Dayonne: Why use service-learning in language arts classes?
EDUC 451B
In my up-coming practicum I will be teaching an English nine unit around the theme of social justice. My school advisor suggested that I use a service-learning project in this unit. She has never done this before, but was interested in attempting to incorporate service-learning in collaboration with me. My first thought was that this sounded like a great idea. I have always been interested in project-based learning and in particular, in projects that take students outside of their classrooms and involves them with their community or the world at large. When I began to create this unit, I found texts that were around social justice issues and planned lessons where we would discuss the meaning of the term “social justice” and how it relates my students. I began to question, however the validity of including a service-learning project in this unit. I had to ask myself, “how is service-learning connected to the language arts?” and more importantly, “how will this project fulfill prescribed learning outcomes from the English Language Arts Integrated Resource Package.
I decided to use this inquiry project to examine the how and why teachers would use service-learning in the language arts. Moreover, I believe that this question is relevant more many teachers today, since social justice is a hot topic at the moment and there is a push from the ministry and teacher education programs to encourage teachers to include social responsibility as part of their curricular outcomes. It is important to understand why we would want to do this. My approach in this inquiry is to survey some of the literature on service-learning, on the purposes of teaching literature, and the goals of language arts instruction as well as reflecting on my own beliefs about teaching English language arts.
What is “service-learning”? There are many, many books and articles that define service-learning; the definition are all very similar. Thomsen, (2006) explains the concept succinctly: “service-learning is an approach that facilitates students’ learning of academic standards through engaging them in providing service that meets real community needs” (p.viii). The theory behind service-learning is that the experiential approach will provide students with real-life examples of abstract ideas and help student apply theories or principles learned in class to new situations (Mettetal, 1996). Mettetal (1996), suggests that all service-learning projects must include three key components: the service work must be related to learning goals, it provide a necessary service for the community and involve pre-project research. Not all promoters of service-learning believe or at least mention that applied research is a requirement; however, I find this one component to be very important because students should know something about the people, person or nation they are trying to serve before entering the field and offering their services. Research requirements also add to the overall “learning” aspect of service-learning.
The benefits and reasons for using service-learning are numerous and vary from empowering youth to improving students’ behaviour in school. Mettetal (1996) notes research that asserts service-learning results in “enhanced personal development such as higher self-esteem, less depression and increased social competence” (p.24). Thomsen, (2006) who writes about the benefits of using service-learning in elementary and middle school contexts claims that service-learning has many academic, emotional and behavioural benefits. She writes from personal experience that service-learning increases students’ interest in the subject matter, and increases students’ appreciation for school, improves students’ classroom behaviour. In addition, she states that the “knowledge and skills gained [from service-learning] are deeper, tend to be remembered longer and are more easily transferred to other settings” (p.viii). This means students are using higher level thinking skills and that the things they learn stay in their long-term memory, perhaps because of the hands-on nature of service-projects.
While I did not specifically search for literature that opposes service-learning or provides negative aspects, there are a few considerations that arose in the literature reviewed. Mettetal (1996) notes that: “Low quality service-learning has no yield in any of the ways outlined above”. (p.ix) He argues that for service-learning to be a success, students must have direct contact with those being served, the activities must be intellectually challenging, and it student should have a say in the choices that are made. Other concern he includes are that service-learning is very time-consuming and that it sometimes forces student to interact with unpleasant people (1996).
Although the benefits of service-learning are clear, and the obstacles are possible to overcome, it is less clear how service-learning is connected to the reading of literature; in order to make this connection I have looked at the question of “why do we teach literature?” In my research, I came across an article called, “Why Teach Literature? A Survey of Student-Teachers’ Opinions” by M. York (1974). Although this article is quite dated, I thought it might be interesting to know what student-teachers some years ago thought about the purpose of teaching literature. York found that the majority of student-teachers believed that we teach literature foremost to develop imagination, and to encourage creative work by students (1974). York (1974) does not press judgement on the answers he found, but he does write that: “If we have some doubts about the justifications given, or only some of them, or their order in a scale of priorities, then presumably we must work out alternative ones and provide some solid evidence to support them” (p.8-9). This lead me to examine my own reasons for teaching literature and to think about whether service-learning fits with those beliefs.
Following this theme of finding a purpose for teaching literature, Levine (1970), in his article “Literature and Social Relevance” discusses the purpose of teaching literature and his belief that the purposes need to change . He suggests that often times students are not being challenged by their literary studies because they don’t see any relationship between the literature they read and the world they live in and that other subject areas also view English as a subject that does not contribute a whole lot to society. However, he believes that English can be at the forefront of solving the problems in society and the world. Before going into how we can achieve this, he reminds us that the novels and poems and dramas that we deal with in English classes are created by real people, trying to communicate human emotions and experiences and that the most moving texts are the ones that deal with personal and social experiences (ie. poverty, prejudice, alienation). Levine hopes that “…by relating the personal and social aspects of their work to current modes of thought and feeling, we may lead students to better understand the total value of the literary artifact as a record of human experience” (1970, p.31). Finally he states his own purpose for teaching literature, a purpose that has informed my own opinion and purpose and which I hope will guide me through my teaching:
Hopefully, by educating them to an awareness of the diversity of possible ways of life and of the power of words over men’s minds and actions, we may make them more sensitive, more tolerant. We may even develop in them…the habit of examining their own thinking and feeling, of evaluating- nay challenging- their own culture-bound biases, and the social consequences of their attitudes. (Levine, 1970, p.31)
This idea that teaching literature is about focusing students’ attention on their place in the world and opening their minds to the effect they have have within it, fits perfectly with the ideology behind service-learning; however, I had to ask myself: is “literature” the same thing as “English language arts” and if not, how can I connect the other aspects of English language arts to service-learning?
Subsequently, I referred to the B.C. Ministry of Education website to look for a definition of English language arts. The B.C. Ministry of Education, English Language Arts IRPs state that:
The aim of English Language Arts is to provide students with opportunities for personal and intellectual growth through speaking, listening, reading, viewing, writing, and representing to make meaning of the world and to prepare them to participate effectively in all aspects of society. (B.C. Ministry of Education)
This is important to keep in mind because teaching language arts is more than teaching texts; it is about preparing student, communicatively, to be active citizens and contributors to our society.
Similarly, in “Pulling Together,” Schnellert (2009) suggests that learning in English language arts includes a wide variety of learning including the acquisition of certain knowledge and skills. Two of the outcomes that Schnellert describes, fit very well with service-learning including teaching students to consider what is necessary to live and contribute to a functioning society and teaching students to decide for themselves what it means to live and act in the world. Both of these outcomes focus on teaching students to think beyond the walls of their classroom and to think about how they can make a difference in the wider community.
In addition, Shanklin (2009) writes in the article “Service-learning: Using the language arts to make a difference” about how service-learning can specifically be linked to English language arts. Shanklin suggests that nearly every project that can be developed, requires the students to use their language art skills to communicate, report, and reflect (2009). From this perspective, we can view service-learning as an opportunity for practicing and developing communication skills which is in line with the B.C. Ministry of Education’s definition of English language arts. In addition, Shanklin writes that there are service-learning projects that can have a primary focus on literacy and language art skills too. For example, tutoring, students could create children’s books to be donated, pen-pal letters to homebound seniors (2009). These ideas could be especially useful if one feels that communication is not a good enough learning outcome goals or rationale for having students become involved in a service-learning project.
I intend to further explore the rationale behind service-learning as I undertake my practicum. I have already had to justify it to the administration of my school and now more importantly, I will have to provide me students with a solid explanation of why we are doing this. I hope to learn a lot through this experimental unit and be able to share the lessons I learn with my peers after the practicum.
Works Cited:
Levine, C. (1970). Literature and Social Relevance. The Bulletin of the Rocky Mountain Modern Language Association, 25-32.
Mettetal, G., & Bryant, D. (1996). Service learning research projects. College Teaching, 44(1), 24-28. doi: 10.1080/87567555.1996.9925551
Thomsen, K. (2006). Service learning in grades K-8: Experiential learning that builds character and motivation. Thousand Oaks, Calif: Corwin Press.
Shanklin, N. (2009). Service-learning: Using the language arts to make a difference. Voices from the Middle, 17(1), 41-43.
Schnellert, L., & Canadian Electronic Library (Firm). (2009). Pulling together: Integrating inquiry, assessment, and instruction in today’s english classroom. Markham, Ont: Pembroke.
YORKE, M. (1974). Why teach literature ? A survey of student-teachers’ opinions. English in Education, 8(2), 5-9. doi: 10.1111/j.1754-8845.1974.tb00408.x
Bibliography:
Chadwick, K. (2004). Improving Schools Through Community Engagement. Cornwin Press.
Erin McLaughlin. (2010). The “real-world” experience: Students’ perspectives on service-learning projects. American Journal of Business Education, 3(7), 109.
Ferguson, R., Liu, C., Last, M., & Mertz, J. (2006). Service-learning projects: Opportunities and challenges. 127-128. doi: 10.1145/1121341.1121382
Jenkins, S. (2011). The impact of in-class service-learning projects. Journal of Political Science Education, 7(2), 196-207. doi: 10.1080/15512169.2011.564911
Levine, C. (1970). Literature and Social Relevance. The Bulletin of the Rocky Mountain Modern Language Association, 25-32.
Mettetal, G., & Bryant, D. (1996). Service learning research projects. College Teaching, 44(1), 24-28. doi: 10.1080/87567555.1996.9925551
Shanklin, N. (2009). Service-learning: Using the language arts to make a difference. Voices from the Middle, 17(1), 41-43.
Schnellert, L., & Canadian Electronic Library (Firm). (2009). Pulling together: Integrating inquiry, assessment, and instruction in today’s english classroom. Markham, Ont: Pembroke.
Sumara, D. J. (2002). Why reading literature in school still matters: Imagination, interpretation, insight. Lawrence Erlbaum.
Thomsen, K. (2006). Service learning in grades K-8: Experiential learning that builds character and motivation. Thousand Oaks, Calif: Corwin Press.
YORKE, M. (1974). Why teach literature ? A survey of student-teachers’ opinions. English in Education, 8(2), 5-9. doi: 10.1111/j.1754-8845.1974.tb00408.x