Service Learning for Elementary Grades

Posted by on February 25, 2005

California Charter School uses Service Learning to Engage Students

As schools across the country face the growing problem of student disengagement, many are adapting Community-as-Text strategies to reconnect students to learning. Employing these new strategies is not always easy. Teachers and principals are often unsure of where to turn to for advice in implementing these strategies effectively. In Oakland, CA, the East Bay Conservation Corps (EBCC) Charter School has developed a resource guide to help teachers and administrators implement these approaches.

As part of the curricular development process, Four Cornerstones of Service Learning were formulated: Cross-Aged Literacy and Learning Activities, Environmental Stewardship Projects, School-Wide Thematic Units, and Classroom and Standards-Based Initiatives. These categories help educators to organize their time and resources to better implement a service-learning vision within their classrooms.

The EBCC Charter School’s goal is to “promote youth development through environmental stewardship and community service, and to further education reform and social change.” The Charter School, which comprises children from various ethnic, social, economic, religious, and linguistic backgrounds, sees this diversity as a challenge and an opportunity to promote a service-learning curriculum at a school-wide level.

Click here
http://www.ebcc-school.org/uploads/ebcc/EBCCResrc%20Gd%20FINAL12_16.pdf
to view “Service-Learning as Civic Engagement: A Resource Guide for the
Elementary Grades,” a guide developed by the EBCC Institute for Citizenship Education and Teacher Preparation, and the Elementary Level of the EBCC Charter School (2003).