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Grade Level: 6-8
Academic Areas: Language Arts, Social Studies, Mathematics
Duration of service: Year Long
Character Virtues: Caring, Civic Virtue and Citizenship
Service Areas: Human Services
Service Learning Project:
Students will first participate in a classroom discussion on
what they feel the needs of their community are, what could be
done to make the community a better place, and how they could
go about finding out the needs of specific community members and
organizations. Students will then brainstorm ideas for connecting
with the community to find out exactly what needs exist (i.e.
flyers, questionnaires, phone inquiries, websites, etc.). Students
will then initiate these ideas and begin contacting local organizations
and interfacing with community members. Participating organizations
will be expected to make an appearance at the school to present
their organizations mission statement and possible needs. Students
will develop and create a database to input all collected information
on the involved parties. Information will then be placed into
the database. Upon completion, the database and its findings will
be shared with the entire school and participating organizations.
Classroom teachers will be able to use the service learning database
to explore options in their community that would fit with their
students. At the end of the year, an appreciation luncheon would
be held to honor all involved.
Goals and Objectives
Academic
Learning Goal: Students will use various forms of media to create
community contacts to solicit their areas of need that can be
met through student involvement.
Standard: MST (5)
Learning Goal: Students will effectively interact with the entire
community.
Standard: ELA 4
Service
Community need: The identification of specific needs within the
school and community that need to be addressed.
Possible Community Partners: SPCA, BB/BS, shelters, food pantries,
hospitals, nursing homes, parks & rec., etc.
Objective: Students will develop methods for communication with
the community and collecting the data efficiently. Students will
then communicate, collect, and analyze the data.
Objective: Students will select a need from the collected data
and form and action plan for implementation. The plan will then
be carried out.
Character
Virtue: Caring
Objective: Students will partner and work closely with community
members and people in need while providing support to others who
are unable to obtain it on their own.
Virtue: Civic Virtue and Citizenship
Objective: Students will explore projects which encourage them
to take ownership in the world around them by seeking out opportunities
to improve self and society.
Key Activities
Key Planning Activities
1. Students will meet as a group to brainstorm ideas for possible
community organizations that may be in need of help. Students
will also brainstorm ideas for effective ways to contact and inform
the community of their initiative.
2. Students will create flyers, questionnaires, and a website
to promote the introduction of a service learning initiative in
their community.
3. Students will contact local “helping” agencies
and organize guest speakers to facilitate an understanding of
their mission statements.
Key Service Activities
1. Students will use the created media outlets to gather and
analyze information to formulate ideas to create a successful
service learning project to meet the needs to individual organizations.
2. Students will take their ideas and develop a detailed plan
to address the needs of a selected organization.
Key Reflection Activities
1. (oral) Students will also discuss how helping the community
shows caring, civic virtue, and citizenship.
2. (written) Students will create a graphic organizer detailing
all involved organizations and their participation in the project
to demonstrate interest in civic virtue and citizenship.
3. (performance) Students will draw pictures that express and
reveal their expectations for helping various organizations and
community members to demonstrate their concern for others in their
community.
Celebration Activity
Students will be recognized by the school principal and the participating
organizations at the appreciation luncheon. Parents and community
members who participated in the project will be invited to an
appreciation luncheon to recognize their involvement and commitment
to the service learning initiative
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