Michelle Gardner-Service for Learning

Michelle Gardner Literature Review

TITLE: Service for Learning

AUTHOR:  Rahima Wade

Source: EDUCATIONAL LEADERSHIP/MAY 2011

SUMMARY:

1. “ Far from being a distraction, service learning can help students build academic skills while they become more involved in the community.”

2.   High stake assessments have  driven schools to adopt a rigorous and focus approach to reading, writing, and math instruction that takes up the majority of the school day.

3.  Many see service learning as a practice that produces mainly civic outcomes, so many educators have decided that there is no time for it.

4.  Two related facts to challenge this conclusion is that first high quality service learning engages students and second engagement is critical to academic achievement.

5.  Service learning is our avenue for keeping students interested.

ANALYSIS:

Service learning not only helps the community, but also helps our school community.  The article told of several projects that students completed that supported math skills.  Sometimes when students can’t understand mathematics from the book, when their math skills are used in real live situations they suddenly grasp the concepts taught.