Composition and Its Scope
SERVICE LEARNING
Me and Service Learning
 Reflect on a service experience in your life
and jot down a few thoughts
 What was it, how did it shape your thinking or
feeling about you and your society
How Could Students Write
About This?
 What kinds of writing assignments could
service learning students complete that
would help them think critically about these
experiences (while moving, of course, toward
completion of course outcomes)?
Our Brainstormed List
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Proposals
Blog posts
Research assignments (attach service to a
specific issue: why….?
Ethnographic research – service learning can
provide some insider status
Reading about approaches to an issue
(homelessness) and then combine with
service trip (Br. Beno’s)
Attitude assessments / self-reflection based
on community observation
(disabled students serving others as an
example)
adult literacy programs --- methodology to
address issue
biography of person affected by service
project
biography of famous person in past who did
service
marketing materials for the non-profit
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zine on a service learning agency and an
experience in general
legislation—argument for change
letters to editor / opinions
letters to legislators
contrast US vs elsewhere
web site design or other media projects
writing and media support to different
community groups
history of a service organization
writing for an organization
evidence – primary sources – service
learning as a source for this
literacy narratives
questionnaires –critical questions about
service related social issues
oral history
articles for non-profit newsletters
pen pals with a local school
Obstacles
 What are the obstacles
or challenges to
integrating service
learning into our
classes?
 What can instructors,
the department, or the
service learning office
do to help us overcome
these obstacles and
offer more service
Our Brainstorm
Obstacles
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FEAR OF FAILURE
TIME MANAGEMENT
MANDATORY OR OPTIONAL
INTEGRATING EXPERIENCE INTO THE
CLASS – MAKING IT FEEL CONNECTED
SOME OF OUR STUDENTS NEED SERVICE
RATHER THAN PROVIDING
BUILDING GENUINE RELATIONSHIPS /
HOURS AND LOCATION?
MORE HARM THAN GOOD
BUSY STUDENT LIVES
TRANSPORTATION
APATHY –EVERYONE!
UNEVEN PARTICIPATION
MANDATORY VOLUNTEERISM
COMMUNITY BASED LEARNING? FIELD
PRACTICUM?
CLASS RETENTION /ENROLLMENT
(DATA SHOWS HIGHER RETENTION!)
INITIAL ENROLLMENT
Strategies
 Integrate Service
Learning
 Part of key assignments
 Not extra or add on work
 Align service learning
with SLO’s—how can
students develop these
skills via service learning
experiences?
 Research nationally and
at MiraCosta
demonstrates that
service learning
increases retention.