Transcript Learning the Liberal Arts through Service Sheila Cordner Service Project Goals 1 - To gain a new perspective of your study of literature. 2 -

Learning the Liberal Arts
through Service
Sheila Cordner
Service Project Goals
1 - To gain a new perspective of your study of
literature.
2 - To bring literature in some way to a group
of people in our city outside of Boston
University.
3 - To become more engaged students of
literature.
4 - To relate what you are learning as college
students to important issues in our
contemporary society.
Outline of Discussion
1 - Why service learning and what is it?
2 – Sample service projects
3 – Service learning in your courses?
Service Learning
“a form of experiential learning where
students and faculty collaborate with
communities to address problems and
issues, simultaneously gaining knowledge
and skills and advancing personal
development”
-- UCLA’s Higher Education Research
Institute
Service Learning
“a teaching and learning strategy that
integrates meaningful community service
with instruction and reflection to enrich
the learning experience, teach civic
responsibility, and strengthen
communities.”
From:
http://www.servicelearning.org/whatservice-learning
Why Service Learning in the
Liberal Arts?
“While service-learning may have been taken up
originally (and enthusiastically) by faculty in
occupational fields such as business and education
and social science fields such as sociology and
political science, we believe that community
service learning certainly can play an equal role,
and may even play a larger one, in humanistic
disciplines such as philosophy. In order to
thrive, these fields need to demonstrate their
relevance to a new generation of young adults,
and community service learning represents an
important vehicle for doing so.”
--Scott Seider & Jason Taylor
Why Service Learning
at Boston University?
“We remain dedicated to our founding
principles: that higher education should
be accessible to all and that research,
scholarship, artistic creation, and
professional practice should be conducted
in the service of the wider community—
local and international.”
--Boston University Mission Statement
B.U.’s FYSOP Program
“First-Year Student Outreach
Project”
• Approximately 1,000 students participated
in 2012
• 11 issue areas (elders, the environment,
homelessness and housing)
Community Service at B.U.
...is thriving
http://www.bu.edu/csc/news/
Community Service
VS.
Service Learning?
Reflection component of
Service Learning
• Written reflection relates service to course
material
Sample Service-Learning
Projects
Service Learning in
English and Humanities courses
• EN 142 “Literary Types: Poetry” (Fall
2009)
• EN 121 “World Literature” (Fall 2010)
• EN 220 “Seminar in Literature” (Spring
2011)
• HU 101 “Breaks with Tradition” (Spring
2012)
One-time service project
Build up to the service project
• Introduce the idea early in the semester
Service learning in the Dental school:
specific application of course material
vs.
Service projects in my courses relate to
course themes, key course questions
EN 220: SEMINAR IN
LITERATURE
Seminar theme of EDUCATION
Course texts included:
•
Langston Hughes, “Theme for English B”
•
William Wordsworth, “The Tables Turned” and “Expostulation and Reply”
•
Ama Ata Aidoo, Changes: A Love Story
•
Thomas Hardy, Jude the Obscure
•
Margaret Edson, Wit
EN 220 SERVICE PROJECTS
Students participated in 4 educational projects in Boston:
– Prison Book Program
– Writing workshop for youth at 826 Boston
– Sudanese Education Fund
– Book Club at Hale House, a senior center and
nursing home
Project Requirements
1) Sign up for a one-time project
2) Participate with a group in one of the service
projects
3) Report back to the class
4) Write a reflection relating the experience to
course texts and class discussions
Assessment Tools
PROJECT GRADE:
• Participation in project
• Reflection Paper
First Part - Open-ended reflection
Second Part- Make specific connections to
course texts, themes, and questions
Student Feedback
“…Seniors need to expand their minds the
same way students do. I point this out to
prove that seniors and students may seem
very different, but at the core, we are all
humans and need to fulfill the same basic
need for education.”
-- Seminar in Literature Student
(Computer Science Major; Hale House Book
Club participant)
HU 102: Breaks with Tradition
Spring 2012
• 80 Freshmen in the College of General
Studies (CGS)
• Humanities course integrating literature,
art history, and film
• Part of the core liberal arts curriculum at
CGS
Service project related to
overarching course question:
• What roles do literature, art, and film play
in society?
Sample HU 102 Projects
Discussions of:
• “The Searchers” (course film) with a
group of elders at a Hearth house for
homeless senior citizens
• War literature with veterans.
• Dickens’s Hard Times (course text) at Hale
House nursing home
Service Projects in Your
Courses?
Step 1: Brainstorm
• Goals?
• Applicable Knowledge and Skills?
• Incorporate service project into syllabus
Step 2: Build Partnerships
• Target projects accessible by public
transportation
• Identify organizations that already partner
with colleges and corporations
• Boston Cares – bostoncares.org
• B.U. Community Service Center
Building Partnerships (cont’d)
• State clearly what your students can do for
the organization (time commitment, # of
students, etc.)
• Find out the organization’s expectations:
– Volunteer orientation/training?
– Student preparation?
– Time commitment?
– Number of students?
Step 3: Schedule Projects
• Outline agreement in writing (# of
students, dates, etc.)
• Scheduling students
– Doodle
– Contracts
Scheduling (cont’d)
• Prepare an alternative research project for
students with scheduling conflicts
Keep it simple!
Food for thought…
Brainstorming Service Projects
in Upper-level Courses
– Students choose placements and submit
proposals
– Specialized projects
– Incorporate a research component
Brainstorming Service Projects
in Different Disciplines
Possible ideas…
• Foreign Languages – partner with elderly
immigrants who want to converse in their native
language
• Sciences – participate in a project with Science
Club for Girls
• Film – screen a film and lead a discussion at a
homeless shelter
Further Resources
Campus Compact
www.compact.org
Purdue Service-Learning Center
http://www.purdue.edu/servicelearning/index.html
~
“Personal experience truly gives meaning to education because it
connects you to the subject that seems so far away in the books or on
the chalkboards.”
– Seminar in Literature Student
(English Major; Hale House Book Club Participant)
~
Thank you and feel free to contact me: [email protected]
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