide volunteering efforts designed to meet community needs. 
• National Youth Leadership Council  The mission of the National Youth Leadership Council is to "create a more just, sustainable, and peaceful world with young people, their schools, and their communities through service learning".  The NYLC promotes civic awareness and engagement through critical thinking and problem solving. 
• Learn and Service America--Initiation   Learn and Serve America's National Service Learning Clearinghouse (NSLC) touts itself as "America's Most Comprehenive Service Learning Resource".  NSLC supports all levels of education interested in strengthening the relationship between communities and schools through service learning strategies.  This website shares timely service learning information, as well as, discussion lists that encourage collaboration of educators and students on the issues of service education. 
• Learn and Serve America--SLICE--Service Learning Ideas and Curriculum Examples  Learn and Serve America's National Service Learning Clearinghouse (NSLC) touts itself as "America's Most Comprehenive Service Learning Resource".  NSLC supports all levels of education interested in strengthening the relationship between communities and schools through service learning strategies.  This website shares timely service learning information, as well as, discussion lists that encourage collaboration of educators and students on the issues of service education.  SLICE offers Service Learning Ideas and Curriculum Examples. 
• Keene State College Service Learning Wiki   Keene State College, as a public liberal arts college of New Hampshire, adheres to the integration of "teaching, learning, scholarship and service."  This wiki site was developed as part of a service learning project using material provided by the college's Office of Service Learning.  The Wiki provides advice and a tool for online collaboaration of students, faculty and community agencies in implementing a service learning project.
• Service Learning=Solutions Blog  Learn and Serve America's National Service Learning Clearinghouse sponsors this blog for public discourse on trends, implementation, stories, advice, and student success in the use of service learning in the classroom.
• Youth Service America  YSA is an international nonprofit resource center whose mission is to increase the impact of youth service.  The vision of the organization is the creation of "a global culture of engaged youth who are committed to a lifetime of service, leadership and achievement".  The site has a variety of resources on topics such as civil rights, disaster relief, global citizenship, and poverty.
• Colorado Department of Education-Service Learning Trail Guide The Colorado Department of Education has approved a service learning trail guide for interested educators and students to follow.  Supported by Learn and Serve America, the Corporation for National and Community Service, and the National Youth Leadership Council, the trail guide is divided into three major components--a section devoted to research linking service learning and high performing schools, descriptions and snapshots of service learning "in action", and a resource list for starting and implementing a service learning project.
• Wade, ed. "Building Bridges: Connecting Classroom and Community throught Service Learning in the Social Studies", NCSS Bulletin 1997   Edited by Rahima Wade, this 1997 bulletin of the National Council for the Social Studies focuses on the connections between the community and curriculum through sevice learning. This bulletin specifically empasizes why social studies is a natural outlet for service learning considering the discipline's emphasis on civic education.  There are specific grade level examples of social studies and service learning.  This document offers a firm understanding of the rewards service education potentially offers students, the school, and the community.
• Center for Civic Education   The Center for Civic Education is a non-profit, non-partisan education corporation that promotes "enlightened and responsible citizenry committed to democratic principles and actively engaged in the practice of democracy".  Many programs focus on civic participation and the rights and responsibilities of citizens--major components of service learning.

     Podcasts on Initiation

• An interview with Jennifer Ballew on service learning at Chapel Hill High School
•  Transcript of Interview with Jennifer Ballew                 

• An interview with Kathryn Eriksen on service learning at Carrboro High School
• Transcript of Interview with Kathryn Eriksen  

A View of Initiation

 Primary Document Connection--Initiation

      A positive community change has rarely occured without motivated individuals who act on behalf of their beliefs.  The following primary documents demonstrate the beginnings of several movements in American history that positively transformed American society.  Service Learning requires that all stakeholders--the student, the teacher, and the community--receive a benefit from the experience.  Use the following documents to support the  NC Standard Course of Study and as a means to start your service project in the classroom.  What do these documents initiate and why?  In what ways did the authors of these documents establish guidelines that positively transformed American communities?  How was the community positively impacted?

• Thomas Jefferson, The Declaration of Independence
• 
• Ralph Waldo Emerson, "Self-Reliance", 1841
• Abraham Lincoln, The Emancipation Proclamation, 1863
• 
• The Omaha Platform, 1892
• The Niagara Movement, 1905 

  North Carolina Service Learning Social Network

The NC Service Learning Social Network is designed to be an online collaborative professional learning community (PLC) for integration of service learning in the social studies.  Through forum questioning, blogs, and online shared resources, the social studies section at the Department of Public Instruction hopes that social networking makes service learning a more accessible, manageable, and integral part of the North Carolina social studies classroom.

  Professional Development--Initiation (Available Spring 2011)