Service Learning activities

Supporting a flexible process with the learning outcomes
Start with the learning outcomes. Some of the learning outcomes are more prominent than others and get visited far more in service learning - this is fine. Just make sure that students visit a learning outcome at least once in the whole course. This doesn't usually present a problem when schools connect the dots with other elements of the CP course. You do not have to shoe horn the learning outcomes in to every service learning experience - they really are there to be accessed explicitly when relevant so students carry out service and learn effectively at the same time.
Make the learning outcomes accessible for everyone
When introducing the students to the learning outcomes for service learning it is important to make them easily understandable, supported with an example and take time to explore the questions they have that emerge from each stage. It's important not to be diverted by the word 'outcome' as just a summative assessment characteristic; outcomes are very much to be built and reflected upon through the whole two year course. After all, students may well have a variety of service learning experiences throughout their course and not just one long project.
LO 1 'Identify own strengths and develop areas for growth' |
LO 2 'Demonstrate participation with service learning experiences' |
LO3 'Demonstrate the skills and recognize the benefits of working collaboratively' |
LO 5 'Recognize and consider the ethics of choices and actions' |
Joining the dots of the CP
The exploration above with the suggestion of resources, takes you through the learning outcomes of service learning. However another layer to add into the learning experience for students is to recognise where skills are transferring through the process of investigation, preparation, planning, reflection and demonstration and how they are developing these in other areas of the course. Which they are doing hugely! This can be one of the trickiest areas to develop as a teacher and also for students to realise the value in. A lot of the time teachers are just not aware about what else is happening in terms of skill development in other areas of the course. Here are some suggestions for activities to try in Service Learning but also ideas and links fromacross the PPS and Reflective project resources that support and open up different perspectives on the key stages of service learning. If you can link what the students are doing with what they are doing elsewhere as much as possible, then their experience will be the richer for it and also your work will become easier.
What is going on in my local area?
It can be hard to know where to start with service learning. Just how much do we know about what goes on in our community? And what community are we talking about in the first place. Start out by considering what existing projects are happening within the school community and interview current IB2 students about what they have done for service learning so far at school. Then ...
Explore the local newspapers online
Research and record projects, charities and initiatives currently taking place. Cross reference these with any projects that have already been carried out at school. Record your findings visually in your service learning journal.
The UN Sustainable Development Goals
Take time to explore the UN Sustainable Development Goals. Focus in on a couple that catch your eye. How do they link with your DP subjects? Career-related subject/s? Ethical issues you have explored in PPS? Ethical issues in your career-related subject/s? Create a diagram to record your ideas and findings.
Research skills
An open-minded and adaptable approach to researchStudents developing research skills early on can help them quickly ascertain whether their intended research question and area will work; there are many...
Am I meeting an authentic need of the community or my own needs?
In the research stage of service learning you have the opportunity to learn far more about your local community and indeed what we mean by community itself; where have you been drawn to? The school community? Or outside of the school community? It might well be that your school builds experiences with you that start in the school community before building out to different projects in the local community. It may well be that your service learning experience remains in the school community entirely.There are lots of different approaches.
In the research process, you may well have narrowed down on one specific idea. What is crucial in this - the planning - stage is that you narrow down what the authentic need of the community is and not put your own needs first.
Interview stakeholders
Identify who are the key people involved in your intended service learning experience. Ascertain what the service learning need is. What would be their ideal outcome? What would be your ideal outcome?
Design your project backwards
Planning and process management
The student's planning skills, throughout the reflective project experience, must not to be overlooked. This ensures that the process does not just become about the final piece but is seen as an opportunity...
Responding to new situations and setbacks
Taking action can seem daunting. Especially knowing how and when to start; it can feel nerve-wracking wanting to get
it right. By following the above stages, students have prepared ahead and know that they have identified a viable and
valuable project. However it is good to have a thinking routine to help make decisions about what action to take whilst
the project is happening. Again this involves considering the needs of others and clarity of communication. Below is
the link for the Effective Communication page to help students develop confidence in how they communicate with a variety of stakeholders.
The following thinking routine helps find paths for action when in the midst of the situation as after the novelty of starting a project has worn off, it is easy to find that the project might not be moving along as well as you hoped or you can't quite put your finger on why it is not working.
An adapted thinking routine for exploring projects and finding paths for action [1]
As you start on your service learning project, and familiarise yourself with it, ask yourself:
What are the parts and the people involved in the project I am working in? Visualise, draw, write this down ...
How do the people in this project interact with each other and other parts of the project?
What are the elements/aspects of this project that are blocking change or it developing well?
What are the elements or aspects of this project that could be opened for change and I might not have thought of before?
How might this sort of change affect the project and people involved in it?
Effective Communication
Being an effective communicator is a key capability for the workplaces of the future. This page introduces this theme and demonstrates different directions it can be taken in. New for Autumn 2020 are...
The Three Whys
This routine is adapted from a Harvard Project Zero thinking routine to be used at any given stage of the service learning process. At its heart are three questions designed to make students consider the significance of what they are doing right now before then considering where their project is going. It is a good routine for encouraging evaluative critical thinking as students are asked to consider the 'so what?' of the work they have been doing, take a step back and see the big picture. Useful for the reflective project or any discipline that demands analysis and then evaluation (ie. all?)
1. Why does this issue/project/development matter to me?
2. Why might it matter to the people around me (family, friends, city, nation)
3. Why might it matter to the world?
Reflective Thinking
Reflection is generally seen as an exercise in looking back on what has been done. The part that is missed out is to use this knowledge to shape what can be done in the future. This is how reflection...
Assessing Community impact
At the demonstration stage of the service learning project, it can be difficult to work out how to demonstrate the impact of the project completed or, indeed, which particular area to focus on. We want service learning students to respond actively and sensitively to issues on a local, national and international level. We want them to truly engage and see the link between local and global issues and why what they are doing in their school community really matters. Start off this area by considering a short exercise where students are given little time to overthink their responses and therefore can identify the real meaning of impact in their project. Below this is a link to the Empathy page with lots of ideas to help students develop empathic skills which can support their service learning experience too.
Elevator Pitch
Without preparing too much what you are going to say, share your story in 60 seconds starting with the sentence 'Service learning projects create impact by ...
Share the why you carried out your service learning, how you created impact and what the lasting impact might be.
Putting yourself on the spot like this, what did you discover? Did it give you some clues as to how you might demonstrate your contribution? Has anything else come to mind since sharing this?
Understanding empathy can be tricky - least of all differentiating it from sympathy. Through the work of neuro psychologists and academics, we explore its definition and real world application. Students...
Footnotes
- ^ https://reimaginingmigration.org/thinking-routine-people-systems-and-wedges/