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ABOUT YOUTH SERVICE
Creating a Service Learning Project
When creating a service-learning project, there are six basic steps: investigate, prepare, act, reflect, demonstrate, and celebrate. It is important to keep in mind the Standards for Quality Practice and involve students throughout all of these steps.
Investigate:
Investigation involves identifying community needs and assets and developing an understanding of context and/or social issues they will need to understand. Investigation may include researching the issue on the internet, speakers from the community, and/or presentations from concerned groups.
Prepare:
Proper student and teacher preparation is necessary for success in a service learning project. Preparation should address:
- Planning and rehearsal of skills that will be used, including those previously acquired;
- establishing roles, responsibilities, attitudes, and behaviors;
- anticipating potential difficult issues that may be encountere
- integration of service and learning; and/or
- collaboration with partners.
The good thing about preparation is that it does not have to be conducted solely by the teacher or adult coordinator. Once an issue is identified, speakers from the community, including local organizations, can be involved by either coming to the students and/or bringing the students to their site.
Act:
There are four types of action: direct service, indirect service, advocacy, and education/research. Service-learning projects may include more than one type of action.
Direct service provides students with direct interaction with the people benefiting from the service. Examples include tutoring, visiting the senior citizens, or serving food at a soup kitchen.
Indirect service benefits a specific group of people, but does not provide direct interaction with the people benefiting from the community service. Examples include collections, fund raisers, clean-ups, and construction projects.
Advocacy is speaking out on behalf of others and working to change the underlying conditions that keep them in need. Examples include lobbying, public speaking, boycotting, and letter writing campaigns.
Education/Research involves learning about social issues and sharing the information with others. Examples include designing brochures, making presentations, developing websites, and creating documentaries.
Reflect:
Reflection is an ongoing process throughout the project. Through reflection, all participants (youth, teachers/adult coordinators, and community partners) should assess what they have learned. They should look at the project itself - what went well and what needs improvement. And they should look at how the experience has affected them and what impact it will have on their future actions. There are many different ways to structure reflection activities including speaking/discussing, writing, multimedia, presentations, and events.
Demonstrate:
Upon completion of the project, students should demonstrate what it is that they have learned. Demonstration provides an opportunity for students to share with others what they have learned and experienced through their service-learning activities. Some of the ways this may be done include exhibits, presentations, or newspaper articles. These activities may take place in partnership with service recipients, parents, teachers, classmates, organization staff, and other community members. This type of setting provides a unique opportunity not only for students to demonstrate their accomplishments, but also to celebrate them.Celebrate:
Celebration should be closely linked with demonstration. It is important that celebration activities focus on recognizing the accomplishments achieved through the project, not on personal rewards for individual students. Research has shown that "prizes" affiliated with service projects can actually have a negative impact on student interest in service. Celebration may include presentations to other groups, issuing press releases, creating project displays, holding celebration events, or issuing recognition certificates at a ceremony.
What is Service Learning?
Benefits of Service Learning
Principles of Effective Practice for K-12 Service-Learning
Creating a Service Learning Project
Additional Resources