Teaching
The following resources offer different supports for using service-learning as a teaching method.
Curricula | Reflection | Assessment/Evaluation
Curricula
Lesson Plans and Project Ideas.
The National Service-Learning Clearinghouse maintains a large, searchable database of lesson plans and project ideas organized by subject matter.
The KIDS Consortium features on its website model project ideas organized by subject matter. Each project description contains connections to Maine Learning Standards.
Vermont Community Works showcases several community-based service-learning projects in their growing library of curricular exemplars. Many of the examples originally appeared in Community Works Journal and Connecting Service-Learning to the Curriculum. Community Works Journal, is available on-line.
Subscribe to the quarterly journal. Order Connecting Service to the Curriculum: A Workbook for Teachers and Administrators from Community Works. ($29.95)
The Pennsylvania Service Alliance offers project ideas organized by topic and subject matter. The website features a section on developing inclusive projects for special education students.
Three Practical Resources for Linking Service-Learning and the Florida Sunshine State Standards details profiles of effective service-learning projects across subjects and grade levels, with a listing of standards that the projects addressed. From Florida Learn and Serve. 240 pages.
Maryland Public Schools highlights service-learning project ideas that meet essential elements of high-quality practice.
Community Lessons: Integrating Service-Learning into K-12 Curriculum, A Promising Practices Guide profiles 14 service-learning lesson plans spanning all grade levels and disciplines. From the Massachusetts Department of Education. 188 pages. 
Boston Public Schools offers standards-based service-learning models created by teachers for teachers. Examples are divided into the following issue areas: citizenship, education, environment, human needs, and public safety with an emphasis on career development.
Malcolm Shabazz High School in Wisconsin offers profiles of more than thirty different service-learning projects covering a wide range of topics including social justice, art, history, and literacy.
The Campaign for the Civic Mission of Schools features over 60 practice examples spanning grades K-12 to show how schools and teachers are educating students for democracy. The examples align with the Civic Mission of Schools' six promising approaches to civic learning and demonstrate criteria for high-quality, civic learning practice. Submit a practice example.
The National Youth Leadership Council has compiled service-learning project descriptions searchable by grade level, subject, topic, and keyword. To submit your innovative service-learning project, complete the form.
Curriculum Resources.
Active Citizenship Today (ACT) offers an approach to civic education through service- learning. The ACT curriculum consists of ACT Handbook for Teachers, lesson plans, reproducible worksheets, tips for involving community members, and a complete explanation of ACT's structure, goals, and teaching methods. The ACT Field Guide is a student handbook to support ACT lessons and help students plan, implement, and evaluate their own service-learning projects. For grades 5-12. From the Constitutional Rights Foundation. Order the ACT Handbook for Teachers ($17.95) and the ACT Field Guide ($12.95).
Service-Learning: Education Beyond the Classroom describes how students can gain hands-on awareness of waste reduction, recycling, and composting, through solid waste service-learning projects. This booklet contains 17 profiles of school-based and community projects. Contacts and additional resources are also included to provide information on how to start a solid waste service-learning program. From the Environmental Protection Agency. 32 pages. Available online in Spanish and English.
The Earthforce Toolbox contains classroom activities and handouts related to Earthforce's Community Action and Problem Solving environmental program. Toolbox activities are designed to help students develop a sense of community and inter-connectedness, as well as problem-solving skills.
Reflection.
Reflection is a key component of high-quality service-learning practice. The following resources will help students and teachers reflect on what they are learning through their service-learning experiences.
The "How Do You Define Service" exercise, along with "Defining Service with a Reflection Activity," helps students explore what service means to them. Developed by Haas Center for Public Service at Stanford University.
The Reflection Toolkit provides tips on designing a high-quality reflection activity and offers reflection activity examples. Offered by the Northwest Service Academy. 12 pages.
Connecting Thinking and Action: Ideas for Service-Learning Reflection provides a wide variety of grade and subject specific reflection activities. Reflective stages--pre-service, during service, post-service, and on-going--are indicated for each reflection activity. Offered by RMC Corporation. 104 pages. Order from RMC Research Corporation, 1-800-922-3636, rmc@rmcdenver.com, or order form. ($20)
A Concise Guide to Reflection describes Howard Gardner's "seven intelligences" along with corresponding reflection activities. Sample journal questions are also provided. From Youth Service California. 4 pages.
Reflection: A Guide to Effective Service-Learning, by Ande England and John Spence, helps teachers create learning environments and facilitation skills to enhance the reflective experience throughout the service-learning cycle. This book is part of the National Dropout Prevention Center's service-learning series, Linking Learning with Life. ($7.00)
Assessment/Evaluation.
Practice Assessment.
The following tools can be used to assess the strengths and weaknesses of a service-learning project, experience, or initiative.
Shumer's Self Assessment for Service-Learning is a series of self-reflective instruments and analysis worksheets designed to help teachers and other practitioners evaluate their service-learning initiatives. Created by Robert Shumer, Ph.D. 40 pages.
The Service-Learning Dipstick: A Project Assessment Tool assesses the strengths and weaknesses of a service-learning project based on seven elements of successful service-learning practice. Developed by Youth Service California. 10 pages.
The Earthforce Quality Rubric is designed to help teachers analyze the extent to which a project meets various elements of a high-quality service-learning project. The rubric provides examples to guide you along the continuum from struggling to exemplary in each element area. This rubric could also serve as a model for developing a rubric specific to your service-learning project. 2 pages.
Maryland's Best Practices: An Improvement Guide for School-Based Service-Learning is a tool to assess the strengths of service-learning practice based on seven best practice elements.
The Standards of Quality for School-Based and Community-Based Service-Learning provides eleven standards to assess service-learning projects. Describes the difference between school-based and community-based service-learning. From the Alliance for Service-Learning in Education Reform (ASLER). 13 pages.
Service-Learning and Assessment: A Field Guide for Teachers offers resources to help teachers develop assessment strategies related to service-learning practice. From the National Service-Learning and Assessment Study Group.
Student Assessment.
The following resources can be used to assess what students are learning through their service-learning experiences.
The Compendium of Assessment and Research Tools is a database that provides information on instruments that measure attributes associated with service-learning teaching. It includes descriptions of research instruments, tools, rubrics, and guides. From RMC Research Corporation.
The Evaluation System for Experiential Education assesses the impact of service-learning on students, faculty, educational institutions, and communities. The system combines quantitative and qualitative assessment methods measuring students' academic achievement, career development, social development, personal development, civic participation, and ethical development. Developed by the University of California Berkeley Service-Learning Center.
Evaluation.
Making Knowledge Productive Toolkit
Making Knowledge Productive is a guide to service-learning program evaluation for Massachusetts Community Service-Learning administrators, coordinators, teachers, and students. Created by The Center for Youth and communities at Brandeis University and six community service-learning practitioners including Kids Consortium. Its purpose is help build support for programs, respond to funders' needs, inform program improvement and convince skeptic that service-learning programs do have an impact on students.
The links below include logic models, planning tools, permission slips, collection information, survey tools, reporting tips, data entry and analysis tool and code book, evaluation data, program improvement, and reporting dissemination tools.
| 
Facebook
Twitter
YouTube
Shop