In The Service of What?: Extended Comments
SUMMARY
The article In The Service Of What?: The Politics of Service Learning, by Joseph Kahne and Joel Westheimer, discusses the different approaches of service learning and the different domains that impact service learning. Throughout the article,the authors examine the various ways of how educators, politicians and academicians deal with and think of service learning. The authors argue that service learning is a chance for students to further their learning by using the community as a tool and the students can provide help to others in need. The main question of the article, "In the service of what?", brings attention to people like educators, that, "the idea of learning and service reinforce each other and should come together in America's schools" (Kahne). The two authors also believe that students need to analyze, reflect and discuss their service learning in order to truly comprehend the benefits of it. The article further goes on to explain the impact of three domains (moral, political and intellectual) that effect and influence service learning. The article brings various aspects of service learning into light and discusses how students would best learn from service learning projects.
EXTENDED COMMENTS
For my extended comments this week I used Hailey's blog for reference, because I feel like she did a great job summarizing the text of In the Service of What? The Politics of Service Learning by Joseph Kahne and Joel Westheimer along with connecting the article to other articles that we have read in class. In the beginning of her post she states that charity would be a good project for students who are in middle school, but I would even state middle school and younger. I agree with her that a charity or volunteer assignment would be good for these students, because they could feel the pride and joy that come with volunteering, but they may not fully grasp the research and background of the project. I agree when she states that altruism and fostering change are important aspects of service learning projects for students who are in high school or higher, because they have a better comprehension of the research and how to change aspects of society.
I like how she set up her post for the week by directing the audience to past blog post's she has made regarding various articles. I also like how she used various articles as ways to describe good charity and service learning projects that students could engage in.
Her first connection was to U.S.A Land of Limitations? by Nicholas Kristof, in which she states that students could research about the poverty families in their community face and students could volunteer or raise money/donations to help these families in need. I agree with Hailey, that the article could be used to help influence students, to help those who struggle with poverty.
In the second connections she made she related the article by Kahne to The Next Time Someone Says All Lives Matter, Show Them These Five Paragraphs by Kevin Roose and Amazing Grace by Jonathan Kozol where she explains how the Black Lives Matter movement would be a could service learning project for students to participate in. She explains that students would be able to research the movement and understand the importance of the project. It is a project that students would be able to make a difference and a change in society. Students would get more than just volunteering out of doing a service project like this one.
Hailey then make a connection to the articles read about the LGBTQ+ community along with ESL students and argued that groups like these need to acknowledged more and that people need to take the time to notice and understand them. I agree with her on this point, because these groups who are considered to be minority struggle more, due to the lack of resources and time spent on them. If people took more time and effort to work alongside these groups of people there would be a positive change in society and more people would benefit from both volunteering and the resources provided to them.
Hailey also included a hyperlink in her post discussing what service learning is and the importance of service learning to students and the community. I think this was a good link to include, because I feel that people forget the importance of service learning to themselves along with the people or organizations they are helping. I agree with Hailey's arguments and connections she made and I would highly recommend reading her post for her blog this week.
I like how she set up her post for the week by directing the audience to past blog post's she has made regarding various articles. I also like how she used various articles as ways to describe good charity and service learning projects that students could engage in.
Her first connection was to U.S.A Land of Limitations? by Nicholas Kristof, in which she states that students could research about the poverty families in their community face and students could volunteer or raise money/donations to help these families in need. I agree with Hailey, that the article could be used to help influence students, to help those who struggle with poverty.
In the second connections she made she related the article by Kahne to The Next Time Someone Says All Lives Matter, Show Them These Five Paragraphs by Kevin Roose and Amazing Grace by Jonathan Kozol where she explains how the Black Lives Matter movement would be a could service learning project for students to participate in. She explains that students would be able to research the movement and understand the importance of the project. It is a project that students would be able to make a difference and a change in society. Students would get more than just volunteering out of doing a service project like this one.
Hailey then make a connection to the articles read about the LGBTQ+ community along with ESL students and argued that groups like these need to acknowledged more and that people need to take the time to notice and understand them. I agree with her on this point, because these groups who are considered to be minority struggle more, due to the lack of resources and time spent on them. If people took more time and effort to work alongside these groups of people there would be a positive change in society and more people would benefit from both volunteering and the resources provided to them.
Hailey also included a hyperlink in her post discussing what service learning is and the importance of service learning to students and the community. I think this was a good link to include, because I feel that people forget the importance of service learning to themselves along with the people or organizations they are helping. I agree with Hailey's arguments and connections she made and I would highly recommend reading her post for her blog this week.
HYPERLINK
As I furthered my research on this topic, I began to wonder if there were sources that helped explain the true benefits of service learning projects and the importance of these projects. I found two very useful links that helped me to answer the questions I had. The two links explain the benefits of service learning not only to the volunteers, but also to the teachers in a classroom and other members of a community. I included the links below, because I feel it is important for those who volunteer in a service learning project to understand more about why they are doing the assignment and the impact their work has on themselves and others.
PERSONAL CONNECTIONS
The article made me think about my own service learning project at Robert F. Kennedy Elementary School in Providence, Rhode Island. I began doing the service learning project as a requirement for one of my education classes. At first I was apprehensive to start my volunteering, because I had not heard great things about the public schools in Providence. I tried my hardest to walk in to my service learning with an open mind, to try and not believe everything I had heard and to make my own opinion of the school as I experienced it for myself. I work in a Social/Emotional classroom in a special education school and I was excited to see what it was like to work in a different classroom environment and what the students would be like. The students were better behaved than I originally thought they would be. They were all very excited to see the volunteers in the classroom and some of them even came up to hug us. The students were very intelligent and enthusiastic to be learning. I am glad that I did not believe every rumor and opinion of the schools in Providence, because the students are smart, kind and wonderful to be with. The students there make me very excited to have my own classroom one day!
Works Cited
Spallino, Jessica.
“Why Is Service Learning Important in Education?” Method Schools,
Method Schools,
https://www.methodschools.org/blog/the-importance-of-service-learning-in-education.
Stephen. “Designing a
Service Learning Cycle.” Wayfinder Learning Lab, 2 May 2019,
https://sjtylr.net/2014/12/13/service-learning-cycle/.
“Universal Design for
Learning (UDL).” Universal Design for Learning (UDL) - Kentucky
Department of Education, Commonwealth of Kentucky,
https://education.ky.gov/educational/diff/Pages/UDL.aspx.
Westheimer, Joel, and
Joseph Kahne. In the Service of What? The Politics of Service Learning.
Distributed by ERIC Clearinghouse, 1994.
“Why Use Service
Learning?” Service Learning, Carleton College, 26 Aug. 2019,
https://serc.carleton.edu/introgeo/service/why.html.
I really appreciated your comments on my blog post! I like how you took my point of the charity service learning project and suggested it could work younger than middle school. I never really considered students younger than that taking part in service learning. I enjoyed reading your own personal connections to the article as well. You set your blog up great and I appreciated you wrote about my post. Thanks!
ReplyDeleteShae- I used your article for my extended comments post this week! I really liked how you tied all the points together and built off go what we have learned in class as well as how you always tie in the personal connections. How you section your article off makes it clear what you are talking about as well in each section. Great job with all your blog posts up until this point.
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