Academic Service-Learning Teacher Mini-Grants s1

Academic Service Learning Project Planner

District: Lowell Area Schools Building: Lowell High School Teacher(s): Cyndi Gibson Main Contact: Cyndi Gibson Email: [email protected] Grade Level: 10th – 12th Subject(s): ELA First Trimester: Second Trimester: x Third Trimester: x First Semester: Second Semester: All Year:

Name of Project: Survivors

Project Overview Give a brief overview of the project you are planning. Students will improve reading, writing, and verbal communication skills in a unit entitled, “Survivors”. The teacher will prepare the basic framework of various types of “survivors’ including explorers/adventurers, soldiers/rescue personal, accident/illness victims, social/cultural injustice, and personal addiction/hardship utilizing books, movies, newspaper articles, museum exhibits, guest speakers, and personal journals. Character traits utilized and leadership skills demonstrated by survivors will be identified. Students will then identify group of community “survivors” to assist in a manner they identify. Effective Practice: MEANINGFUL SERVICE Service learning actively engages participants in meaningful and personally relevant service activities. What community need will you address and how did you determine the need? Every community has people (individuals and groups) who struggle, daily, to “survive”. They can be aided in the battles through community, personal, and financial support.

What service will you provide to address the need? After researching different agencies in the community who help people “survive”, the students chose to work with Habitat for Humanity.

Effective Practice: LINK TO CURRICULUM Service learning is intentionally used as an instructional strategy to meet learning goals and/or content standards. How is this project related to your curriculum? The curriculum directly focuses on improving each student’s ability to read, write, and speak. Indirectly, the students also need to learn decision-making and leadership skills, and understand diversity, compassion, and acceptance.

What are the educational goals? Through various assignments and exercises, students will show improvement in reading, writing, and presentation skills. StoneShores 2010 Individual journals and writing assignments Reading comprehension checks Power-point presentation (Each student will research and identify a new “survivor” example from each category.)

Curriculum Crafter Connections www.curriculumcrafter.com Strand: 09-10 ELA: Writing TLW: Write routinely over extended time frames (time for research, reflection, and revision) and shorter time frames (a single sitting or a day or two) for a range of tasks, purposes, and audiences. (Gist: Range of Writing)

Additional State Standards and Benchmarks List standards and benchmarks met by this project. Strand: 09-10 ELA: Reading Literature By the end of grade 9, read and comprehend literature, including stories, dramas, and poems, in the grades 9-10 text complexity band proficiently, with scaffolding as needed at the high end of the range.

By the end of grade 10, read and comprehend literature, including stories, dramas, and poems, at the high end of the grades 9-10 text complexity band independently and proficiently. (Gist: Range of Reading and Level of Text Complexity – Literature)

Strand: 09-10 ELA: Reading Informational Text TLW: Demonstrate an integration of knowledge and ideas to understand the informational text selection. (Gist: Integration of Knowledge and Ideas – Informational Text)

Effective Practice: REFLECTION Service learning incorporates multiple challenging reflection activities that are ongoing and that prompt deep thinking and analysis about oneself and one’s relationship to society. What form(s) of reflection will you use with the students to help them identify what they have learned and accomplished? Students will record their thoughts and feelings during each class period in their “Survivor Journal”. At the end of the unit, students will write a formal paper on the topic: What I will remember about this experience 5+ years from now.

Effective Practice: DIVERSITY Service learning promotes understanding of diversity and mutual respect among all participants. What types of diverse perspectives and experiences will be explored as part of your project? (i.e.: cultural, generational, abilities/disabilities, learning styles, etc) As we explore survivors, both contemporary and historically, we will look at people with diverse backgrounds culturally, generationally, and with a variety of abilities and disabilities. Effective Practice: YOUTH VOICE Service learning provides youth with a strong voice in planning, implementing, and evaluating service learning experiences with guidance from adults. How will students gain ownership of the project? Students will identify specific service project after being exposed to existing community needs. Students will also research and present new examples of “survivors” in each category for their individual Power Point presentation. As a class, they will determine their “audience”. (i.e. elementary students, administrators, parents, etc…) Effective Practice: RECIPROCAL PARTNERSHIPS Service learning partnerships are collaborative, mutually beneficial, and address community needs.

StoneShores 2010 Who will you partner with for this project? The United States Peace Corps A Senegalese artist

How will students benefit from this partnership? The students are in direct contact with the Peace Corps volunteer via video conferences that take place approximately twice per month. The discussions with the volunteer are guided by the students’ questions along with a focus on the curriculum objectives.

How will the partner benefit from this collaboration? The efforts of Murray Lake students to send art supplies to Senegal will further the goal of the Peace Corps to develop important problem solving skills among the Senegalese people.

The individual artist who has partnered with the Peace Corps will be able to further his goal of teaching Senegalese students to think and act creatively with the help of the supplies being collected by Murray Lake students.

Effective Practice: PROGRESS MONITORING Service learning engages participants in an ongoing process to assess the quality of implementation and progress toward meeting specified goals, and uses results for improvement and sustainability. How will you assess the student learning goals? The development of this project in and of itself is evidence of the learning that has already taken place as a result of our partnership with the Peace Corps volunteer. As we move forward with this project, the students’ continued ownership and investment in seeing it through to successful completion will be the most telling assessment.

How will you assess your service goals? The feedback we receive from the Peace Corps volunteer and the Senegalese artist, as well as the photos/video we receive from them will allow the students to learn about the impact of their efforts on the students of Senegal.

Effective Practice: DURATION AND INTENSITY Service learning has sufficient duration and intensity to address community needs and meet specified outcomes. How will you prepare students for this experience? Read articles, biographies/autobiographies, and other expository texts focusing on examples of “survivors” from each category.

What are some sample possible activities students might do as part of this project? Read or watch an article or story daily about a historical or contemporary survivor and use this to prompt the daily writing assignment. Read biography “At the Edge” by Dennis N.T. Perkins (Shackleton’s experience and leadership skills) Experience IMAX movie, “Shackleton’s Antarctic Adventure” Visit Van Andel Museum (Shackleton’s Adventure and Anishnawbe exhibits) Research and report on various community agencies that help those who are struggling Provide a service to the agency chosen by the class

StoneShores 2010