Service Learning Paper

Service learning is a valuable way for students to engage with their communities. When tasked to incorporate a service learning activity into my English class I was faced with a few difficulties. Language Arts standards are very complex and cover many different areas including: reading, writing, speaking and listening. Service learning lends itself readily to the speaking and listening areas, however, I decided that I would attempt to build a unit that enriches student learning in all four domains of the English/Language Arts curricula. The following unit, which I titled the “Changemaker Unit,” is the result of this process. First, I decided to start with a basic idea as to how I would integrate standards from each domain, and have a seamless
For the literature circles, I chose to use novels that would motivate/inspire my groups for service learning. The novels I ultimately decided to include are: The Promise of a Pencil, Start Something that Matters, Breakthrough, and I Will Always Write Back. Each of these non-fiction books deal with a young person who started a movement, non-profit, or for-profit company with the intention of helping others. Students would be placed into small groups of 4-5, and each group would be charged to read one of the novels. Throughout the reading portion of the unit, I would be sure to reinforce the fact that the young people in the books affected major change in the world. Upon completion of the novels, each group would be introduced to the idea of service learning. I would then charge each group to come up with a written proposal of a service learning project they could do within the school or the community of Fargo/Moorhead/West Fargo. This proposal would be structured, would help students come up with a project that their small group could accomplish within a set amount of time, and would meet several common core writing standards. At this point, I would have my students actually go out and complete the service projects they proposed with their