SERVICE-LEARNING RESOURCES:
Service-Learning Ideas and Curricular Examples (SLICE)
SLICE is an easy-to-search database full of hundreds of high-quality service-learning lesson plans, syllabi, and project ideas. Lesson plans are submitted by educators and service-learning practitioners. Help us build our collection by submitting your own SLICE resource.
Student Service-Learning Training Modules
Weber State University has created a set of training modules to better prepare students in service-learning courses. These modules are to be taken with the intention of providing basic information to students about their rights and responsibilities as a volunteer prior to beginning their service work.
Faculty can use these modules as a beginning point of reference for students in their service-learning courses. The benefits of doing so are two-fold; students focus less time on understanding their volunteer role while on site in the community, and students dedicate more time to the actual volunteerism and learning.
Additionally there are quizzes attached to each module. If students successfully pass the quiz of each module they will receive a certificate of completion for each one. These certificates can be shown to faculty and community partners as proof that the modules were reviewed by the student. To access the quizzes from outside of Weber State University simply create an account on the chi tester home page,https://chitester.weber.edu/.
Reflection
“Study without reflection is a waste of time; reflection without study is dangerous”- Confucius
A core component of service-learning pedagogy is reflection. Reflection provides students with the opportunity to examine and question their beliefs, opinions, and values. Reflection involves critical observation, asking questions, and putting facts, ideas, and experiences together to derive new meaning.
Reflection affords students the opportunity to document the learning that has occurred in service, provides a mechanism to assess the quality of the service, and creates an opportunity for community partners to contextualize student learning. It can help further instill social awareness and responsibility in students.
Reflection can happen in a variety of ways, and should encourage students to make connections between course content and experiences in the community. Effective reflectors are self aware, recognize and own ones own assumptions, are open to seeing and understanding the world in new meaning, and are willing to commit time to think and explore feelings.
REFLECTION RESOURCES:
Northwest Service Academy Reflection Toolkit
Campus Compact - Structured Reflection
Selected bibliography on Service-Learning reflection
