|
Grade Level: 9-12
Academic Areas: Language Arts
Duration of service: 1-2 Months
Character Virtues: Caring, Giving, Civic Virtue and Citizenship,
Respect
Service Areas: Human Services, Education/Tutoring
Service Learning Project:
Near the start of the school year, students will be partnered
with senior citizens who have compelling stories to tell about
the time periods of the literature to be read that year in English-10,
namely the years following the Great Depression (Harper Lee’s
To Kill a Mockingbird), World War II (Hiroshima by John Hersey
and Night by Elie Wiesel), the Communist scare of the 1950s (the
inspiration for Arthur Miller’s play The Crucible). They
will interview these residents and then draft a creative story
based on the information they gather using one of those time periods
as their setting. Student stories will be published in a booklet
to be distributed to all who take part in the project. Copies
may also be displayed in school and public libraries. Also, students
will write letters to their elders throughout the year every time
a major literature unit is completed. In the letters, students
will explain how the information they gained from the elders during
the interview helped them to better understand the literature
that was read.
The purpose of this project is for students to educate themselves
of the settings of the literature being read that year in order
for them to better understand the literature itself and to help
them to realize that senior citizens are a wealth of interesting
information. Also, the elders who are interviewed will gain a
sense of self-esteem that the stories that they have to tell are
important and appreciated.
Goals and Objectives
Academic
Learning Goal: Students will learn the important components of
the interview process.
Standards: ELA #1 and #4
Learning Goal: Students will learn the components of writing
a business letter.
Standards: ELA #1 and #4
Learning Goal: Students will learn the importance of historical
background for understanding literature.
Standard: ELA #1
Learning Goal: Students will delve into their creative writing
abilities and enhance them through writing the elders’ stories.
Standards: ELA #2 and #3
Service
Community need: There is a need to help bridge the gap between
young people and the elderly population so that young people can
gain a sense of respect for their elders and elderly citizens
can feel invested in the school district.
Possible Community Partners: senior citizens, rotary club, veterans
associations, local library
Objective: Students will gain respect for elderly citizens and
the elderly will feel a connection to the students, therefore
strengthening the community as a whole.
Objective: Students will break down barriers that exist between
themselves and other generations.
Character
Virtue: respect
Objective: Students will increase their regard and value of their
community.
Virtue: civic virtue and citizenship
Objective: Students will have an increased feeling of belonging,
empowerment, and ownership due to their hard work as a result
of being advocates for the community.
Key Activities
Key Planning Activities
1. The teacher will reach out to the community in search of residents
who may have compelling stories to tell about certain time periods
in history that coincide with the settings of literature to be
read in English-10, i.e. The Great Depression, WWII, and the 1950s.
2. Students will learn/review the components of the interview
process. It is possible that an expert in the field of interviewing
(newspaper reporter, journalist, etc.) can come into the classroom
to share his/her tips on how to conduct a successful interview
in order to get someone’s story.
3. Students will learn/review the process of writing a business
letter. This letter writing format will be used by students to
introduce themselves to their elder partners and invite them into
the school for the interview.
4. The idea that everyone has a story will be discussed as will
the idea that everyone’s story can be made into something.
Students will be made aware that the purpose of the interview
is two-fold: one, for them to gain a better understanding of the
time periods for the literature we will be reading this year and,
two, for them to write a creative story using an idea that came
up during the interview and embellishing it to make a good story.
The idea is to be inspired by the elders’ stories and use
them as a base for a story but add their own creativity to it.
Key Service Activities
1. Students will be paired with one another and then partnered
with elderly citizens who may have compelling stories to tell
about certain time periods in history that coincide with the settings
of literature to be read in English-10, i.e. The Great Depression,
WWII, and the 1950s. They will interview these elders and write
a creative story based on the information they gathered, embellishing
where possible and using one of those time periods as the setting
of their story.
2. Stories will be published in a booklet to be given out to
each elder who participated and the community partners that assisted
in bringing the elders into this project as well as perhaps putting
copies in the community, i.e. local and school libraries, historical
society. A photograph of the students and their elder partner
will be included.
3. Students will continue to write to their elders as each major
literature unit is completed, most likely for a total of about
four times throughout the school year. Students will describe
what they learned from reading the literature and how the interview,
specifically the historical background that they gained from it,
helped enhance their experiences of the literature.
Key Reflection Activities
1. (oral) At the start of the unit in groups of 3-5, students
will migrate to different areas in the classroom where they will
view a variety of pictures of elderly people. In their groups,
they will discuss what thoughts, ideas, words, and opinions come
to mind as they study each picture. One group member will be responsible
for jotting down the group’s responses to this brainstorm.
Once every group has spent 3-5 minutes at each picture, the class
will be called back together and a discussion will take place
about what they noticed about each picture. This will bridge nicely
into a discussion about stereotypes and how unfair they can be.
responsibility/civic virtue and citizenship/justice and fairness/respect
2. (written) After the interviews take place, students will write
thank you notes to the elders they interviewed. In the thank you
note, they will include their thoughts and feelings about the
interview and what they learned from the interview. caring/respect/giving
3. (performance) Students will compose a short monologue using
their elder’s voice. They will read it to the class as if
they are the elder that they interviewed. This activity will allow
fellow classmates to get a feel for what each pair of students
learned from their elder during the interview and encourage students
to step into someone else’s shoes for a short while. giving/caring/respect/civic
virtue and citizenship
Demonstration Activity
A grand celebration complete with food and bringing students
back together with their elder partners again will be given. There,
each elder will receive a copy of the booklet of published pieces.
Also, each pair of students will introduce their elder partner
to the audience by giving a short biographical sketch, discussing
the most interesting thing they learned from the interview, summarizing
the story they wrote, and explaining why they chose that certain
topic for their story. Booklets will be on display in the local
and school library and perhaps the historical society. An article
on the entire service learning project will appear in the school’s
newsletter. Parents and community members will be invited to attend
the celebration. They will read the stories that are published
in the booklet and the article that will be published in the school’s
newsletter.
|
