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PREPARATION, ACTION, REFLECTION AND CELEBRATION
THE FOUR STEPS OF SERVICE-LEARNING PROJECTS |
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| “So what’s the buzz about service-learning? Is it really worth it for me to change the way I teach?” The benefits of service-learning are clear; research shows that this approach (Billig): |
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• Increases students' motivation to learn.
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• Helps students acquire academic skills and knowledge. |
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• Is associated with increased student attendance in school. |
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• Has a positive effect on the personal development of students. |
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• Decreases the likelihood of students engaging in "risk" behaviors. |
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• Has a positive effect on students' interpersonal development and their ability to relate to culturally diverse groups. |
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• Provides opportunities for students to become active, positive contributors to society. |
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• Helps develop students' sense of civic and social responsibility and their citizenship skills. |
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• Improves relationships between communities and youth/schools. |
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• Helps students gain a better understanding of potential careers. |
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• Results in greater mutual respect of teachers and peers. |
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• Improves overall school climate. |
| What’s more, incorporating a service-learning framework provides teachers with a clear roadmap to guide students from project beginning to completion. These inter-connected phases help students link their actions to curricular topics, reinforcing learning. |
| Preparation, Action, Reflection, Celebration (PARC) |
| Service-learning projects typically follow four phases: preparation, action, reflection, and celebration. Each step is designed around specific questions to guide the group from beginning to end of the project. |
| PREPARATION |
This is the starting point of a service-learning project. It is the time when youth and adults work together to identify a community need, research and analyze that need, develop empathy and understanding about the need, and plan their actions and develop skills to address it.
“Throwing” students into a new activity without adequate training and research would likely yield less than positive results. Therefore, the Preparation stage allows students to gain insight, skills, and commitment, set priorities, and decide along with adult leaders what service project they will take on, based on existing resources, possible partnerships, as well as how their service will connect with their classroom learning.
E xamples of preparation activities are research assignments and community mapping exercises, reading, viewing, and listening to stimulate insight and a personal commitment to the issue, group discussions, and interviews with potential service recipients to confirm priority needs. The project design also takes place during this phase.
Some questions that guide the Preparation are: |
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• What are the needs in this community? |
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• Why does this need exist? What are the underlying factors and causes of this issue? |
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• What assets and resources can we count on? |
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• How can we address these needs through service? |
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• What do we need to know to provide this service? |
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• What do we already know that will help us provide this service? |
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• Who is already working on this issue? |
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• What curricular topics could we apply and practice? |
| ACTION – COMMUNITY SERVICE |
This step follows and results from the Preparation phase. It is the time when students implement their service activity, applying what they have learned so far to benefit the community. A key element in all phases of service-learning is “youth voice” – with adults as advisors, youth take the lead in all aspects of developmentally appropriate projects and make decisions. This strategy raises students confidence in their own abilities to make contributions that matter and leads to sustained involvement even after the initial project ends. The action can extend over different periods of time (eg. a day, a weekend, a month) although research has shown that semester-long service-learning projects are the most effective.
As in the case of the Preparation stage, some questions that guide the Action phase are: |
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• What do we expect to achieve with this project? |
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• What do we need to put in place to implement it? (timelines, resources, responsibilities, communications) |
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• How will we address changes to our original plans? (weather, number of volunteers, project location) |
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• How will we measure our success? |
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• How are these service actions related to coursework, academic standards, or graduation requirements? |
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• How will we continue to work on this issue and what else needs to happen? |
The action or service project itself can be direct or indirect and include an advocacy component to find a long-term solution to the problem.
Direct Actions
These are projects where students interact directly with the service beneficiaries, for example while cheering at the soccer game of a cancer patient’s sibling, raking leaves in the fall for a family fighting cancer, or befriending a peer who is returning to the classroom after chemotherapy.
Indirect Actions
In the case of indirect service actions, it is the community at large that benefits rather than specific individuals. Examples of such projects include making quilt squares for an organization that sends quilts to grieving siblings, raising money for cancer research, or creating a website for a family fighting cancer so that the community at large can offer support.
Advocacy
Advocacy activities create awareness on an issue of public interest and are always an important dimension in seeking long-lasting solutions. Examples of these actions include developing a public awareness campaign empowering youth to be better decision-makers regarding their own health, researching and sharing information about careers in medicine, or hosting a symposium for medical professionals about the youths’ own culture of origin. |
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REFLECTION
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This phase is actually threaded through every step of the process. It provides students with structured opportunities to analyze their service experience and the impact they are having on the community, make connections to academic topics, and to assess their own learning and growth. Reflection activities can take the form of journal writing, discussion, art work, peer interviews, and future planning exercises.
Examples of questions to facilitate critical thinking include:
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• How did this activity affect you? |
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• How did your experience differ from what you expected? |
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• Would you have done anything differently? |
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• What specific academic skills did you learn or reinforce through this phase? |
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• What did you learn about yourself? And about your peers? |
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• How would you teach others to engage in a similar project? |
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• How do you feel about your place in this community? Is it different than before working on this project? |
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• What would you like to do in connection to this issue in the future? |
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CELEBRATION |
Throughout the project, and especially at the end, all participants – including students, neighbors, community partners, school administrators - should be publicly celebrated and thanked for their efforts. This affirms the importance of their contributions and encourages continued collaborations in the future. Celebrations often incorporate time for participants to reflect on their successes and challenges and set the stage for future service projects. Examples of celebrations are neighborhood parties, media coverage, school assemblies, potlucks shared with the project beneficiaries, and certificate and award presentations.
Some guiding questions to organize the final celebration phase are: |
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• Who made this experience possible? |
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• What was their role? |
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• How would they like to be recognized? |
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• Who should learn about the results of our project? |
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• How should we publicize the results of our activity? |
| The PARC framework is dynamic and focused on students’ abilities and learning needs, which allows participants to become immersed in the project and stay engaged and motivated through its different stages. |
| Helpful sources: |
Billig, Shelley - The Impacts of Service-Learning on Youth, Schools and Communities: Research on K-12 School-Based Service-Learning, 1990-1999; Shelley H. Billig, PhD, RMC Research Corporation, as part of the W.K. Kellogg Foundation's Learning In Deed Initiative
Youth Service America (2006) Service Learning Curriculum; A Guide for Developing Project Management Skills
Youth Service America (2006) Planning Tool Kit; A Guide for Creating Effective Service Projects
Service Learning, The New Georgia Encyclopedia website at http://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/nge/Article.jsp?id=h-2987 (retrieved August 2, 2006 )
Service Learning, The Peace Corps website at http://www.peacecorps.gov/wws/educators/servicelearning/
Florida Service Preparedness and Response Coalition (SPARC) website at
http://www.fsu.edu/~sparc/SL.htm |
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