Service-Learning in Literacy, Elementary, and Early Education

The integration of service-learning into teacher education implies work in two areas: (1) using service-learning as a pedagogical technique in the postsecondary setting, and (2) teaching licensure-seeking students how to integrate service-learning into their own repertoire of teaching techniques.

(1) Service-learning activity in a postsecondary setting usually falls into two categories:

Category A: Teaching/tutoring/sharing knowledge from the class

Example: Service-learners from Kentucky State University construct a concrete representation of a teaching concept which is left with preschool and elementary teachers for their future use.²

Category B: Using information from the class to do something with/for a community organization.

Example: Service-learners from Gustavus Adolphus College tutor children in ESL classrooms.³

(2) Having the skills and experience to integrate service-learning themselves may be more valuable than participating in service-learning. Mary J. Syfax Noble, the elementary school administrator in the Minneapolis Public Schools explains:

"[Service-learning] assists schools in making important connections to the broader community...is a critical part of the entire school-reform picture...because service-learning does not compete with the standard curriculum. It supports and deepens the curriculum for all students...An important first step is to make sure service-learning is tied into the school’s mission or vision." ⁴

Please contact cce@sonoma.edu for more information.

Susan Campbell - se.campbell@sonoma.edu, Elizabeth Galvez-Hard - galveze@sonoma.edu, and Jessica Hobson - hobsonj@sonoma.edu have instructed several service-learning classes and may be willing and able to share advice.

¹Service-Learning: An Essential Process for Preparing Teachers as Transformational Leaders in the Reform of Public Education

²Program Models: Seattle University, Learning with the Community: Concepts and Models for Service-Learning in Teacher Education

³Program Models: Seattle University, Learning with the Community: Concepts and Models for Service-Learning in Teacher Education

⁴Learning With the Community: Concepts and Models for Service-Learning in Teacher Education

All resources available in the CCE Resource Library.