Defines service learning. Identifies four components needed to organize a quality service learning experience: preparation; student involvement in meaningful integrated service learning experiences; student reflection; and evaluation and self-study of service learning projects. Lists ten organizations with expertise in service learning and…

Written by 10 middle school students, this booklet provides information needed to become a youth consultant in the service learning field. Section 1 provides a job description of a youth consultant. It lists duties of a youth consultant at school and locally, statewide, or nationally. Section 2 sets forth the selection criteria for youth…

This monograph, the second in a series intended as a resource for middle-level leaders, highlights three successful approaches that support student involvement in learning: problem-based learning, service learning, and student-led conferencing. Each approach is reported to have its roots in constructivism, which allows students to apply classroom…

A wave of the future in education is the inclusion of service activities in the school program with the accompanying expansion of school/community relationships. This book considers how to incorporate aspects of service into the ongoing academic program in middle school. The book contends that all middle school educators should become…

This issue paper describes a professor's and a teacher's experiences with Project Connect, an ongoing collaborative service-learning project between preservice teachers at Western Washington University (WWU) and eighth-grade students at Fairhaven Middle School in the Bellingham (Washington) Public School District. The paper explains that for both…

This monograph highlights the projects that high school and middle level students have initiated when they have seen a need in their communities, researched the need, and then figured out a way to answer the need. The monograph categorizes these state and national award-winning, self-initiated community projects as follows: aiding the…

This supplement contains five unit summaries on service learning that were developed during the 1996 summer institutes conducted by the Social Science Education Consortium (SSEC) for teams of middle school teachers selected from the western United States. Each unit summary in the supplement has been developed to correspond in style to unit…

This book focuses on building community through the sharing of history and traditions that students have inherited. Two eighth-grade teachers collaborated with others in their Oregon school to collect teaching strategies for this book. The teachers worked to build curriculum that integrated social studies with language arts and other subject…

In this booklet, a group of middle school teachers offer suggestions on how other teachers can similarly enhance their own school's service learning program by initiating and sustaining a service learning task force. The teachers begin by explaining why they developed a service learning task force and list some of the benefits of having a service…

As schools guide students in acquiring the skills and knowledge necessary to become responsible citizens, the question arises as to how they can better go about providing them with a well-rounded education: academically, socially, and emotionally. Providing Resource Opportunities with Learning (P.R.O.W.L.) suggests the following solutions: (1)…

"Active Citizenship Today" (ACT) is a service learning program for the social studies. There are two things that make ACT different from other service learning programs: (1) the "learning" in service -- learning refers to traditional social studies content and skills (it is a civics model); and (2) ACT is built around a problem-solving framework.…

This document consists of four issues of a newsletter for educators at the middle level. The issues each contain a main article, along with shorter articles and regular columns. The Fall 1997 issue focuses on basic habits of achievement; an additional article discusses building a middle school community. The vice president's column for this issue…

Service learning can help students learn specific skills and concepts, particularly in social studies. The article examines characteristics of good middle school service learning projects, explains how to begin a project, discusses the benefits of service learning, presents an example of service learning in Wren Middle School, Piedmont (South…

Service-learning is a teaching strategy used by Texas middle schools that combines classroom learning with community activities and where both students and teachers plan activities and projects that meet a well defined school or community need. These activities strengthen academic learning by addressing learning objectives, allowing students to…

This book incorporates teaching strategies to enhance middle school science and social studies using service learning. The book was developed by teachers who participated in a series of institutes conducted by the Social Science Education Consortium and the Science Discovery Program at the University of Colorado during the summers of 1993 and…