Service-Learning
A statewide requirement that benefits all!
Lisa Kipersztok, VISTA
Service Learning Department
Anne Arundel County Public Schools
What is Service-Learning?
Service-learning is a teaching
method that combines
meaningful service to the
community with curriculumbased learning.
Students improve academic skills
by applying what they learn in
school to real world issues; they
then reflect on their experience
to reinforce the link between
their service and their learning
Maryland’s Service-Learning Mission
It is the mission of Maryland State Department
of Education’s service-learning program to
institutionalize high quality
service-learning for students in all Maryland
K-12 public schools, and to encourage its
application in schools across the United States.
Maryland Seven Best Practices
of Service-Learning
1. Meet a recognized need in the community
2. Achieve curricular objectives through service-learning
3. Reflect throughout the service-learning experience
4. Develop student responsibility
5. Establish community partnerships
6. Plan ahead for service-learning
7. Equip students with knowledge and skills needed for
service
Code of Maryland Regulation
Students shall complete one of the following:
 75 hours of student service that includes
preparation, action, and reflection
components and that, at the discretion of
the local school system, may begin during
the middle grades; or
 A locally designed program of student
service that has been approved by the State
Superintendent of Schools.
Service-Learning in Anne Arundel County
75 hours required in order to graduate:
5 hours are done in elementary school in the 5th grade
30 hours are done in middle school
10 in 6th grade
10 in 7th grade
10 in 8th grade
40 hours are done in high school
10 in US Government (9th/11th)
10 in Health (9th / 10th)
10 in Science (10th)
10 in English (11th)
Why Service-Learning?
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Improved Academic Achievement and Engagement*
Increased Positive Civic Attitudes and Behaviors*
Enhanced Social and Personal Skills*
Benefited a wide range of youth**
Improved academic achievement**
Average Student
Helped students learn useful skills**
Retention Rates
Positive impact on certain risk behaviors**
*Corporation for National and Community Service
**Brandeis University Service-Learning Study
How does service-learning work?
Service-Learning has three parts:
1. PREPARATION
& RESEARCH
2. ACTION
3. REFLECTION
Types of Service
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Direct Service
Tutoring, Mentoring,Visiting the Elderly
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Indirect Service
Drives, Collections, Fundraisers, Clean-ups
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Advocacy
Lobbying, Speaking, Presenting
Reflection
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To explore the impact and importance of citizen service
to the community
To understand how to learn from experience
To develop a language of caring and commitment
To instill habits of participation as an expectation of
citizenship
Attend to broader issues as well as personal experience
Encourage creativity
Use diverse activities
Have students structure some of the reflection sessions
“The service you do for others
is the rent you pay for the time
you spend on earth.”
- Muhammed Ali
“You make a living by
what you get. You make a
life by what you give."
-- Winston Churchill
“You cannot do a kindness
too soon, for you never
know how soon it will be
too late.”
- Ralph Waldo Emerson
“How wonderful is it that
nobody need wait a single
moment before starting to
improve the world.”
- Anne Frank
“Thought without practice is empty,
practice without thought is blind.”
-Kwame Nkkrumah