SERVICE-LEARNING IN COMPOSITION
WHAT IS SERVICE-LEARNING?
Service-learning (also known as civic engagement or community-based learning) is a pedagogical tool that engages students with their community. Service-learning is not volunteer work or an internship – it differs in that students apply what they are learning in the academic classroom to “real world” issues.
KEY ELEMENTS OF SERVICE-LEARNING:
Meaningful, mutually beneficial community service
Instruction (academic scaffolding)
Reflection (metacognitive understanding)
WHY ENGAGE IN SERVICE-LEARNING?
There are many reasons to incorporate service-learning into your course.
- Service-learning is an active and effective way for universities to share their unique gifts with their community
- Service-learning helps students become the critical and compassionate citizens that our democracy needs
- Through service-learning, students learn how to apply their academic knowledge to “real world” issues
- With the support and encouragement of the classroom, students are challenged to look deeply into an issue with a variety of perspectives
- There are many pressing problems in the world and students have a lot to contribute
3 TYPES OF SERVICE-LEARNING IN COMPOSITION CLASSROOMS:
(based on Nora Bacon and Thomas Deans’ article “Writing as Students, Writing as Citizens: Service-Learning in First-Year Composition Courses.”)
Writing about the community: Students partake in volunteerism and then write about the experience. This could take the form of reflective essays, research assignments or reporting. Often community partners are not involved in the writing process and don’t see the results.
Writing for the community: Students work with community partners to produce a piece of writing to be used by that organization. This type of writing includes newsletters, blog entries, reports, op-eds or short research projects. Sometimes students become involved in larger writing projects, like grant applications, but these genres often necessitate a specialized knowledge that students don’t have and can’t develop in a semester.
Writing with the community: Students collaborate with community partners to co-create a piece of writing to be used by that organization. This type of writing can vary and often works best with year-long courses.
THINGS TO PONDER IF YOU ARE CONSIDERING SERVICE-LEARNING
(based on ideas from “Standards and Indicators for Effective Service-learning Practice” by the National Youth Leadership Council)
Learning:
- What are your learning goals? How does service-learning align with your curriculum?
- How will you help students transfer knowledge and skills to and from different discourse communities (academia and community)?
- How will you teach rhetorical writing with this new diverse audience (community partner, community in general, peers and instructor)?
Service:
- How will you make sure that the service activity is interesting, engaging and relevant for students?
- How will you ensure that the community partner is benefiting from the service?
- What exactly are you asking of your community partner?
Students:
- In what ways will you ensure student and community accountability?
- How can you encourage deep thinking into the nature of service and the problems that your community partners are addressing?
- In what ways can you use reflection to help students make meaning of their experience?
- What lessons, discussions or assignments will encourage students to think about social issue from a variety of viewpoints?
- How can you encourage students to think of themselves as citizens?
RESOURCES:
The National Service-Learning Clearinghouse
Adler-Kassner, Linda, Robert Crooks, and Ann Watters, eds. Writing the Community: Concepts and Models for Service-learning in Composition. Washington, DC: American Association for Higher Education, 1997. Print.
Deans, Thomas, Barbara Roswell and Adrian Wurr, eds. Writing and Community Engagement: a Critical Sourcebook. Boston, MA: Bedford/St. Martin's, 2010. Print.
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