How+to+Begin

** How to Begin a Service Learning Project in Middle School ** Thadra Petkus Jan 30, 2011
 * A K-12 Service Learning Project Toolkit **

Service learning involves education with a social purpose. Students can perform valuable service learning projects right at their school. Many service learning projects allow students to venture out in the community and collaborate with community leaders to provide service. However, many wonderful projects take place at schools each year. As Cathryn Berger Kaye reveals in The Complete Guide to Service Learning, teachers who implement service learning projects at their school witness many benefits. These include heightened student motivation, cooperation, and self-efficacy. To begin a service learning project for the first time, teachers can encourage students to investigate an issue at their own school. **Use Inquiry Skills in Service Learning** While teachers may have a specific project in mind when beginning a unit, it is often more effective if students use inquiry skills to discover a school or community need on their own. Here is a simple process they can follow to identify a service learning project. **Data collecting:** Students should research a school issue, procedure, or obvious concern. They should begin by using simple observation and note-taking strategies to document and reflect on what they see. Next, they can write a brief student questionnaire and distribute during lunch or homeroom to all students in their grade level, or in as many classes as they see necessary to receive significant feedback. **Share and reflect:** Students should sift through the data and discuss their findings with their classmates and teacher. They should set aside some time to write down their ideas and reactions in a journal. At that point, they should meet with their partners or group mates and discuss their reactions to the data. **Research:** Students should then conduct online research to determine what other schools have done in response to the issue under study. **Set Goals for Service Learning** Once preliminary inquiries have been made, students can determine the actions they want to take. Students must consider early on what the goal of their service learning project will be. Here are some possible goals.
 * to educate the public
 * to incite change
 * to leave a legacy at their school
 * to initiate a lasting trend
 * to connect school and community

At this point, students must work carefully with their teacher to establish a project timeline, determine materials they need to obtain and contacts they need to establish. Teachers should work to help clear a path for students so their project can proceed unhindered. This may include any of the following:
 * obtaining administrative permission
 * arranging a field trip
 * distributing parent permission slips
 * gathering additional resources and materials

The beauty of service learning is that much of the information, from recycled magazines to a database of community partners, can be used year after year for different service learning projects. **Take Action with Service Learning** Once students are prepared to take action at their school, they should feel thoroughly committed to the work at hand. Whether it is implementing a school-wide recycling program or creating a peer tutoring team for younger students, the service learning project cannot materialize without student vision, planning, and perseverance. Teachers who allow themselves to encourage students from the sidelines will witness many students rising to the occasion and taking charge of their projects with pride and fortitude. Teachers should encourage their students to reflect throughout the service learning process. While writing is the most common reflection method, they can also draw their thoughts, discuss with peers, read and react to other students’ writing, and compare their projects to efforts taking place at other schools. In order to complete a successful service learning project at the middle school level, students should use inquiry skills to collect data, conduct research, set service learning goals and take action. Students who take ownership of their projects will reap lasting personal rewards while simultaneously improving their school.

Kaye, Catherine Berger. The Complete Guide to Service Learning. Free Spirit Publishing: 2010.