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What
Is Service Learning?
Definition
of Service Learning
Bellingham
School District uses a definition of Service Learning based
on the National and Community Service Act of 1990.
The
Bellingham School District considers Service Learning as a
method:
A.
Under which students learn and dvelop through active planning
and participation in thoughtfully organized service experiences
that meet actual community needs;
B.
That is integrated into the student's academic curriculum
and provides structured time for a student to think, talk,
or write about what the student did and saw during the service
activity;
C.
That provides students with opportunities to use developed
and newly acquired skills and knowledge in real-life situations
in their own communities; and
D.
That enhances what is taught in school by extending student
learning beyound the classroom and into the community and
helps to foster the development of a sense of caring for others.
Eight
Essential Elements of Service Learning
The
Corporation for National Service has estabished the Eight
Essential Elements of Service Learning to help distinguish
Service Learning from service. All eight criteria must be
fulfilled to insure a lesson plan is in fact Service Learning.
A.
Service Learning activity must:
1.
Meet actual community needs.
2.
Be coordinated in collaboration with school and community.
3.
Be integrated into the youth's academic curriculum.
4.
Provide structured time for students to think, talk, and write
about what he/she did during the service activity.
5.
Provide stuents with opportunities to use newly acquired skils
and knowledge in real life situations in their own communities.
6.
Enhance what is taught in school by extending student learning
beyond the classroom.
7.
Help foster the development of a sense of caring for others.
8.
Encourage the ethics of citizenship and social action.
Aligning
Service Learning/Table of Contents
Service
Learning Home
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