Service Learning in the Classroom

By Dominic Kinsley

For many teachers, putting the “service” into service learning can present a challenge. We all recognize the educational benefits of sending students into the community to work on a project that will give them an opportunity to use the principles and skills they have learned in class, as well as real-world experience with problem-solving, critical thinking and collaboration. But it’s seldom easy to find the right community-based project; and the preparation, planning, and supervision required to make a community-based project part of your curriculum can be daunting.

Technology can help solve this problem. As Scott Hirschfeld noted in a past “Points to Ponder” blog, social media and the Internet now give our students access to a global community where meaningful social action can occur through communication, advocacy and the development of support networks. While perhaps not quite as impactful as the face-to-face engagement provided by the classic model, a service learning project based in this broader online community can give students the educational benefits of testing their skills and knowledge in a real-world setting. And for teachers, such projects have the added benefit of bringing the “service” component of service learning into the classroom.

At Young Minds Inspired, we have worked with several organizations to develop free lesson plans based on this alternative approach to service learning. Two examples:

• Shot@Life is an initiative by the United Nations Foundation to protect children worldwide by providing life-saving vaccines where they are most needed. The Shot@Life civics engagement program enlists middle school students in this effort as advocates for federal funding of vaccination programs in developing countries around the globe. Using online resources, students become informed citizens by researching the need for access to vaccines in these countries, then research where their congressional representatives stand on this issue and exercise their right to petition Congress by writing letters urging their representatives to take action. The program even provides teachers with a postage-paid mailing label to send their students’ letters to Washington, D.C. Combining the instructional benefits of a case study on how government works and the service learning benefits of a project that empowers students to put what they are learning into practice, this compact program also sets the stage for student advocacy on other issues and for service learning outside the classroom through engagement with local political leaders and activists.
• Operation Change is an online documentary series that follows Starkey Hearing Foundation co-founders, Bill and Tani Austin, and their son, Steven Sawalich, as they work with celebrities and other philanthropists to make a difference in countries around the world. Each episode takes students inside a new culture, from modern Malaysia to a traditional Maasai village in Tanzania; the Operation Change.com website supplements this viewing experience with rich digital content on each country’s history, geography and customs. Each episode provides students with inspiration to become change-makers themselves as they watch the Operation Change team in action. The website includes links to a host of nonprofit organizations whose work students can support online. Our study guides for each episode follow the service learning model by providing discussion questions that prompt student reflection on the social and interpersonal impact of the projects Operation Change undertakes. The study guides extend this reflection by having students brainstorm ways they could have a similar impact within their own community, again setting the stage for service learning outside the classroom through individual or class involvement in local social action programs.

There are, of course, many other ways educators can bring service learning into the classroom, or at least add a service learning dimension to the standard curriculum. As you explore this potential of the online resources available to students today, I hope you will let me know about the lesson plans and learning projects you develop, and how they have helped enrich your students’ education.

About the Author

Dominic Kinsley is editor in chief and managing partner at Young Minds Inspired (YMI), which creates, produces and distributes free educational programs for all grade levels (from preschool through college) in cooperation with corporate, nonprofit and government funders. Prior to his work in curriculum development, Kinsley was an English professor at Yale University, where he earned his Ph.D. Please contact him at dominic.kinsley@ymiclassroom.com to learn more about YMI (ymiclassroom.com).