Service Learning Lesson Plan

I chose a history service learning lesson plan that is an alternate assignment to the final exam. After looking over the lesson plan it seems like a great way to get students involved in their community. The student's goal for the lesson plan is to gain experience working in a community with whom you have had limited contact. To identify preconceived ideas about the community with whom you will be working. And also to compare your preconceived notions with your direct experiences gained during this project. This project forces students to use critical thinking to recognize and respond to present-day parallel historical factors that contributed to the Holocaust (racism, stereotypes, peer pressure). The students must be committed to their volunteer services by seriously and conscientiously fulfilling your agreement with this organization.
The teacher has included a list of organizations as well as a website with additional options. At this organization the students must complete 10 hours of volunteer work and keep a journal logging about one page per hour of work. This will help the students to reflect on their experience. The students then have to write a 4 page essay that they will turn in with their journal.
For the essay the students much describe the organization, its mission and core values. This includes its history, what services it provides, how it is funded, and how the organization plays a role in the larger community. They then have to describe their activities and role as a volunteer and what their activities include. They also must tell what contact they had with the community that the agency serves. The students must also discuss what they learned about the community from their experience and if the experience helped them to connect classroom learning to the larger community. They also much tie in what present-day parallel historical factors that contributed to the Holocaust that they encountered. The students must also include what preconceived notions they had about the community and if the experience affected them. Then to tie it all together they must reflect on what they learned about the community and compare it to what they are learning in the class.
This service learning lesson plan reflects a great deal of the ideas on the social studies concept map. This project puts the responsibility totally on the student, which motivates them to learn on their own. Through this assignment they are able to connect what they have learned into their daily life because they are out there interacting with people in order to learn more about them. Because the students are looking to how racism and other prejudices are prominent in the community they are dealing with very controversial issues. They also have to use critical thinking in evaluating their volunteering and writing their essay. The best method for this lesson plan is to assign students individual tasks to observe, record and communicate so they can better understand the historical context of the lesson at hand. There are two practices that work with this lesson that are on our concept map. Students get to work hands on at their own place to create meaning to the project. It is also an essay, which will require critical thinking. There could be problems with this because it is so student dependent and therefore it may be difficult to get everyone to participate. It is a good thing that this is an alternative assignment so hopefully the students that choose to do this will be excited and willing to work on the project. But as a teacher I think that they should be readily available for any questions on the project because this can be difficult to get the students to stay on task. Maybe have them turn in the journal after each time to make sure they are getting what they should out of the experience.
http://www.servicelearning.org/slice/index.php?ep_action=view&ep_id=461