By Lara Maupin
Every school engages periodically in volunteer efforts and community service. Think of the many canned food drives, used book collections, beautification efforts, and community events where the school serves as a central collection point for serving community needs. Such efforts are inspiring, community-building, and much needed — but they are not necessarily service learning. What makes a project service learning? Why engage in service learning?
To be considered a service learning project, an activity must contain some important elements. Projects that contain these key components are inherently more meaningful for students because they are truly engaged.
- First, the project must be connected to the curriculum. This is possible even with drives and collections. Young students can count and graph the items collected, for example. Older students can practice their communications skills in letting the community know why they items are needed. Service projects that are tied to the curriculum reinforce what is being learned and make it more meaningful as students come to understand the real-world implications of what they are learning.
- Next, instead of adults deciding who the project will serve, students should take the lead in identifying community needs and determining who or what their efforts will benefit. Adults have an important role to play in this process – but it really is one of coach and mentor as students grapple with big issues and competing priorities. When students research real-world problems and figure out together who they would like to help and why, they become personally invested in the outcome of the project.
- In addition, students should take the lead in planning the project and carrying it out to completion. In so doing, students gain crucial leadership, teamwork, problem-solving, and communications skills. They learn the valuable life skill of seeing a problem and figuring out a way to make a difference, if not solve the problem. What does our world need more than that? Students become engaged citizens with a passion for serving others.
- Finally, service learning projects include opportunities for reflection and celebration. It is in this final stage that students put all the pieces together and come away from the experience with having made important connections. When they reflect on what they did, learned, and experienced, they create meaning that is personally relevant. When school communities celebrate their service efforts they make powerful statements about what really matters and what they stand for.
Ready to turn your service projects into service learning? Explore the Service Learning page on CEP’s website.
