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What is Service-Learning?
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Service-learning is a method of teaching and learning that connects classroom lessons with meaningful service to the community.
Integrated into the academic curriculum, service-learning helps students and schools meet academic goals. Service-learning enables young people to apply their knowledge in support of their neighbors and community, even as they gain knowledge and skills from meeting real community needs. Students build character and become active citizens as they work with others in their school or community to create service projects in areas like education, public safety, and the environment.
Service-learning can be applied across all subjects and grade levels - from kindergarten through college - and involve a single student or group of students, a classroom, or an entire school. For example: one student may serve at a local food pantry while studying the roots of poverty a science class may clean-up a local streambed while analyzing water samples; and an entire school may adopt a service-learning curriculum focused on community health. Whatever the focus, service-learning benefits the school, community, and the students.
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Service-Learning Works!
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Service-learning helps students build academic skills while strengthening communities through service. A growing body of research recognizes the benefits of service-learning as an effective strategy to:
- Improve Academic Achievement
When explicitly tied to academic standards and learning objectives, service-learning positively impacts student outcomes on measures of academic achievement, including standardized test scores.
- Increase Student Engagement
Service-learning engages students by helping them make critical connections between classroom lesions and real-world applications.
- Improve Social Behavior
Service learning engages students by helping them make critical connections between classroom lessons and real-world applications.
- Build Civic Skills
By giving students the responsibility to identify and meet pressing needs, service-learning builds civic skills and commitment in young people that last a lifetime.
- Strengthen Community Partnerships
Service-learning brings students into the community and the community into schools. In this was, students develop a sense of belonging and responsibility, and communities view youth as valuable assets.
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