WEEK BY WEEK dates may reflect Monday of the week not the date of your fourth hour
Week
Week 1
Topic
Septem
ber 3
No
Monday
Fourth
hour-
Agree/Dis
WEEK agree
2
Week of
9/8
Assignment
Goal: Getting to know one another, building trust so that dialogue can happen in the group. How do we get to
know and understand people from their perspective?
Reading: Dialogue and Debate: THE WAY THAT YOU SAY IT By Dr. Keith Suter, Author, Lecturer,
Consultant for Social Policy http://www.crnhq.org/pages.php?pID=15
Written assignment: What are your goals for your year in SLC?
What do you expect of yourself in fourth hour? What will be your challenge participating in fourth hour? What
do you expect of others? Write three guidelines that you think are good for the group.
Goal: We are a group who will talk about sensitive issues; we will include knowledge and experience. We will
disagree, challenge one another and question our own previous set of beliefs. It begins here.
Reading: Westheimer, Joel and Joseph Kahn. What Kind of citizen. “The Politics of Education for
Democracy” American Educational Research Journal. Volume 41 No. 2, Summer 2004, 237-269
http://aer.sagepub.com/content/41/2/237.full.pdf+html
Reflection question: SLC is clearly in favor of “justice oriented citizenship” which is described in the article as
“educational programs that emphasize social change seek to prepare students to improve society by critically
analyzing and addressing social issues and injustices. What is your response to that goal?
Written Assignment: What is Justice? What is your role in society? Create three questions for conversation
about citizenship, service, responsibility and or justice for fourth hour. Be prepared to share those questions
“Education either functions as an instrument which is used to facilitate integration of the younger generation
into the logic of the present system and bring about conformity or it becomes the practice of freedom, the means
by which men and women deal critically and creatively with reality and discover how to participate in the
transformation of their world.”
― Paulo Freire, Pedagogy of the Oppressed
Week
Week 3
Topic
If serving
can be bad
how it can
be good?
Assignment
We live in a culture in which the focus can be individualism and competition. These attributes are
positive for innovation, self-reliance and success. However, there are times when these characteristics
overwhelm our ability to care for the vulnerable of our society. Catholic Social Teaching uses a term,
the common good, which means a condition in which all people can flourish. To flourish one must have
the resources to afford basic human rights and beyond that the opportunity to achieve their human
potential. Is it possible to be both an individualistic society, a competitive society and care for others?
Citizenship is what we have in common with all persons in this country. What are our rights and
responsibilities? Are those rights and responsibilities the same for everyone?
Preparation for next week—you will be assigned one of these readings
Reading: Eby, John. “Why is Service Learning Bad”
http://www.greatlakesed.net/Resources/documents/WhyServiceLearningIsBad.pdf
other half read
½ the class the
Davis Adam, what we don’t Talk about When We Don’t talk About Service.
Cihttp://civicreflection.org/images/external_resources/What_We_Dont_Talk_About_When_We_Dont_
Talk_About_Service.pdf
Written Assignment:
One Page essay “Why Serve, Why do I serve?” What Motivates Me? How does service become service learning?
(please refer to quote below and Eby essay)
Service Learning is dangerous because it is a paradigmatic example of a destabilizing and decentering mode of teaching. A teacher’s job is to promote
students’ grappling with socially consequential and politically volatile content knowledge individual and institutional racism and historical and
contemporary structural inequities in our society. Service Learning, if done well promotes the rethinking and reenactment of who we are and what we do
through immersive, consequential, and sustained practices of engagement with individuals and communities different from ourselves. Dan Butin, “Service
Learning is Dangerous,” National Teaching and Learning Forum, vol. 15, 2005
WEEK
WEEK
4
9/22
Topic
If serving
can be
bad, how
do we
make it
good?
Assignment
 To begin the conversation about why we serve and acknowledging that it is an ongoing conversation with
others and self.
 Exploring what the role of knowledge is in regard to service and the role of developing questions.
 Be honest about the fact that service can be done poorly. Service can reinforce stereotypes we have
about people. It is helpful to know that we have stereotypes; they are a natural outcome of socialization
that can be reinforced through service.
 Service is a reciprocal relationship. There is no one who is giving more—that is a difficult concept
because we are used to the charity model. What we seek is justice and to be a part of a process in which
those who serve and those who are served can find the best in themselves.
CHOOSE ONE READING
The Origins of Service Learning: Jane Addams opened Hull house a shelter for the destitute and formed a
partnership with the University of Chicago, she can be considered the “mother of service learning.”
http://quod.lib.umich.edu/m/mjcsl/3239521.0011.101?view=image
Eby, John W. “Service Learning as Scholarship.
http://thestamp.umd.edu/leadership_community_service_learning/academic/faculty_servicelearning/defining_service-learning_and_its_importance
Week 5
9/29
Why
Serve?
Reflection Questions
What is Service Learning? Why is reflection without knowledge dangerous?
Written Assignment: respond to the following questions
How will I make service a reciprocal relationship? How is education/learning and reflection a part of that
relationship? Find a quote that speaks to your essay.
Why Serve? Listening to ourselves and to others about why they serve. Exploring the reciprocal nature of community
based learning? To begin to think of the people WITH whom we serve as part of our human community rather than “the
other.” Do we have a responsibility to learn because of others?
Reading: Wilson, William Julius. More Than Just Race. New York: W.W. Norton, 2009. Chapter 2, “The Forces
Shaping Concentrated Poverty.” Pgs. 25-60 (PDF on OSL website)
Written Assignment List ten stereotypes that can be directed toward the poor then respond to the question;
Why are People Poor? Be creative about one solution to poverty. Develop 3 questions for fourth hour
discussion.
Poverty is the parent of revolution and crime.” ― Aristotle
Week
10/13
Week 6
10/20
Topic
Fall break
Poverty
Assignment
Camden video Camden Video http://vimeo.com/49759014
Reflection Questions:
o What is poverty? Do you think the 20/20 special gave you any insights?
o Which Character did you relate to the most? Why?
o Which character did you like the least? Why do you think you dislike that person?
o There is a pervasive argument about poverty and that is that people are responsible for themselves and
should not look to others, government to get money or goods or services. What do you think about that
argument? What do you think about individual vs. communal responsibility?
Continue reading
Reading: Wilson, William Julius. More Than Just Race. New York: W.W. Norton, 2009. Chapter 2, “The Forces
Shaping Concentrated Poverty.” Pgs. 25-60 pdf on line at
http://www1.villanova.edu/villanova/artsci/undergrad/resources/servicelearning/community/readings.html
Read for Philadelphia current events story
Tapped Out—An Intimate Look at Hardship. http://articles.philly.com/2014-05-13/news/49798015_1_povertyline-42-7-million-people-15-percent
Written Assignment: Reflection on Poverty including video and Wilson chapter. When you think about this film
what do you see, what do you hear, remember, does it connect with the Wilson essay? Write a one page essay on
poverty. Include what you have learned and if your opinion has shifted about poverty. If you are in perspectives
on US. Poverty please be prepared to teach the class something you learned that is significant for the
conversation. If you don’t know any facts about poverty find some facts that affect the population you serve and
include them in this essay! Create Three questions about poverty.
“When I give food to the poor, they call me a saint. When I ask why the poor have no food, they call me a
communist.” ―, Dom Helder Camara
Week
Week 7
Topic
Poverty
Assignment
Goals: Open the conversation about poverty and its consequences. Our students may go to their service site and serve in a
decent building and meet but little children who may misbehave but are well groomed and dressed. However, we know that
the neighborhoods we work in are low income and very different from where most of us grew up. We will explore the
notion of poverty and what life may be like for the adults, children and adolescents we meet at service. Discussion of
Camden Video and Wilson, More Than Just Race. Please be prepared to share some of your written assignment in class.
Reading: Choose 2 readings
 “Myths and Facts about Poverty” Quigley, William. “Ending Poverty as we know It” Philadelphia: Temple University
Press, 2003. Chapter 2, pages 19-28 (PDF)

Do human beings harbor disgust for poor people? http://articles.philly.com/2013-08-
06/news/41096922_1_west-philadelphia-neuroimaging-psychology Neuroscientists study people’s reaction
to visuals of people who are poor?

“Invisible Child: Dasani’s Homeless Life” by Andrea Ellison is an anecdotal story about a family in Brooklyn, NY who live in a shelter.
The main character is an 11 year old girl, Dasani. This is a five part series from The NY Times. You can read one part, but you might
be interested in all 5 parts of the series, http://www.nytimes.com/projects/2013/invisiblechild/?n=Top/News/U.S./U.S.%20States,%20Territories%20and%20Possessions/New%20York%3Fref=newyork#/?chapt=1
Written Assignment: Write about your service site. Think back to the beginning of the semester what have we talked
about, service, service learning, and the integration of knowledge and experience and the question of why you serve and
write a reflection on your service experience. (Due 11/10 no fourth hour week of 11/3 because of partnership dinner)
The test of our progress is not whether we add more to the abundance of those who have much; it is whether we provide enough for those
who have too little.” Franklin D. Roosevelt
11/3
Week 8
11/10
No fourth
Service
reflection
hour Partnership dinner
Have you learned anything in your course about the issues they see in service? Is being in community with others who
serve helped you to deepen your understanding of service? Sometimes students begin to feel helpless in light of all the
problems they are encountering in the world. It is important to bridge that helplessness with hope . How do you find
hope in the midst of all the issues you encounter in the community and in fourth hour?
No reading assignment this week
Written Assignment: Please pick one experience you have had at your service site that made an impact on you.
Say why it had an impact. Raise three questions about the incident? Create questions for other members of
fourth hour about their service?
Week
Week 9
Topic
Service
Reflection
11/17
Assignment
No reading this week
Written reflection: What did you learn today from the others in your fourth hour?
Consider these questions, write responses to one or as many as you like.








How did your service meet your expectations?
Was there meaningful work and interaction at your service site?
What did you learn from serving? Has service challenged you in some way?
Do you feel your service was informed by your courses? How is service changed by the
combination of service and academics?
What courses have you taken outside of SLC that you would recommend as requirements?
What are your thoughts on community events, Beach trip, murder mystery party, Halloween trip
What is one thought you would like to express to the leadership of SLC?
What would you like to learn more about next semester?
11/24
No 4th hour thanksgiving week
Week
10
Last
fourth
hour
Service
reflection
and
evaluation
Service Reflection and Evaluation: This is a time to think back about what you have learned, seen, felt or heard
and to examine the role of the components of SLC. Think about the questions below. It is important to
recognize what has gone well and to generate solutions to what has been problematic. This should be a
productive process that will help SLC to grow for you and those who come after you.
Next semester: We will start with the question of race. Students will group according to their service site in
fourth hour and are responsible for a presentation on their service sit as well as CAP project presentation at the
celebration dinner. There will be an outline of the presentation and freedom for you to educate the students in
your fourth hour about what you do, the people you serve and the school or agency where you serve.