Adam Webb
Why service-learning(in composition)?
Bruce Herzberg (1994, 2000), Gere & Sinor (1997), AdlerKassner, Crooks, & Watters (1997), Thomas Tai-Seale (1997)
Thomas Deans (2000), Ball & Goodburn (2000), James. M.
Dubinsky (2001), Danika Brown (2001), Ellen Cushman (2002)
Paula Mathieu (2005), Dan Butin (2005), Maria Mikolchak
(2006), Posey & Quinn (2009), Baca & Muro (2009)
What is service-learning?
Service-learning is a method that connects teaching and learning
goals with community service, usually in the form of
volunteering. Service-learning helps students participate within
local communities—promoting civic engagement and
responsibility—thus building important connections and a greater
understanding of those communities’ diverse needs. The
educational component of service-learning comes in the form of
having students reflect on their experiences. Service-learning’s
connection to freshmen composition is relatively recent, starting
in the mid-nineteen-eighties.
One service-learning model
Image retrieved from: http://www.servicelearningcourse.org/image/pyramid.gif, 2009
Dale’s Cone of Experience
Another service-learning model
Image retrieved from:http://www.berea.edu/celts/servicelearning/images/servicelearningdiagram.jpg, 2009
Assumptions
Assumption 1:
Freshmen will benefit from engaging in service-learning
projects in the composition classroom during the course
of a semester because it will expose them to a form of
civic engagement through actual participation by
volunteering at a local non-profit organization.
Assumptions continued…
Assumption 2:
The composition classroom is an appropriate place to
incorporate service-learning projects because it allows
students to view research and writing as being
something more than just writing an essay. Writing is a
social act.
Assumptions continued…
Assumption 3:
By incorporating service-learning projects into the
composition classroom, students will learn how to
effectively plan, schedule, set goals (strategies) when it
comes to participating and researching about a local
community (i.e. local non-profit organization).
Research questions
• How will students attitudes toward research and writing in a
service-learning composition classroom change during the
course of semester?
• What kinds of writing should students do in a service-learning
composition classroom?
• What types of evaluation or grading rubrics should be used to
evaluate or grade students’ writing in the service-learning
composition classroom?
• What type of writing assignment sequence would be effective
for incorporating service-learning projects in the composition
classroom?
Goals
 Learn how to work together as a collaborative team
 Learn how to research and write together as a collaborative team
 Read and understand various aspects of service-learning and its
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purposes
Volunteer at a local non-profit organization
Engage in primary and secondary research
Locate and explore perplexing and complex questions and issues
within a local community
Write and communicate and in various formats and conventions
Learn how to evaluate self and peer performance within a
collaborative team
Learn how to evaluate writing
Objectives
 Write three reading responses to service-learning articles
 Conduct interviews with individuals connected to a local non-
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profit organization
Make specific observations of the kinds of questions and issues
that individuals deal with in a local non-profit organization
Gather primary and secondary research into a document
displaying this knowledge and information
Volunteer at a local-nonprofit organization
Collaborate with peers in a formal debate based on the research
(primary and secondary) of the readings, discussion, and the
experiences of volunteering (what does it take to be a
volunteer)
Classroom structure
 Students work in groups of 2-3
 Collaborative writing teams
 Writing team contracts
 Center for Civic Engagement (service-learning programs)
 Alternative writing assignment
Writing assignments
 Written responses to the four articles (a short summary
and some in-depth reflection on the three readings,
offering honest and constructive criticism on them)
 Background and history of the local non-profit
organization (i.e. from the non-profit organization’s
website or from the literature they have produced)
 1-2 semi-formal interviews with individuals associated
with the local non-profit organization
 Reflection on the interviewees’ responses as well as on
your volunteer experiences
Writing assignments continued…
 Formal debates over service-
learning/community service/volunteering
 Final reflection over the course
Four articles
Adler-Kassner, L. (2000). Service-Learning at a Glance. COLLEGE
CYBERBRIEF (newsletter). Reprinted with permission of the National
Council of Teachers of English. Retrieved online as a PDF file on 10
October 2009. http://reflections.syr.edu/featured/KassnerLinda.pdf>.
Butin, D. W. (2005). Service-learning is dangerous. National Teaching &
Learning Forum 14(4), <http://www.ntlf.com/>, pp. 1-5.
Herzberg, B. (1994). Community service and critical thinking. College
Composition and Communication, 45(3), 307-19.
Sigmon, R. (1979). Service-Learning: Three Principles. Synergist (9)1, 9-11.
Instruments
 Grading rubrics for writing assignments
-One for the reading responses, background/history, and
interviews/reflections
-One for the formal debate
-One for the final reflection over the course
 Survey (8 questions, mixed method)
 Observations in the students’ writing
Service-learning video
Service-learning in the intermediate
composition classroom
Questions?