Blog #7
"In the Service of what? The Politics of Service Learning" By, Kahne and Westheimer
What is service learning?
According to this article service learning activities "seek to promote students self-esteem, to develop higher order thinking skills, to make use of multiple abilities, and to provide authentic learning experiences- all goals of current curriculum reform efforts." Therefore, service learning is very beneficial to the kids. I learned a lot of useful information from reading this article. Before this class, I knew nothing about service learning. I have never been in a classroom with kids until now. My kindergarten classroom has taught me a lot about what service learning really is.
Hyperlink: https://nylc.org/service-learning/
The link I included sums up this long article. It talks about what service learning is and what makes it work.
I am volunteering in a kindergarten class at Henry Bailey Elementary school in Providence. I have seen many of my students prosper from my volunteering.
Self-Esteem- In my classroom, I try to make my students feel good about themselves. The teacher in my classroom often makes students feel very bad about themselves. Many of them start to cry because they feel attacked. I often like to compliment the students on various things, like what they are wearing, or there work. This makes them smile, which is nice to see.
Higher Order Thinking skills- I often like to challenge my students and ask them questions about what they are working on in class. It's very beneficial to ask students questions. This gets their brain thinking and gets them more engaged. Some of the students are underdeveloped with different skills. And I know this may not be their fault, because of their language. It's hard to challenge students who don't speak English because they simply don't understand.
Make use of multiple Abilities- In my placement, we do a lot of collaborative group work. This strengthens many of the student's skills. This way students can learn off of each other. The students work on my different aspects in these groups. One station is called "The talk station." In the talk station, the students are free to talk about whatever they want. However, they have to provide details or reasons why. There is also another station that helps the students creative learning. In this station, students paint various things. Art is extremely beneficial to students learning.
Provide Authentic Learning Experiences- I enjoy seeing my students learn and prosper in class. The students learn in many different ways throughout the classroom. I think that I help many of them get a better understanding of what we are doing. One time I was working 1 on 1 with one student on counting. I am very passionate about teaching math and I think that shows when im working with the students.
I love every minute of my volunteering. I love to know that I'm making an impact in these children's lives!!!
Point to Discuss: Did anyone have a service learning volunteer when they were growing up? Was it as beneficial as stated in this article?
You are right, it's hard to challenge students with a language barrier. I personally feel that if a student is not English-speaking and is in an English-speaking classroom/school environment, that the school's priority should be getting the student to either 1. Focus solely on learning English before they are put into a class that only speaks English or 2. Provide the students with a teacher that speaks their language that can teach the entire class in that language so that the students don't fall behind their grade level. The important thing is that they learn something. But if they don't speak English and are put in an English-speaking class, they will not progress in anything. Be patient with these babies, because they are innocent babies! <3 xoxo
ReplyDeleteJayleen I agree with you to some extent but I do disagree with your #1. Students should not have to be forced to learn a language before they can get a proper education. If the student focuses solely on learning english it will create a huge deficit in information that was taught to their classmates with will alienate them even more. If that student takes two years to learn English and that is the only thing they are taught, then that is two years of school where nothing was gained.
ReplyDeleteI really like the way you structured your blog into different categories and put your own personal experience.
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