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Innovations in
Community-Engaged Learning
with Developmental Education Students
Donna Killian Duffy, Professor of Psychology, Middlesex Community College, Bedford & Lowell, MA
Shana Berger, Project Manager Connect2Complete, Campus Compact
May 2012
Campus Compact is a national coalition of almost 1,200 college and university presidents—representing some 6 million students—who are committed to fulfilling
the public purposes of higher education. As the only national higher education association dedicated solely to campus-based civic engagement, Campus Compact promotes public and community service that develops students’ citizenship skills,
helps campuses forge effective community partnerships, and provides resources
and training for faculty seeking to integrate civic and community-based learning
into the curriculum.
Connect2Complete (C2C)
C2C is a program that puts successful community college students at the center of their peers’ success. These peer advocates draw on their own expertise to support student cohorts in achieving their goals.
Campus Compact has funded nine community colleges in Florida, Ohio, and Washington to run C2C pilot programs, and funded the three related state Compact affiliates to support these pilots. These programs will engage more than 4,500 low-income students who are enrolled in developmental education courses and who experience significant barriers to obtaining postsecondary credentials. Through peer-to-peer advocacy and community engaged-learning opportunities, students will be supported in their goals of achieving academic success and credential completion, and will be more engaged with their peers, the community college, and the broader community.
The Connect2Complete program and this publication are made possible with funding from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
CONNECT2COMPLETE COMMUNITY COLLEGES
Florida
Broward College
Miami Dade College
Tallahassee Community College
Ohio
Cuyahoga Community College
Lorain County Community College
Owens Community College
Washington
Big Bend Community College
Green River Community College
Edmonds Community College
State Affiliates
Florida Campus Compact
Ohio Campus Compact
Washington Campus Compact
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
We would like to thank the three professors listed below for contributing descriptions of their discipline-based developmental education courses that integrate service-learning. Their course outlines and reflections offer developmental education faculty newer to service-learning pedagogy, rigorous and creative approaches to engaging students in service-learning.
Professor Daniel Griesbach
English Department
Edmonds Community College
Professor Suzanne Pearl
General Studies
Miami Dade College
Professor Monica Poole
History and Social Sciences and Learning Communities
Bunker Hill Community College
TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION 7
Why this Manual? 7
The Context 7
DEFINING THE WORK 8
Community-Engaged Learning 9
Service 9
Service-Learning 9
Co-Curricular Service Programs 10
Integration & Complementary Engagement Activities 11
Civic Responsibility 12
Partnerships & Reciprocity 13
Reflection 13
Assessment 14
Peer Advocates & Community-Engaged Learning 16
Structures for Integrating PAs into Community-Engaged Learning 17
C2C GRANT EXPECTATIONS 18
THE POWER OF COMMUNITY-ENGAGED LEARNING FOR COMMUNITY COLLEGE AND DEVELOPMENTAL EDUCATION STUDENTS 19
Community-Engaged Learning: Bridging Multiple Missions in the
Community College 19
Community-Engaged Learning: Unearthing Student Assets 19
Community-Engaged Learning: Making the Learning Relevant 20
UNIQUE CONSIDERATIONS: COMMUNITY-ENGAGED LEARNING FOR A CHANGING STUDENT POPULATION 20
Broadening the Definition of “Community” 20
CONCLUSION 22
REFERENCES 23
EXAMPLES FROM THE FIELD 24
Example: Edmonds Community College 24
Example: Miami-Dade College 46
Example: Bunker Hill Community College 56
APPENDIX
Rubric: Civic Knowledge, Skills & Values 65
Learning Strategies & Assessment Methods Worksheet 66
Reflection Activities & Multiple Intelligences 67
Service-Learning Concept Maps 68
AUTHOR BIOGRAPHIES 70
INTRODUCTION
Why this Manual?
Connect2Complete seeks to bring departments together from across individual campuses to better serve students holistically. Because of this, staff and faculty come to the work with varying levels of experience with community-engaged learning. For those who are newer to the field, this manual is not a substitute for the many resources on best practices (including several produced by Campus Compact) for incorporating community-engaged learning into college courses; however, it will provide some specific touch points for all those involved in C2C.
The purposes of this manual are to:
• Provide grantees with common language and context for our shared work
• Share a concrete definition of community-engaged learning
• Articulate grant expectations around integrating community-engaged learning into Connect2Complete (C2C) programs
• Suggest ways to structure and integrate peer advocates as leaders in community-engaged learning activities
• Highlight the assets that developmental education students bring to community-engaged learning and the ways that community-engaged learning can be particularly powerful with this student population
• Offer examples of the integration of community-engaged learning and peer advocacy (from both grantees and other community colleges) into developmental education courses
• Provide concrete ideas to get the creative juices going!
The Context
Higher education work with communities has evolved in different ways over time. A brief timeline provides a context of this evolution:
1985: Campus Compact founded
• Goal to support civic and community engagement at higher education institutions
Early 1990s: Service-Learning
• Focus on how to connect course content to work in communities with increasing evidence of the pedagogical value of service-learning
1999: Campus Compact Presidents’ Declaration on the Civic Responsibility of Higher
Education
• Move from pedagogical focus to greater emphasis on the goal of civic responsibility in community projects
2006: Community Engagement
• Carnegie Foundation creates Classification on Community Engagement (2006) and defines Community Engagement as “the collaboration between institutions of higher education and their larger communities (local, regional/state, national, global) for the mutually beneficial exchange of knowledge and resources in a context of partnership and reciprocity.”
2012: Changing Context of Higher Education
• Concern with how community engagement fits with the changing demographics and structures at colleges and universities
DEFINING THE WORK
In the following section we will define the terms listed below in order to create shared language that can support consistent and clear communication within campuses and among the sub-grantees:
• Community-engaged learning
• Service
• Service-learning
• Co-curricular service programs
• Integration & complementary engagement activities
• Civic responsibility
• Partnerships & reciprocity
• Reflection
• Assessment
• Peer advocates & community-engaged learning
Community-Engaged Learning
For the Connect2Complete program, Community-Engaged Learning will serve as the broad term to include both curricular service-learning (for academic credit) and co-curricular service programs (non-credit programs). Community-Engaged Learning involves collaborating with a community in ways that meet local needs or interests while supporting student learning.
Service
Service can be understood in a wide variety of ways. Students may engage in direct service such as working at a campus-based food pantry that serves students or they may use indirect service such as creating a brochure for an agency or learning about a community issue of interest to students and developing a plan to publicly educate stakeholders about the issue. The value of using direct or indirect service depends upon the content and desired structure of a course or the goals in a particular co-curricular program.
Service-Learning
A course-based, credit-bearing educational experience in which students
• Participate in an organized service activity that meets identified community needs, and
• Reflect on the service activity in such a way as to gain further understanding of course content, a broader appreciation of the discipline, and an enhanced sense of civic responsibility. (Bringle & Hatcher, 1995)
Campus Compact would ultimately like to see programs develop service-learning models; however, we recognize that this work requires faculty training and structures on campus that may not be in place for all of the sub-grantees. We seek to support C2C participants in creating the resources and timeline best suited for their unique situations.
Although both service-learning and co-curricular service programs (to be defined in the following section) fit under the broad definition of community-engaged learning for C2C, it is evident from discussions with C2C pilot programs at this early stage that the pedagogy of service-learning has advantages that support the success of developmental education students:
• For students who may doubt the usefulness of a college education and the relevance of coursework to their lives, making connections to social justice issues outside the classroom as part of the curriculum can energize and re-engage students in the classroom.
• Service-learning reaches students where they are – in the classroom! The more that C2C-related activities can be integrated into the course, the more successful the student and community outcomes will be as developmental education students with heavy work and family responsibilities typically have especially limited time for activities outside the classroom. This also makes unnecessary the labor-intensive process of recruiting C2C students.
• Connecting community engagement to classroom outcomes and grades will increase participation for C2C students.
• A model that recruits C2C students through enrollment in courses will reach students who might not otherwise seek out support and, therefore, are likely to be the students most in need of support.
• A model where faculty is a central part of the peer advocacy and service-learning activities creates an opportunity for C2C students to develop a potentially stronger connection with a faculty member – a key to creating a college-staying culture.
• Community-engaged learning with a co-curricular approach requires some level of support from external support services (though this may be minimized with the help of peer advocates) which incurs a cost. As a result, programs may not scale to a larger number of students because of this additional cost. When funds are directed up front to train developmental education faculty in service-learning and put systems in place to support them after the program is established, the costs are diminished. A similar program found that by “locating student learning and student support within the curriculum and classroom, the cost per student is significantly less than that of various models based on outside counseling and support services, while the intensity of support increases” (Navvaro, 2012).
Co-curricular Service Programs
Co-curricular service programs involve participation in an organized activity that meets identified community needs or interests and helps students gain an enhanced sense of civic responsibility.
These activities may emerge from student leaders including peer advocates, college clubs or other settings on campus, but they are not directly linked to a credit-bearing
course. Incorporating reflection before, during and after an activity helps students expand their learning about an experience and supports increased engagement on campus. Reflection approaches also lead to a more seamless integration of curricular and co-curricular learning for the entire college community.
Faculty who use service-learning document evidence of student learning in their courses but staff involved in co-curricular programs may not be required by the college to document the learning that occurs in these programs. However, such documentation may be beneficial for both staff and students. Demands for accountability are emerging from accreditation groups, national organizations, state education centers and local communities. As a result of these demands many colleges are implementing program reviews or task forces on assessment to insure that all departments on campus provide evidence that students have met the college’s student learning outcomes. Documenting what students learn in co-curricular community settings may not be as simple as reporting student grades on a test, but it is critical for practitioners to consider different ways that learning in community settings can be made evident to others. It is possible to obtain such information with minimal advance planning.
A co-curricular service project may involve students working at a prisoners’ rights organization. Organizers can ask students to write a short reflection about their expectations during the planning meeting or they can enlist a recorder to jot down these observations as students talk and travel together to the organization. The same recorder can capture comments during breaks at the organization and then review impressions on the final trip back to campus. Reviewing student comments from beginning, middle and end times of the project may reveal important themes about what was learned at the organization as well as practical information regarding ways to organize the project in the future.
Integration & Complementary Engagement Activities
An ideal goal for campuses would be discipline-based courses with strong service-learning pedagogy that are integrated seamlessly with complementary co-curricular service programs so that students experience community engagement as central in all of their campus encounters. In addition, when service-learning and co-curricular activities are integrated, community partners (or one community partner that works deeply across the campus) can understand and more easily navigate the full range of the community-engaged learning activities occurring on campus.
At Chandler-Gilbert Community College, club projects (service programs) can easily become course-related projects (service-learning) and both can become sites for compensated or uncompensated student leadership development (See more examples in The Community College’s Indicators of Engagement at Two-Year Institutions, Campus Compact, 2004).
Reaching such a goal is a process that will take time and emerge in different ways at different colleges.
Civic Responsibility
Regardless of the method used to integrate community-engaged learning into C2C programs, civic learning is an important outcome. The American Association of Community Colleges (AACC) defines civic responsibility as “active participation in the public life of a community in an informed, committed, and constructive manner, with a focus on the common good” (Gottlieb & Robinson, 2006). The AACC’s Practical Guide for Integrating Civic Responsibility into the Curriculum contains excellent examples that can be adapted into courses or co-curricular settings and is available at:
Many colleges now have an institutional learning outcome focusing on civic responsibility and require more courses to include objectives that will meet this outcome. Faculty may need to add or revise objectives to include a civic component. Professors teaching courses in developmental writing might create objectives that align with civic knowledge or values while a professor teaching developmental math might consider addressing an objective aimed at developing the civic skill of problem solving.
Professor Higgins who teaches developmental math courses receives a request for volunteers to assist with a tree survey in a local community. He reflects on the topics of his course and creates assignments that apply some of these topics to the tree survey project. Students who participate in the tree survey learn basic math concepts, address a concrete concern in a nearby town, and reflect on the community partner’s presentation on the role that community groups have had - at times in opposition to local politicians - in greening the urban landscape. In this reflection activity, students learn about the power of community to create change – one of the civic learning outcomes.
A chart on purposeful civic learning in the Appendix suggests that professors consider how the content in a specific course might meet civic knowledge, civic skills or civic values.
Partnerships & Reciprocity
Most colleges have outreach programs and faculty, staff and students have a general idea about some of the college activities taking place in the community. Yet working with community partners in reciprocal partnerships involves envisioning a new model as Zlotkowski et al. (2004) note:
Civic and community engagement, we found, cannot simply be equated with successful outreach. True engagement assumes a fundamental shift in the way a college regards the community in which it is embedded. In this model, the college does not act unilaterally on matters affecting the community, however benign its intentions. Instead, it recognizes the community as its complementary equal, fully entitled to speak out on and to participate in all matters of common concern. (p. 72)
The key idea is that partners discuss the roles that each will play in a particular project and maintain feedback and dialogue as a project progresses. Such dialogue is also important when service is taking place on campus.
The student leaders of an immigrants’ rights program on campus have specific requirements regarding how outreach is conducted with this student population. Students or faculty organizing a service-learning project focused on developing outreach materials for the program will need to collaborate with these leaders in order to support the broader goals that leaders have envisioned for the work.
Reflection
An important first step in designing a reflection activity involves reviewing course objectives or program goals to decide which ones fit best with work in the community. Often professors are already using activities in their courses that can be converted to a community setting with a minimum of effort.
Reflection provides an effective approach to capturing how student learning may change in a more multifaceted learning situation. Hatcher and Bringle (1997) suggest that:
Reflection activities engage students in the intentional consideration of their experiences in light of particular learning objectives, and provide an opportunity for students to:
← Gain further understanding of course content and discipline
← Gain further understanding of the service experience
← Develop self-assessment skills as a life-long learner
← Explore and clarify values that can lead to civic responsibility
Most faculty and staff reflect with students informally on a regular basis; the difference for more formal reflection is the “intentional” review of experiences “in light of particular learning objectives.” How does an activity expand the ways a student understands a topic or situation? A student in a psychology course reflected on her experiences working in a special education classroom in this way:
I realized that for this case, it wasn’t black and white, like in the book. The child I wrote about didn’t have the symptoms of one disorder. He had a few of many. But how could this be? If he doesn’t completely fit into one category, where does he go? This was a problem I thought about all semester.
This student’s dilemma shows the value of interacting in an authentic situation and her written reflection can serve as documentation that she is addressing the critical thinking outcome in the course.
In a Math Connections course, students met with staff at a nearby national park and used data on tourism and volunteerism to analyze information on topics such as recycling at events, tourism at a specific museum or participation in special festivals. The student summaries were then shared with staff at the park. The math professor used this project to meet the course objectives relating to data presentation and analysis. The student reflection centered on their interpretation of real data and helped to meet a broader objective of helping students gain a greater appreciation for their community and its history.
See more course examples of community college collaborations with national parks at
Assessment
Traditional class assessments such as tests and papers provide specific data, but such measures may not reflect skills of the diverse students at a community college or the ambiguity present in most work settings. The following case study of Joanne and Mark took place a few years ago at a community college and illustrates the ongoing concerns with creating student assessments that are fair but still honor each student’s unique style of learning (Duffy, 2004).
Joanne and Mark were students in a psychology course and they spent two hours each week for eleven weeks at a therapeutic horseback riding farm assisting clients with a variety of diagnoses such as attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder or autism. The students helped clients prepare horses for riding, assisted them as they rode horses, and then reviewed their progress for the day. The course assignment required students to connect their observations and reflections from the horse farm to course material in specific, detailed ways. Supervisors at the farm completed written evaluations of the students based on their ability to work with clients, contribution to the program, and general level of responsibility at the site.
The Dilemma: Joanne wrote a well-organized paper but received poor evaluations from the supervisor: “does not relate well to individuals, difficult to work with, has a negative attitude toward clients.” She did not contribute ideas to class discussions and often seemed annoyed about having to participate in collaborative group projects. Mark wrote a marginal paper yet received stunning comments from the supervisor: “incredible in connecting to clients, anticipates problems in the setting, would hire him tomorrow.” He shared observations from the horse farm in class and demonstrated strong critical thinking in reviewing various comments from his classmates. What to do? The marked disparity among the paper grades, class participation and the supervisor’s evaluation was problematic but reflects an ongoing assessment challenge involved in working in the community. How do you incorporate multifaceted aspects of a student’s work to create an accurate assessment?
Huba and Freed (2000) suggest that “an exemplary assessment task is one that involves college students in addressing enduring and emerging issues and problems that are ill-defined and of current relevance in their disciplines” (p.224). They further state that an exemplary assessment task demonstrates eight characteristics. It is:
valid,
coherent,
authentic,
rigorous,
engaging,
challenging,
respectful, and
responsive.
The community-engaged approach demonstrates each of these characteristics, but it is especially effective in engaging and challenging students. There are few “right” answers in responding to community settings; students have to make inquiries, try multiple solutions and persevere.
The assessment dilemma of Joanne and Mark is a clear example of respectful and responsive characteristics. Huba and Freed (2000) define a respectful task as one that “allows students to reveal their uniqueness as learners” (p. 224). Joanne’s effective written communication and her more limited interpersonal and collaborative skills contrasted with Mark’s marginal writing proficiency and impressive critical thinking and interpersonal talent in work at the therapeutic riding farm.
The authentic setting was responsive to these students by giving them feedback that could lead to improvement. Mark’s success on the job may motivate him to develop better writing skills, while Joanne may begin to realize that writing well is only one component to being successful in work settings. A traditional classroom setting would acknowledge Joanne’s writing effectiveness but probably would not illuminate the mismatch with her interpersonal skills in an applied setting. Similarly, Mark’s sharing and critical thinking in discussions may have been noted informally but may not have been reflected in his course grade. Mark’s limited writing skills interfered with his ability to demonstrate the critical thinking in his paper that he showed in class discussions and may have been a source of discouragement and negative feelings. The service-learning assignment provided different ways to both assess and enhance each student’s unique approach to learning.
Peer Advocates & Community-Engaged Learning
Central to the C2C model is the work of mobilizing students to serve as advocates and leaders of community-engaged learning with their peers. All peer advocates (PAs) receive training on leading community-engaged learning activities. The PAs add valuable new perspectives to students, faculty and community members:
← PAs can help to address the importance of retention for students as they show the relevance of course information at community sites.
← PAs may connect more readily with C2C students in informal community settings than in the classroom, helping to build a foundation for a trusting relationship.
← PAs can provide a realistic lens for faculty on how students experience the activities in various community situations.
← PAs develop their own skills through communicating with community partners and may help partners to find new ways to collaborate with students.
Structures for Integrating PAs into Community-Engaged Learning
C2C programs may adopt any variety of structures through which peer advocates work with C2C students to support their community-engaged learning activities. See chart below for some examples.
|Service-Learning |
|PAs attend developmental education courses and work with faculty to take on leadership roles in facilitating service-learning in |
|the context of the developmental education courses. |
|PAs and C2C students participate in the same service-learning opportunities that are woven into their respective leadership |
|development and developmental education courses through integrated assignments. PAs support the coordination of the |
|service-learning activities. |
|PAs and C2C students participate separately in service-learning as part of their respective leadership and developmental education |
|courses. C2C students, with support from their instructor and PAs, participate in an additional community engagement experience. |
|Co-Curricular Service Program |
|With support from staff, PAs facilitate a co-curricular service program for C2C students. The service program is connected to the |
|PAs course based service-learning program. |
|With support from staff, PAs facilitate a co-curricular service program for C2C students. The service program is organized with |
|support from staff, but is not connected to the PAs course based service-learning program. |
|Staff working in conjunction with PAs implement a series of community engagement activities for all PA and C2C students. For |
|example, these activities may include a speaker presentation and student discussion related to social justice followed by a |
|community project and a social event. |
There are a number of ways in which peer advocates can take leadership roles in facilitating community-engaged learning. Some examples:
← Facilitate reflection
← Co-facilitate with faculty workshops on the “isms”, oppression, diversity, power, privilege, root causes of community issues, etc.
← Develop community partnerships
← Organize orientations for C2C students to community partners
← Train and supervise students in the community
← Trouble-shoot for C2C students and with community partners
← Organize logistics (calling students, organizing transportation)
← Develop and implement co-curricular experiences
← Act as liaison between faculty and community partners
← Act as liaison between community service center and community partners
Community-engaged learning activities can also provide a powerful way to maintain connections between peer advocates and C2C students beyond the C2C students’ first semesters. For example, campuses can maintain structures for C2C students and PAs to continue to engage in co-curricular service activities that bring together newer and older cohorts of PAs and C2C students.
C2C GRANT EXPECTATIONS
The C2C grant provides exciting new opportunities for faculty, staff, and students to collaborate on community-engaged learning activities. It allows different models to evolve based on the unique needs of each campus, so it gives participants the flexibility that is realistic and necessary for ongoing success. Yet even within each campus, it is important to have clear expectations that will be central to the work and will allow campus teams to collaborate effectively with each other and their community partners.
|Checklist of Expectations for Community-Engaged Learning Activities |
| |
|Reflection occurs before, during and after |
| |
|Activities are connected to coursework/co-curricular program outcomes |
| |
|Coursework/service programs incorporate civic learning outcomes |
| |
|Learning is documented through writing, video, art, photography or other artifacts appropriate for a specific activity |
| |
|Peer advocates receive training in order to take on leadership roles in facilitating community-engaged learning activities |
THE POWER OF COMMUNITY-ENGAGED LEARNING FOR COMMUNITY COLLEGE AND DEVELOPMENTAL EDUCATION STUDENTS
Community-Engaged Learning: Bridging Multiple Missions in the Community College
The range of projects possible in community-engaged learning supports the diversity of learners at a community college while also addressing a community college’s multiple missions:
The fact that community-based work can address the needs of both more- and less-developed learners makes it invaluable as part of an institutional “bridge” strategy. As Bailey (2003, p. 4) notes, closing the opportunity gap and raising the bar of achievement will require “finding and exploiting complementarities” in community colleges’ multiple missions. By connecting academic study with meaningful service in the community, service-learning represents just such a complementarity. While service-learning helps students of various kinds develop academically, it also exposes them to experiences that can better inform their choice of majors or careers. While acquiring intellectual skills valued by their professors, they simultaneously learn skills and work habits highly valued by potential employers. Thus, the multiple responsibilities of the community college—preparation for work, for citizenship, and for academic transfer—can be addressed in a naturally balanced, interconnected manner. (Zlotkowski et al., 2004, p. 81)
Service-learning is an effective way to address a college’s multiple missions, but other approaches such as co-curricular service programs may also be avenues for engaging students and preparing them for work, engagement and academic transfer.
Community-Engaged Learning: Unearthing Student Assets
Community-engaged learning can assist in bridging the multiple missions at a community college, but it can also help to unearth student assets that are often not assessed in a traditional classroom setting. Students in developmental education courses often need added support to persevere; helping these students to find and use their unique assets may provide one valuable source of motivation. The previous discussion of Joanne and Mark highlights ways in which service-learning pedagogy draws on and values a range of learning styles and skills. In particular, developmental education students often bring a unique awareness and experience as they may come from vulnerable communities themselves. Students’ own lived experiences with inequities may put them at an advantage when engaging with the community and analyzing issues and community assets.
Community-Engaged Learning: Making the Learning Relevant
For students who are tentative about being in college or who are questioning the relevance of math or writing courses, having a link to the community may help to broaden their perspectives and give them concrete examples of how math and writing are useful in a range of settings. Service-learning aims to create a more “permeable” classroom—a place where “knowledge generated within it is extended beyond its boundaries” and into which “outside knowledge is assimilated” (Sandy, 1998). Service-learning accomplishes this by bringing experiences from the community to the classroom and information from the course back to the community.
How will inviting the community into a classroom change a student’s learning experience? The impact will vary with each situation, but it is likely that having more specific links in the community will help students to see the relevance and applicability of the concepts they are studying.
UNIQUE CONSIDERATIONS: COMMUNITY-ENGAGED LEARNING FOR A CHANGING STUDENT POPULATION
Broadening the Definition of “Community”
In a recent article Scobey (2012) lists several ways that the academy has changed over the past twenty years and asks how education for democracy may need to be revised to adjust to these changes:
What does democratically engaged learning look like, and how can we foster it for an academy in which the majority of students will attend more than one institution, carry significant debt, and have the challenge of their employment paramount in their educational choices? What does public work look like for students who need constantly and strategically to blend family responsibilities, work pressures, and study in schedules with little time for large, chunky projects—students whose social geography conforms less and less to the in-here/out-there map of our partnership models? (Scobey, 2012, p. 5)
The concerns of financial demands, family responsibilities, work pressures and limited time are common for students, particularly developmental education students at community colleges. The typical in-here/out-there map of partnership models does not apply for these students. Zlotkowski writes, “The community college can itself be viewed as a community-based organization: It is of, not simply in, a particular place” (Zlotkowski et al., 2004, p. 79).
In other words, one does not need to leave the campus to encounter vulnerable populations and systemic inequality the way much of the service-learning literature assumes. Food banks are popping up on campuses and the impacts of inequality such as cuts to Pell grants, for example, can be felt on campus. To illustrate just how dire the situation, Wick Sloane, a professor of English at Bunker Hill Community College writing for Inside Higher Ed (2012) proposes paying students to study–students who would otherwise need to choose between study and earning money to eat. Sloan writes, “I’ve helped more students with food stamps this year than with College Writing I.”
This is not to suggest that community partnership strategies for engaged learning should be abandoned, but rather that we can expand our understanding of the community.
Connecting students with a garden on campus growing food for the campus food bank that provides fresh produce to students benefits the campus and broader community.
Just as the campus is a “community,” so too can student interests be synonymous with community needs. Although the service-learning literature suggests the need must arise from the community defined as an entity apart from the students, particularly in the case of community colleges and with developmental students, a student can give voice to the community need. Students, therefore, may choose to initiate a project based on a need that they have identified.
Students may research the impacts of government policies that cut food stamps for students taking more than 6 college credits – a real situation in Ohio. They may then decide to create an educational presentation to be shared with a local advocacy organization so that both the students on campus and the broader community benefit.
This provides an exciting opportunity to empower C2C students and peer advocates to draw on their experiences to initiate community-engaged learning projects that will benefit the campus and broader community.
CONCLUSION
At this year’s National Association for Developmental Education Conference, the keynote speaker from the Gates Foundation remarked on the spotlight being shone on the field of developmental education. She applauded, “Finally faculty are being acknowledged for the important work they’ve done year after year.” President Obama’s Completion Agenda, deep commitments from the Gates Foundation and studies in developmental education at the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching are just a few examples of the widespread interest in developmental education emerging across the country.
This new and broad recognition of the important role developmental education faculty play in introducing students to college life cannot be overemphasized when nationally 60% of incoming community college students are referred to one or more developmental education courses. Developmental education faculty are often the first people on campus who interact with students; the quality of this initial connection can be key to a student’s ongoing engagement at the college.
As presented in this manual, with a changing student population comes a need to re-define what we mean by “community” when considering definitions of community-engaged learning. More and more student interests may be synonymous with community needs. This provides an exciting new opportunity to empower C2C students and peer advocates to draw on their life experiences to initiate community-engaged learning projects. Developmental education students often bring to this work a unique and valuable understanding of social problems and community assets. In a similar way, developmental education faculty are on the front lines of the college experience and they have unique insights and perspectives about incoming students that can help inform and educate others on campus. Peer advocates may perform an important new role by serving as cultural brokers who help to translate needs and interests of students, faculty and local community members in innovative ways that transform the meaning and value of community for each college campus.
In the spirit of supporting reciprocal partnerships, we offer this manual to articulate common language and expectations and to invite the contribution of many voices. The present manual serves as a jumping off point that will evolve as the work deepens. New models, additional examples, and further research will keep this a living document.
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Sandy, L. R. (1998). The permeable classroom. Journal on Excellence in College
Teaching, 9 (3), 47-60.
Scobey, D. (2012). Why now? Because this is a Copernican moment. In D.
Harward (Ed.), Civic provocations (pp. 3-6). Retrieved May 7, 2012, from
Sloane, W. So My Students Can Eat. (March 27,2012) Inside Higher Ed. Retrieved
May 7, 2012, from - ixzz1uOWFtHHV
Zlotkowski, E., Duffy, D. K., Franco, R., Gelmon, S. B., Norvell, K. H., Meeropol,
J., et al. (2004). The community’s college indicators of engagement at two-year institutions. Providence, RI: Campus Compact.
EXAMPLES FROM THE FIELD – Edmonds Community College
Title of Course: English 100, “Introduction to College Writing”
Faculty Name: Daniel Griesbach
Abstract
Students’ learning in English 100, “Introduction to College Writing,” is enhanced through the integration of service, peer mentoring, community engagement, and learning community. These four elements are not “extras” for the course, but rather they are integral parts of the writing process and the student’s experience of him- or herself as a developing academic writer.
Students
42 (2 sections) winter quarter 2012; 17 spring quarter 2012
Service Component
• Direct or Indirect Service: Mix of indirect and direct service
• Infused in class or one-time project: Infused as the basis for two of the three major essay assignments in the class.
• Hours required, if applicable:
Outside of class time: participating in one sponsored project (2-4 hours), one community engagement field trip (3-6 hours), one community event (1-2 hours), optional extra consultation with a Green Team mentor (~0.5 hours)
DESCRIPTION & REFLECTION
Describe the community engagement experience and its integration into course outcomes & activities.
Service Memoir Essay
Students write a paper on a service experience, learning to narrate their experience through the genre of “memoir.” In writing about their service this way, they learn to introduce a topic by setting the scene in rich detail, to describe, evaluate, and resolve what they would consider a point of “complication” in their experience (for example, their feelings about service before and after, or their knowledge about the community need before and after), and to conclude with the lesson learned. This assignment extends the reflection component of academic service-learning to the essay form and the writing process.
Proposal Essay for Campus Sustainability
In this essay, students propose an idea for improving sustainability on campus, basing their idea on concepts gleaned from a sustainability-themed field trip. When possible,
the field trips include a service component as part of the learning. Students’ writing meets a real campus need, namely providing student-generated input to the campus Green Team (student sustainability advocates) for student-led sustainability projects. Thus, English 100 students not only have the opportunity to serve through a service activity accompanying the field trip, but also through their own writing.
This paper requires extensive preparation involving community engagement and peer networking. On the field trip, students engage with sustainable business leaders in their local community. They then network with the Green Team members and advanced students in the Anthropology LEAF School. In small groups, they collaborate with fellow students from Anthropology 100 “Introduction to Anthropology” on an electronic poster presentation about the sustainable business they visited.
Describe assets developmental education students brought to the work/explanation of reasons this worked well with developmental education students.
By integrating their writing assignments with service, community engagement activities, and mentoring relationships, students find their writing voices and find that their writing matters. Despite the complexity of committing to organized activities outside of class time, when many students have family, work, school schedules, developmental education students prove refreshingly open to the possibilities and advantages it will bring them.
Integrating service, mentoring, and community engagement into a writing class makes transparent two very difficult concepts to teach: purpose (sensing what change your writing is effecting and why) and audience (making decisions based on the intended reader). Students in English 100, “Introduction to College Writing” learn that their writing needs to adapt to multiple complex situations. They need to learn to make good judgments in these varying situations, especially when they are asked to extend beyond forms and formats they’ve learned in the past, such as the 5-paragraph essay, or never (or always) using the first person “I.” Instead of learning these lessons in the abstract, they learn them through the immersive service-community-mentoring relationships that are formed in the course. Above all, they gain the feeling of confidence and sense of community that is going to sustain them as they write and act in future academic, career, and civic pursuits.
List any adjustments made for working with developmental education students.
I’m especially cognizant that students come into our writing courses with widely differing kinds of preparation. They are often uncertain about their abilities to meet the challenges this class will pose. It is critical to respect students’ courage to take college classes and to build an atmosphere of trust and support.
Describe any role that peer advocates had in facilitating or leading service-learning activities including reflection.
Students in advanced roles (Green Team members and advanced Anthropology LEAF school students) facilitate discussion circles in an activity that allows students to connect the field trip to both the poster integrated assignment and the proposal essay.
FACULTY REFLECTIONS
What worked well?
It was my experience that the peer advocacy relationships brought much more than information shared from one student to another. They brought excitement about the writing project and, above all, confidence. Students could see that their ideas for campus sustainability were feasible, interesting, and had a peer audience. In this sense, the peer advocates were like a “third party” validation of the student writers’ ideas: this was not just a writing assignment for the sake of mastering certain composition skills (though it was that, too): students realize that these skills are meant to be used for something, that they have real, practical value.
Students were also genuinely inspired by the community leaders and felt connected to their concerns. Accordingly, they took ownership of the topics they were reading and writing about.
What was the most challenging?
Winter quarter 2012 was the first quarter I incorporated mentoring as a part of the curriculum in my writing class, and the most challenging aspect proved to be establishing shared accountability in the mentoring relationship. I required one meeting outside of class time with a Green Team member (peer advocate) to take place within a specific time frame early in the writing process. A few students did not schedule their meeting sufficiently early on in the process and a few others wanted too much of their mentors (asking questions better suited for a reference librarian or even an internet search, for example). Peer advocates were overly accommodating with their limited time as student workers. To remedy this, I met with the Green Team student mentors and developed a plan for establishing more structure to the advocacy and articulating limits on the role the peer advocates take.
What will you do differently next time?
To address the difficulty mentioned above, we developed a plan for spring quarter 2012 that consisted of small group mentoring as the main form of required peer advocacy, with the possibility of optional individual consultations as follow-ups. This idea, which originated with the peer advocates themselves should present less of a time burden for the peer advocates.
STUDENT QUOTES
“The essay that was written on sustainability in Professor Griesbach’s English 100 class during winter quarter 2012 provided intrinsic attachment for me. Because the purpose of the paper was to impact and change my local environment as well as receiving a grade, it provided a greater and more meaningful learning experience. Because this assignment involved real life situations and the possibility to bring about positive changes, it instilled within me an enthusiasm to write and it propelled me to write at a higher level.
“Being involved with the local community and going on field trips to do research brought the writing process into a situation that felt more life-like. Moving out of the classroom setting and doing this research helped me as a writer to become attached to the subject of the paper and to understand the needs and benefits of sustainability more thoroughly. Doing this type of field research helps students to learn how to write papers for other types of college research and for research that is implemented in the work place.
“In my opinion, writing this type of essay was a benefit to my college education and I believe most students would also benefit from this type of assignment.” -- Leeandrea Campbell (winter 2012)
USEFUL REFERENCES
Fogarty, Julia et al. Learning Communities in Community Colleges. Olympia, WA: Washington Center for Improving the Quality of Undergraduate Education, 2003. Print.
Murphy, Tom. “Anthropology 101: How to Change the World.” Yes! Magazine. Positive Futures Network. 30 Jun. 2009. Web. 3 May 2012.
SUPPLEMENTAL MATERIALS – EDMONDS COMMUNITY COLLEGE
Essay Assignment: A Service Memoir
Context
At Edmonds Community College, our Center for Service Learning gives students the opportunity to serve the community and learn while they do so. Service at our school means meeting a real world need, connecting action to academic learning, and reflecting on the service one completes.
Prompt
Write an essay (4 pages, double spaced) in the memoir genre of a single academic service experience at Edmonds Community College. Follow Writing Today’s model of a memoir by describing, evaluating, and resolving a complication that you think existed in your service experience.
Elaboration of the prompt
“Memoir” is essentially the word for “memory,” and this essay will be a memory of your service. As Chapter 4 of Writing Today makes clear, though, a memoir is not simply a list of one’s perceptions as he or she recalls them. Rather, a memoir is an organized presentation that develops a central idea of “complication” (conflict or tension). In drafting your own memoir, you’ll hunt out the conflict that you resolved, if it’s not already obvious, and develop it in your writing. Your “complication” might, for instance, have to do with how you processed your service activity in your own mind: how did your ideas or feelings change before, during, and after your service event? This could address either your idea of what “service” means in general, your knowledge of the specific kind of service you were doing, or your feelings toward the activity you were doing and the problem it was addressing. Alternatively, you might find that your “complication” emerged in the activity itself or among the participants as they worked to complete a new task, taking on new roles in a complex interpersonal environment.
You can image your audience being faculty or administrators who are interested in knowing about students’ experiences with service or other students who haven’t tried service learning yet, but who are wondering what they can get out of it.
Service Requirement
The service experience must be from the EdCC Center for Service Learning Sponsored Project list (distributed on the course blackboard and by email) and must be completed before __________. You are responsible for choosing a service event and taking the steps to enroll and attend.
Prewriting (Complete the following activities and turn in with your final version)
Prewriting 1: Journaling Your Experience
After your service event, write freely in a journal for 15+ minutes. As the Writing Today textbook advises, freewriting involves writing “anything that comes into your mind. Don’t worry about making real sentences or paragraphs. If you find yourself running out of words, try finishing phrases like ‘What I mean is . . .’ or ‘Here’s my point. . . .’” (330). If you have trouble getting started, try picking something small. When you’re completed, go through your text and mark (underline or highlight) your best ideas, ones you might want to include or focus on for your paper.
You can staple your pages to this assignment or, if it’s in a bound journal, make a photocopy.
Prewriting 2: Mapping, Storyboarding, Podcasting, or Role Playing.
Choose one of the forms of inquiring listed on page 40 of Writing Today: mapping, storyboarding, podcast/video, or role playing. Use this second form of inquiry to explore one or more of the ideas you identified by highlighting or underlining from your Inquiry #1, above.
You can staple your pages to this assignment or, if it’s a podcast/video, email me the file or link.
Prewriting 3: Researching
Read the directions for researching online, print, and empirical sources and determine one other source that can help your paper. Perhaps it’s a piece of information related to the kind of service you performed, the area you performed it in, or the social/ environmental issue the service addresses. Include in your paper a parenthetical citation (pages 492-495 in Writing Today) and a works cited list in MLA style (494-508 in Writing Today).
Answer the following questions about your research source:
--Is it an online, print, or empirical source?
--What kind of source does it match on pages 499-508?
--What is the source going to add to your essay?
Choosing an Appropriate Style (once you have a draft started)
Read pages 44-5 of Writing Today and, in the space below, draft a concept map that helps you determine a tone. Follow the example on page 45 in the way it attaches feelings to the details that are emerging from the draft: “My Twelfth year” is connected to the feeling of “relaxing,” and “scary” is related to the feeling of “kid man.” Find at least six details and connected feelings in your map.
Organizing
On pages 42-44, the textbook gives questions to help shape your memoir into the following parts (paragraph numbers are given by me just as suggestions, but can be varied if needed).
Setting the Scene in Rich Detail (Introduction): 1-2 paragraphs
Describing the Complication (1-2 paragraphs)
Evaluating the Complication (1-2 paragraphs)
Resolving the Complication (1-2 paragraphs)
Concluding with a Point (1-2 paragraphs)
Design
I am asking for this paper to be printed and use MLA formatting. However, if you have a great photo of your service, you are welcome to include that. Just make sure you adjust for correct page length! =]
Essay Assignment: Proposal for Campus Sustainability
| |
|Call For Proposals |
| |
|The Edmonds Community College Green Team is inviting English 100 students to submit proposals for projects that increase campus |
|sustainability. Proposals should focus on a specific change or project that could take place on campus or involve Edmonds Community |
|College students, staff, and faculty. |
| |
|Students’ feedback and ideas are essential to the success of the Green Team, and therefore a major part of the Green Team members’ |
|positions is “consulting.” These proposals will fulfill two roles: (1) Allowing the Green Team to act as consultants for the class. |
|(2) Allowing for students to make factually-based, realistic sustainability proposals that the Green Team could potentially implement. |
| |
|To ensure that the proposals are realistic and feasible for improving campus sustainability, individual Green Team members will be |
|available as an informational resource. Please email any members you wish to consult with and set up an appointment to meet. |
| |
|Proposals must be between 1300 and 1600 words, and clearly explain the problem addressed, solution proposed, and costs and benefits. |
Context
Sustainability on Campus
According to the Edmonds Community College website, a sustainable college is one that “helps students become more environmentally literate and motivates them to seek environmentally, economically, and socially sustainable practices while modeling these same values and practices in its operation.” Our college has a Sustainability Council made of students, staff, and faculty who collaborate to make the campus more sustainable. Across campus there are examples of sustainable energy use, sustainable food systems, waste reduction, and green buildings. Many classes at Edmonds Community College focus on sustainability, and sustainability topics are incorporated into courses from English to Math, from Culinary Arts to Law. For more information, see the Edmonds Community College Sustainability webpages:
The Green Team
The Green Team currently consists of four EdCC students whose hiring last fall was funded by the Campus Sustainability Fee. As campus sustainability advocates, they are tasked with providing information about sustainability efforts on campus, working with faculty, staff, and students to provide service and other involvement opportunities, and recruiting and maintaining volunteers. Their work is facilitated by Alison Pugh, Amy Johnson, and Maitreyi Nagarkar, and they are located in the Center for Service Learning.
Green Team Mission Statement
The Green Team at Edmonds Community College engages and empowers students, faculty, and staff to adopt healthy, sustainable practices that benefit our diverse campus, the greater community, and our environment for future generations.
Prompt
Write a proposal responding to the Edmonds Community College Green Team’s call for proposals (above) based on an idea gained from the sustainability field trip you attended. Your proposal will be evaluated as your third English 100 essay and submitted to the Green Team for consideration.
Genre
According to our textbook,
The aim of a proposal is to help readers understand the causes and effects of a problem and to persuade them that your step-by-step plan offers the best solution for that problem. Your readers will expect your proposal to be clearly written and persuasive. They expect you to win them over with strong reasoning, good examples, and appropriate appeals to authority and emotion.
Chapter 12 of Writing Today gives ideas about planning/inventing your proposal’s content, organizing and drafting your ideas with paragraphs, making stylistic and design choices, and revising your proposal.
Steps
Steps to follow for the draft: complete and save these prewriting assignments to submit with your essay’s final version.
Note taking guide for the sustainability field trip
In preparation for Essay 3, you are attending a field trip to a local business or community organization that in some way makes environmental sustainability and social responsibility part of its mission.
When you attend the field trip, you will be on a tour. It goes by quickly, and the speakers will share information that ranges from general concepts to specific details. So that you are prepared for writing an essay based on what you’ve learned from the field trip, listen carefully the whole time and take good notes. Here are some guiding ideas that you might look and listen for. It’s not enough to have one single answer for each question—keep listening and learning throughout the whole tour. When you are done with your notes, consider labeling them with the codes corresponding to each question below, which will help you organize your ideas.
1. Where are you? Where is the business located? What parts/aspects of the business are you seeing on this tour? [Where]
2. Who is talking? What is their job? How are they in a good position to share knowledge about the topic? [Who]
3. What are the values/goals they express? What are they trying to accomplish? [Goal]
4. How do they attain their goals? What changes have they made, or what makes them uniquely “sustainable” in contrast to non- (or less-) sustainable versions of this business? [How] or [Practice]
5. What problems or difficulties do they encounter in creating a sustainable business? [Challenges]
6. Specific details: what do you see (and/or hear, smell, taste, or feel) that seems important or memorable? Why is it important to experience these details in person or perhaps to convey them in your writing? [Detail] or [Example]
7. What questions are being asked by you or other students on the tour? (Listen carefully and don’t hesitate to courteously ask people to speak up or repeat.) How are they answered? [Q/A]
8. What do you personally find most surprising? Why so?
II. Prewriting
In advance of our prewriting workshop, complete the following “invention” strategies for writing a proposal. Reread pages 258-262 to understand each step.
Finding a Focus in your Notes
Make a list of three possible ways campus could be more sustainable based on ideas gained from your field trip. Try to be specific here:
“Campus should get people to make less trash” is too general. “Edmonds Community College should encourage the use of reusable beverage containers by offering significant discounts on hot beverages” would be specific and better for starting your paper, from here one could go on to explore the causes, solution, and cost/benefits.
Rank these three, identifying which one seems like your best idea for a proposal.
1.
2.
3.
Researching
Researching should take three forms: the field trip itself, from which you will draw ideas for your proposal, Web sources related to your project (provided by Erin Ryan, in your informational email and posted on the course blackboard), and your own interview with Green Team consultants.
Research Table
Use this table to record three sources you can use in your proposal, based on your research on your topic.
| |MLA citation in works cited list |Direct quotes or paraphrases (indicate which) |
| |(examples given) |of the information you want to include. |
|Field trip |Dugaw, Kathy. Tour of Magnuson P-patch. Edmonds Community| |
| |College Sustainability Field Trip. Seattle, WA. 30 Oct. | |
| |2011. | |
| | | |
|Online or Print source |“What is Fair Trade?” Fair Trade USA. Fair Trade USA, | |
| |2010. Web. 5 February 2010. | |
| | | |
| | | |
|Green Team Mentor |Peterson, Evan. Personal interview. 12 February 2012. | |
|Consultation/campus | | |
|interview | | |
| | | |
Analyzing the problem
Map out your plan by following the concept map on page 258-9, identifying major causes and minor causes.
| |
| |
Planning to solve the problem
Map out your plan to solve the problem by following the concept map on page 260-1, identifying major steps and minor steps.
| |
| |
Figure out costs and benefits of your plan (follow the model on page 262)
|Benefits |Costs |
| | |
III. Organizing and Drafting Your Proposal
The introduction (1 paragraph min.)
Description of the problem, its causes, and its effects (2 paragraphs min.)
Description of your plan (2 paragraphs min.)
Discussion of the costs and benefits of your plan (1 paragraph min.)
The conclusion (1 paragraph min.)
IV. Design
Find the directions for accessing the original publication of “Diet for a Warm Planet” on our course blackboard (Course Materials > Paper 3 > Diet for a Warm Planet). Where was it published? What design choices were made by this publication for this proposal? List 5-10 design elements that you want to use on your paper. Consider not only the example of “Diet for a Warm Planet,” but also the sample proposal on pages 249-57 in our textbook and the ideas of “Look,” “Meaningful Headings,” “Relevant, Accurate Graphics,” “Lists to Highlight Important Points,” and “White Space” on pages 268-9.
Writing-in-Context #1—Group Poster Project
The sustainable food field trip has provided you with numerous ideas of how we, as consumers and producers, entrepreneurs and citizens, campus and community members, can be more sustainable. Your third essay will propose an idea for making campus more sustainable based on one of the sustainable practices, concepts, or innovations gleaned from your sustainable food field trip.
In order to do this, there are two main preparatory steps. First, you need to thoroughly understand how the concept of sustainability applies to the business or non-profit you visited. Second, you need to discover how Edmonds Community College has worked, and is currently working, on becoming more sustainable.
To take these steps in preparation for your paper, you will participate in the following:
1. A mentored group discussion about sustainability, your food field trip site, and sustainability on campus. The group will consist of students from English 100 and Anthropology 100 who attended the same sustainability food field trip. The discussions will be led by a student mentor from either the campus Green Team or the Anthropology LEAF School.
2. Complete and present an electronic poster in a small group of 3-4 students. The poster must answer the question: How sustainable is the food business you investigated? The poster must follow the template (distributed on the course Blackboard) and will be presented as a group in a five-minute oral presentation to the two classes (Anthropology 100 and English 100) during the week of 5/29-5/31. Each student will be responsible for completing a self-evaluation of their own poster and a peer-evaluation of the other posters presented.
Objectives
This poster project is intensive prewriting for your paper: by working with others in the group discussion and poster creation, you will achieve a solid grounding in the conversation on sustainability. This grounding will allow you to write an effective proposal.
You will discover how an in-depth piece of writing can benefit from your ability to communicate and think creativity and critically in an academic group setting. Finally, you will exercise your skills in working responsibly and effectively on a group project.
Extra-credit possibility
A small number of the posters will be selected to present at the Making Learning Visible campus event.
Writing-in-Context #2 – Reflection on the “Celebration of Food Festival” Community Event
For this writing-in-context assignment, you will attend a community event and then write reflectively about what you’ve learned there, making connections with the topics of food and sustainability in your own writing for this class.
Edmonds Community College is one of several local sponsors for the Celebration of Food. The following is from an announcement for the event:
The Celebration of Food Festival will be a free, family event where participants can taste, explore, and experience real food.
“This event brings together people who are passionate about delicious, local, wholesome food,” said organizer Chris Hudyma. “Farmers, ranchers, culinary professionals, youth, students, and business owners will offer activities to inspire the enjoyment of real food.”
Time and Date: 11 a.m.-5 p.m., Sunday, May 20
Location: Lynnwood Convention Center, 711 196th Street Southwest, Lynnwood, 98036.
More information is available at:
The refection is two pages, double-spaced, answering the following questions. You do not need to answer the questions in order, but be sure you cover all of them.
How did you find the ideas from your sustainable food field trip reflected in the community event? Was the business present as a booth or vendor? If so, how did the two presentations differ? (For example, what did you learn on your field trip that wasn’t presented at the Celebration, and what did you learn at the Celebration that was “news” after your field trip? If the sustainable food business/organization from your field trip was not present at the Celebration, what businesses/organizations that were present were most similar? How did they compare or contrast?
Who are two other presenters you spoke with? Why did you pick them? Was their product sustainable? How so? What else did you learn from them?
How was “sustainability” represented in this event as a whole? Is the “real food” that the event displays also “sustainable” food? How do you know? What, if anything, seemed missing from the discussion or would you need to know more about?
Student work example: Theresa Jellison’s Sustainability Proposal
[pic]
Figure 1: Snoqualmie Gourmet Ice Cream Community Garden
Welcome Wine and Coffee Syrup Bottle Borders!
by
Theresa Jellison
An English 100 Proposal
For
Professor Griesbach and
The Green Team At Edmonds Community College
March 12, 2012
Introduction:
Edmonds Community College has a great opportunity to be a leader and community advocate for sustainable gardening, educating the communities at large. By presenting a variety of sustainable techniques, the likelihood of having a gardening method adopted in neighborhood backyards and communities is almost a given.
Anna Porter, vice president of PorterWorks, Inc, eloquently explains,
The Farmer Frog model is all about people rediscovering their connection with the source of their food (hidden talents). It's about helping people grow food that is
healthy for them and enriches the environment (life and fertility). It's about helping people be better caretakers of the ecosystem. It's about helping people know what works in their neck of the woods and how to help it grow and how to prepare and eat it. This is our adventure. Come join us! (Porter)
To this end, the purpose of this proposal is to show how building wine and coffee syrup bottle borders into established garden beds on Edmonds Community College campus would educate future growers in the ways of sustainable farming to develop drought resistant, almost self sustaining plants. Planting bottles around a garden bed would provide the plants' roots with more light units, creating a longer growing time span; furthermore, the bottles' trapped air would buffer the roots, providing insulation from the cold. The longer growing period and warmer soil enable longer roots to develop, creating drought resistant plants (Pasztor, campus tour). With this in mind, learning involves making a difference in the world, even in one little corner of a garden.
[pic]
Figure 2: Garden Beds at Edmonds Community College Community Supported Agriculture (CSA)
Problems:
If one is to believe YouTube, the media, and advertisers, garden beds have a wooden border. The wood used to border the beds will need to be replaced over time. Additionally,
• "untreated lumber cut from most commercially harvested tree species is subject to attack by insects or to decay caused by fungi and bacteria. The decay or insect
• hazard is greatest in exposures where the wood is subjected to moisture. Wood in outdoor exposures, either in ground-contact or in above-ground applications, is susceptible to attack. The potential for wood deterioration is greatest in hot and humid climates, which allow insects, fungi and bacteria to thrive" ("FAQs").
• "Pressure Treated Wood is poisonous to insects, fungus, and bacteria. It is also poison to humans and other life forms. It is listed by the State of California (and most other states) as a carcinogen. The basic elements involved are copper, chromium, and arsenic. All are hazardous to human health and the environment and do not break down into harmless substances" (Lemley).
• "There is also evidence of arsenic leaching from CCA-treated wood into the surrounding environment. Leaching of arsenic from PT CCA wood in raised garden beds has been found to be limited to about 6", but that 6" is permanently contaminated. It means that you should not grow vegetables in that strip nor can you turn that soil into the rest of your garden. It also means that that soil is still contaminated long after you and your garden are gone. Not a good legacy!" (Lemley).
Pseudo Solutions:
The following table presents possible solutions which, upon reflection, come with their own set of problems.
|Natural Resistant Woods |Old growth forests are the major supplier of redwood and cedar.|
|Synthetic and Composite Wood Products |Due to the harmful effects on one's health as well as the waste|
| |produced manufacturing it, the ecology center opposes this |
| |option. |
|Reused Lumber |Sometimes old redwood or cedar may be found. These would have |
| |to be replaced frequently. |
(Lemley)
When the public sees the wooden border in EdCC CSA, they don't necessarily recognize it as untreated wood. Besides, all wood and hardware will eventually need replacing. It is only a question of when.
[pic]
Figure 3: Snoqualmie Gourmet Ice Cream Community Garden
Every artist starts as an amateur, every gardener starts playing in the dirt. Wine bottles add a whimsical touch while reusing material which might otherwise find its way to a landfill. Wine and coffee syrup bottles are a wise move toward zero waste.
Solution:
Currently, EdCC has wooden and brick borders on their garden beds. I recommend a wine and coffee syrup bottle border for beds utilizing drip irrigation. I first learned of this technique from Zsofia Pasztor. Pasztor is the creator of the 'Farmer Frog Model' promoting community based urban farming that protects and restores habitat for people and wildlife at the same time. She is a member of the Curriculum Board for the EdCC's Horticulture Department and Rain Garden Coalition of Snohomish County. She is also the president of the Sustainable Development Task Force of Snohomish County(SDTF). (Innovative Landscape Technologies About Us)
While I was on a sustainability field trip to Snoqualmie Gourmet Ice Cream, Pasztor explained how a wine bottle border allows for more light units to access the roots of the plants in the beds. By providing for a longer growing period, they are encouraging deep roots. The wine bottles also reflect light; therefore, air trapped in the bottles insulates during winter. By using bottles, the farmer is demonstrating one more way to work towards zero waste (Pasztor). Providing an environment that encourages deep roots to develop results in drought resistant, almost self-sustaining plants which translates into using less drip irrigation to keep the plants thriving.
[pic]
Figure 4: Snoqualmie Gourmet Ice Cream Community Garden
A beautiful bottle border is a bright idea!
I recommend having a wine and coffee syrup bottle collection among the professors, staff, and students on campus. Admittedly, other bottles may get donated. These glass bottles are usable as long as they have a narrow neck for planting securely in the dirt. The culinary kitchen and espresso stands on campus could save their bottles as well. The bottles could be collected and stored in a safe place in the sustainable garden on campus. The campus could have Monday March The Bottles In day and Tuesday Take In Your Bottles to encourage participation. In order to accommodate those students and teachers who may only be on campus part time, Monday and Tuesday were selected. Likewise, by choosing two days out of the week, awareness is heightened. The Office of Student Life would be the one to send out electronic flyers to EdCC staff members' email accounts informing them of the bottle collection endeavor. Enrollment services is the department that sends edmail to current EdCC students. At the time of publishing, I had not heard back from the Dean of Student Enrollment Services to confirm the proper contact person. Her contact information is raeellen.reas@edcc.edu. Her phone goes to voice mail.
It is conceivable to have a Border Building Bash utilizing student manpower via volunteer hours and/or extra credit to remove an existing brick border and install a bottle border. Untreated wooden border could be replaced when they wear out. During the campus tour, Pasztor advised that the bottles be buried 6 to 8 inches deep. Conceivably Students in Service could earn volunteer hours working in the garden. Amy Johnson is the contact person.
If someone was feeling ambitious, Starbucks could be asked to save their coffee syrup bottles. Starbucks and R.E.I. both have been known to volunteer for community environmental projects. Perhaps they would be willing to supply volunteers once enough bottles were collected.
Cost:
Knowing the detriment of wood borders, we have a moral responsibility to the community to provide at least one example of a wine and coffee syrup border. Wood and hardware needs to be replaced over time. Labor and time also factor into the replacement cost. Installing a wine and coffee border would require time and effort:
1. to organize create a flyer explaining the dates and place for the donation of bottles on campus, create electronic flyer/email advertising the date, time, and place for the Border Building Bash,
2. to collect
3. to store
4. to "plant" the bottles.
If per chance a bottle gets broken, it would need to be replaced. Broken pieces could be turned into artwork for the garden, or recycled. Fourteen of the current beds are 4 feet by 18 feet. At approximately 3 inches wide, it takes roughly 176 bottles to go around once. Estimate 200 bottles per bed and plenty will be on hand for the Border Building Bash!
Benefits include:
• longer growing period for the plants because of the additional light units
• insulated root beds due to the warmer trapped air inside the bottles
• "students being fed" with the sustainable garden (Hutchinson)
• lower water bill due to less watering of the plants as a result of a more developed root system
• time saved not tending to plants which become almost self sustaining
• plants grown would be shared with growers tending the crop creating priceless public relations for the campus promoting the horticulture program
• plants could be used in the culinary kitchen providing fresh produce for students, and promoting the horticulture program among the student population
• potential for closed loop system: if the culinary school were to make juice from berries grown in the garden and share it with the children attending the family life program on campus
• mental health benefit from working the earth.
• enhance EdCC's reputation for reusing material used at the college
• creates less waste because the bottles will not need replacing
Conclusion:
"Gardening is as ancient as civilization. It is an essential skill as working with the land, vegetation, growing our food and living in our natural environment is what made us who we are today" (Innovative Landscape Technologies About Us). What better way to learn than by doing. By creating a living campus with a sustainable garden, Edmonds Community College will be educating future growers in the sustainable art of farming while conserving resources, and creating healthier ecosystems for animals and people to coexist. Whenever children play, they will often times think of many, varied, and unusual ways of doing things. Displaced bricks from the old brick border could be utilized to make a walk path or "knee spots" for tending the beds. After pulling weeds from the beds, I highly recommend making "knee spots." Once the wine and coffee syrup bottle border is in place, it will not need to be replaced-once and done.
[pic]
Figure 5: Snoqualmie Gourmet Ice Cream has a "living campus."
This photograph puts the proposal to bed dreaming, "Reduce, reuse, and recycle."
Works Cited
"FAQs" . Viance LLC, 2012. Web. 10 March 2012.
Hutchinson, Jane. Personal interview. 15 Feb. 2012.
"Innovative Landscape Technologies About Us" Innovative Landscape Technologies. Innovative Landscape Technologies, 2009. Web. 10 March 2012.
Lemley, Gregory W. "Pressure-Treated Wood" ecology center. Ecology Center, 2012. Web. 10 March 2012.
Pasztor, Zsofia. Tour of Snoqualmie Gourmet Ice Cream Community Farm, Edmonds Community College Sustainability Field Trip. Maltby, WA. 30 Jan. 2012.
Pasztor, Zsofia. Tour of Edmonds Community College Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) and Rain Gardens, Edmonds Community College Sustainability Field Trip. Lynnwood, WA. 22 Feb. 2012.
Porter, Anna. "Welcome to Farmer Frog!" Farmer Frog. PorterWorks, Inc., 2011. Web. 10 March 2012.
[pic]
Students learn about local, sustainable agriculture from Erick Haakenson of Jubilee Biodynamic Farm. After a lively and far-reaching discussion covering topics ranging from sewage treatment, to riparian zones, to philosophical dualism, students got a chance to plant potatoes – in the photograph the first rows are being started.
EXAMPLES FROM THE FIELD – MIAMI DADE COLLEGE
Title of Course: REA0007 & REA0017 (Developmental Reading—levels 1 & 2)
Faculty Name: Suzanne Pearl
Abstract
Professor Pearl engages MDC’s most at-risk and underprepared students in service-learning through her developmental education reading courses. Professor Pearl’s students improve their literacy while fighting local and global hunger. The foundation of her program is the non-profit website run by the United Nations World Food Program which has two goals:
1) Provide education to everyone for free, and
2) Help end world hunger by providing rice to hungry people for free.
Students utilize the vocabulary-building section of the website that provides online players with word definition challenges and rewards each correct answer with a donation of 10 grains of rice to the World Food Program. All donated rice is funded by corporate sponsors. Students read articles about global and local hunger issues and complete guided reflection activities such as classroom discussions and written assignments about hunger and homelessness. Students spend 10-12 hours learning vocabulary, promoting to their peers, participating in a canned food drive, making sandwiches for a local homeless shelter, and writing advocacy letters to the President regarding famine and hunger funding. Because of the complex lives of her students, most of the activities are done as part of class and/or lab time. In addition to the vocabulary section of , Professor Pearl also has her students utilize the geography section – where every correct answer also donates 10 grains of rice. As part of their preparation she sometimes utilizes one class period to hold a hunger banquet using a modified version of Oxfam’s hunger banquet template ().
Students
Approximately 27-29
Service Component
• Direct or Indirect Service: Indirect Service
• Infused in class or one-time project: Infused in class combined with homework assignments.
• Hours Required if applicable: Approximately 12, broken down as follows:
✓ ~10 hours answering either 100 vocabulary or 500 geography questions per week on ;
✓ ~1/2 hour promoting to at least five peers;
✓ ~1/2 hour collecting canned goods for a local food pantry
✓ ~45 minutes making sandwiches for a local homeless shelter
✓ ~30 minutes writing a letter to the President asking for more funding for food/hunger programs
DESCRIPTION & REFLECTION
Describe the community engagement experience and its integration into course outcomes & activities
Students learn about hunger issues via reading articles, guest speakers, and research, and are introduced to the website and mission. Students then spend10 hours answering 100 vocabulary and/or 500 geography questions per week on resulting in more than 10,000 grains of rice donated to the World Food Program. They also promote to at least five peers, collect canned goods for a local food pantry, make sandwiches for a local homeless shelter, and write a letter to the President asking for more funding for food programs. Class time and homework assignments are utilized to implement these activities. Participation is required of all students.
Describe assets developmental education students brought to the work/explanation of reasons this worked well with developmental education students
This program works well with developmental education students because it is implemented as part of class time and homework and doesn’t require students to go off campus and engage in logistically complex service experiences. The website is an outstanding tool that builds vocabulary in an engaging manner, while at the same time combating poverty. Students appreciate the fact that it is woven seamlessly into their class and doesn’t require them to do extra off campus service hours which are difficult for them due to their work, family, and socio-economic challenges. They enjoy the project immensely, are more engaged learners, and know they have made a difference.
List any adjustments made for working with developmental education students
The project is implemented during class time and via homework assignments. Students receive a thorough orientation to issues of hunger and the purpose of service-learning. Professor Pearl initially hoped to have her students also serve a few hours at the local food pantry on Saturdays, but she discovered that this wasn’t practical for this population. Most of her students work on Saturdays and have family obligations. She therefore modified the project to include the canned food drive and sandwich preparation (done on campus) instead of direct service at the pantry. She still offers extra credit for students who complete hours at the pantry, but almost no students choose this option.
Describe any role that peer advocates had in facilitating or leading service-learning activities including reflection: N/A
FACULTY REFLECTIONS
“ is a great tool for weaving service-learning into class because of its flexibility. Many students have extraordinary work and family responsibilities that create challenges in scheduling a service-learning experience. Drawing upon simultaneously improves my students’ vocabulary and gives them the chance to help those suffering from the scourge of hunger” said Professor Pearl.
What worked well?
All parts of this project work extremely well. In addition MDC has a service-learning office whose staff helps Professor Pearl and her students with orientation, with the sandwich making, and with recognizing students with certificates and letters of commendation.
What was the most challenging?
Asking students to go off campus and complete hours at the local food pantry was not working or practical. The project was modified to make the off-campus hours optional, focusing instead on promoting the site to peers, generating at least 10,000 grains of rice by answering questions on , participating in the canned food drive, making sandwiches for the homeless, and writing to the President to advocate for increased funding of food programs.
What you do differently next time?
The program is working very well as currently constructed. A new strategy that is working well is taking one class period to implement a modified Oxfam Hunger Banquet (students are randomly placed in different income levels based on worldwide poverty statistics and receive a “snack” relative to their income status, simulating the huge inequities in wealth/standard of living around the world – visit for more information). Students gain a new perspective on the root causes of hunger and poverty—and feel more motivated to do something to help. recently added the capacity to create groups (). Professor Pearl is planning on creating a friendly competition among her participating classes by having each class register as a group and monitoring the total rice donations they generate.
STUDENT QUOTES
“Service-learning helped me to better understand the hunger crisis that’s going on around the world. I had no idea that many people were starving right here in my own country. Furthermore I thank service-learning for making me be part of ending world hunger.”
Stephany Pierre-Toussaint
“It was very nice indeed that the college, and especially this class, included us to participate with our brothers and sisters. I felt very good inside when I was helping all these people. I totally think more classes should be involved in this program of helping end hunger in the world.”
Jackson Chaux
“The person who came up with is brilliant. Not only are we learning as individuals, but we also get a chance to help the less fortunate, and I find that to be great. I want to say thanks for the opportunity to give a helping hand.”
Natasha Auguste
“I’m grateful in learning the new vocabulary and also helping out hungry children. It makes me feel as a better person for helping out someone who’s more in need than I am.”
Priscilla Abroleda
USEFUL REFERENCES
• – in addition to English vocabulary and English grammar, donations of rice can be generated in other subject areas including: Humanities (famous paintings, literature); Geography (flags of the world, identifying countries, world capitals, world landmarks); Math (multiplication tables, basic math/pre-algebra); Chemistry (chemical symbols full list and basic list); Language Learning (German, Spanish, French, Italian); Sciences (human anatomy).
• (search for “Hunger Banquet”)
• Professor Suzanne Pearl, Miami Dade College, College Prep Department (spearl@mdc.edu / 305-237-3977) – contact Professor Pearl for copies of any her materials and more information on implementation.
• Josh Young, Director, MDC Institute for Civic Engagement and Democracy (jyoung@mdc.edu / 305-237-7477) – Josh can also provide information, PowerPoints, and answer questions about this project.
SUPPLEMENTAL MATERIALS – MIAMI DADE COLLEGE
FOR FACULTY INTERESTED IN IMPLEMENTING THE SERVICE-LEARNING PROJECT IN DEVELOPMENTAL EDUCATION CLASSES – CONTACT MIAMI DADE COLLEGE PROFESSOR SUZANNE PEARL FOR MORE INFORMATION (spearl@mdc.edu)
PROJECT
Welcome to our Project! The goal of this project is to help you improve your vocabulary skills while helping those suffering from the problems of hunger. You will develop an understanding of how YOU, as an individual, can make a difference in the world.
Complete the following activities - due dates will be assigned in class:
1. Sign-up for Service Learning – do one of the following:
- Go to Room 3410 (Center for Community Involvement)
- Register at mdc.edu/cci
2. Select the correct answers to 100 vocabulary words or 500 geography questions per week on . See directions on reverse side. (10 hours)
3. E-mail 5 people you know informing them of the website. (1/2 hour) Include:
- The 2 goals of Freerice (go to and click on “About”)
- Copy (cc:) your professor (spearl@mdc.edu) on the e-mails
- Don’t forget to include the name of the website:
4. Send a letter to the US president supporting our participation in a joint effort with other countries to help end world hunger. (1/2 hour)
- Go to
- Go to FAQ
- Scroll to “What else can I do to end world hunger?”
- Read #3 and then click on the last word – “here”
- Click on US flag
- Read letter
- Click Print
- Sign and bring to class
- Option: Write your own letter, sign and bring to class
5. Bring 1 of the following items to class to donate to Feeding South Florida
(1/2 hour)
- canned meats like tuna, salmon, chicken, turkey & ham
- canned chunky soups and stews
- canned beans, fruits and vegetables
- new unopened plastic containers of peanut butter or jelly
6. Complete Reflection Questionnaire (1/2 hour)
7. Make peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for Camillus House – class project (3/4 hour)
Related Assignments:
- Reflect and react to articles related to world hunger
- Extra credit hours earned for volunteering at a local food bank
*A minimum of 12 hours must be successfully completed in order to be eligible to receive a passing grade in the course!
DIRECTIONS FOR
1. Go to HOME page.
2. Click on the SIGN UP link at the top right hand side of the page.
Fill in your username and E-mail address and submit.
[pic] You may also choose to Login with your Facebook or Twitter Connect accounts.
3. After you have signed up, go to LOGIN (also located at the top right hand side of the page) every time you play Freerice.
4. Always begin playing by answering the first vocabulary question on HOME page.
5. Click on CHANGE LEVEL link located at the darker green bar at the bottom of the vocabulary word box. Set level to correspond to the weekly assignments below.
You are responsible for contributing 500 or 1,000 grains of rice each week to the World Food Program. In order to do this, you must guess 50 countries or 100 vocabulary words correctly on Freerice.
The following assignments are to be completed as scheduled: Tues., Sept. 20: Level 5 Vocab – 1,000 grains
Tues., Sept. 27: Level 1 Id Countries – 500 grains
Tues., Oct 4: Level 7 Vocab – 1,000 grains
Tues., Oct. 11: Level 9 Vocab – 1,000 grains
Tues., Oct. 18: Level 1 Id Countries – 500 grains
Tues., Oct. 25: Level 11 Vocab – 1,000 grains
Tues., Nov. 1: Level 13 Vocab – 1,000 grains
Tues., Nov. 8: Level 2 Id Countries – 500 grains
Tues., Nov. 15: Level 15 Vocab – 1,000 grains
Tues., Nov. 22: Level 16 Vocab – 1,000 grains
Tues., Nov. 29: Level 2 Id Countries – 500 grains
Tues., Dec. 6: Level 18 Vocab – 1,000 grains
Make sure that you print and turn in to me each Tuesday the page that shows your grain total for the week. You may also e-mail me the page that shows your total for the week. If you cannot attach the page as file and send, then copy and paste the page into an e-mail and send.
YOU WILL HAVE CONTRIBUTED AT LEAST 10,000 GRAINS OF RICE BY THE END OF THE SEMESTER!
FREERICE REFLECTION QUESTIONNAIRE
(Item #6 on Instruction page)
Please circle the response that matches your feeling to the statements below*:
1. The service I did through this class helped me to see how the subject matter I learned can be used in everyday life.
Strongly Agree Agree Disagree Strongly Disagree
2. I feel that the service I did through this class was not at all beneficial to the community.
Strongly Agree Agree Disagree Strongly Disagree
3. The service I did through this class helped me to better understand the lectures and readings required for this class.
Strongly Agree Agree Disagree Strongly Disagree
4. The idea of combining service to the community with college course work should be practiced in more classes at Miami-Dade College.
Strongly Agree Agree Disagree Strongly Disagree
5. I was already doing service in my community before taking this class.
Strongly Agree Agree Disagree Strongly Disagree
6. This class made me more interested in doing service in my community than I was before.
Strongly Agree Agree Disagree Strongly Disagree
7. I probably won’t do community service of any kind once this class is finished.
Strongly Agree Agree Disagree Strongly Disagree
8. I learned a great deal about myself through my service activities.
Strongly Agree Agree Disagree Strongly Disagree
9. Some educators say that real learning means being able to integrate learning into your own behavior. With that definition, I feel this class was very successful in helping me really learn.
Strongly Agree Agree Disagree Strongly Disagree
*(These questions are from the Bennion Center at the University of Utah)
FINAL COMMENTS ABOUT YOUR SERVICE LEARNING EXPERIENCE:
[pic]
News and Notes, Volume 7, Number 1 Page 1 of 1
WS & NOTES
MDC Office of Communications Jan. 9, 2009 Volume 7, Number 1
In This Issue
Culture
Focus on Faculty & Staff
News in Photos
Other Stories
Volume 7, Number 1 > Focus on Faculty & Staff
Wolfson Campus professor develops service learning project to fight world hunger while improving student vocabulary skills
College-prep students in Professor Suzanne Pearl's reading classes on Wolfson Campus are learning to expand their vocabulary while contributing to the fight against world poverty.
Professor Pearl is taking advantage of a novel Web site, , that provides online players with word-definition challenges and rewards each correct answer with
a donation of 20 grains Professor Suzanne Pearl
of rice to the United
Nations World Food
Program. All donated rice is funded by corporate sponsors.
" is a great tool for weaving service-learning into class because of its flexibility," Professor Pearl said. "Many students have extraordinary work and family responsibilities that create challenges in scheduling a service-learning project. Drawing upon simultaneously improves my students' vocabulary skills and gives them the chance to help those suffering from the scourge of hunger."
fessor Pearl piloted the program during her summer classes and now includes assignments related to the topic of local and global hunger in all of her college prep reading classes. Along with a weekly word requirement on , students read, discuss and write reactions to articles about the problems of hunger worldwide.
"The use of has extended to other classes as well and has the potential to be used collegewide," said Jo Anne Zarowny, program coordinator for the Center for Community Involvement. " has added other subject areas, including English grammar, famous paintings,chemistry, mathematics and foreign languages. Professors in these disciplines now have the opportunity to easily incorporate a service-learning project into their classes that gives back to the global community."
httn·Ilmdc.edu/mai n/newsandnotes/vol7-1/facsta:ff/pearl.aspx 5/10/2
EXAMPLES FROM THE FIELD – BUNKER HILL COMMUNITY COLLLEGE
Title of Course: Ethics
Faculty Name: Monica Poole
Abstract
In Ethics, students do 10-15 hours of service at a site of their choice and consider the moral stakes of service. Readings and media invite students to analyze the extent to which their service made a better world, and to question the very natures of service and charity. Students document their service, reflection, and analysis in an electronic portfolio, using media including the written word, photo, video, and music. This is a major project worth approximately one-quarter of a student’s final grade, and is used in both the face-to-face and online versions of the course.
Students
# in class approximately 28
Service Component
▪ Direct or Indirect Service: Either
▪ Infused in class or one-time project: Infused in class
▪ Hours Required if applicable: 10-15
DESCRIPTION & REFLECTION
Describe the community engagement experience and its integration into course outcomes & activities
Ethics is a course in the thought and action of morality. We use several practices to explore one question: what’s the right thing to do? The centerpiece to the course is an act of service, where students spend 10-15 hours undertaking an action that they believe will make their communities and the world a better place, morally speaking. They document their work, reflect on it, put it into its philosophical context, and analyze the moral stakes of their work in an e-portfolio. This forms the centerpiece of the portfolio, the intent of which is to document the student’s emerging moral philosophy.
Describe assets dev ed students brought to the work/explanation of reasons this worked well with dev ed students
Ethics is one of a handful of courses at BHCC that have prerequisites of only the first of the two levels of developmental reading and writing at BHCC. As a result, students who place or learn their way into the second level of developmental reading and
writing often choose to take Ethics. My approach to this course is designed with this population in mind. Students who are in developmental reading and writing courses, in my experience, are in need of developmental reading and writing, not developmental thinking. By requiring ambitious thought yet demanding its expression in multiple media--including non-written media such as speech and video--this project challenges students to think with sophistication, even if their thoughts’ sophistication outstrips their reading and writing abilities. Even better, the exercise of expressing thought this way taps into strengths dev ed students often display in communicating in non-written media. Somehow, communicating in non-written media often results in increased sophistication in written expression as well.
List any adjustments made for working with dev ed students
Using digital media and speech is really important when working with dev ed students in a content course, because students with weak skills in writing can develop complex thought without being hamstrung by the temporary limits of their written expression. Similarly, a video such as Slavoj Zizek’s RSA animate, First As Tragedy, Then as Farce introduces a complex philosophical argument as well or better than an essay, but doesn’t require advanced reading and writing skills.
Describe any role that peer advocates had in facilitating or leading service-learning activities including reflection
This course does not include a peer mentor or peer advocate. However, one semester a student was serving as a peer mentor in another course, one of BHCC’s Learning Community Seminars for first-year students. This student chose to do her service hours alongside her students who also had to do an act of service, and reflected on her experience in this portfolio:
She writes, “We were able to change these students thinking and show them that not every homeless person is a drug addict or a runaway. These are people like you and me, and it can happen to ANYONE. I really think that each student had an awakening. They realized they are lucky and blessed, but it can all be gone very quickly. Nobody is too good or to proud to get hungry. Homelessness is not a discriminatory situation. Yes, I served in a soup kitchen and I fed people and cleaned up. I even helped hand out some clothes and shampoo's. But I think my real service came elsewhere. This world needs change, and it's not going to happen overnight. It also is not going to happen if people don't start to get on board with this. I helped to change the views and values of ten young college students who have the capability to make change. They have the ability and the man power to make something happen, and they are ready now.”
FACULTY REFLECTIONS
What worked well?
Doing community engagement! I have taught moral philosophy without a hands-on service learning or community engagement project before, and the experience has engaged students’ (and my) intellectual curiosity but has remained otherwise quite sterile. The minute I injected project-based and experiential learning, including community engagement, the course became a more holistic experience, and immediately, engagement was increased--both mine and my students’. Attendance went up, intellectual sophistication increased, written work improved in depth, clarity, and excitement, and students found that their bodies and their emotional and empathic natures, as well as their intellectual curiosity, were engaged in the learning experience.
What was the most challenging?
Moving students from assertion or description to moral reasoning is the entire challenge of my Ethics course, and it is fully evident in this project. I have the following conversation easily a dozen or more times each semester:
“So I worked at a soup kitchen and that was a good thing because I helped to feed people who needed food.”
“OK, but why was that a good thing?”
“Because I believe we should help people who need help.”
“Why?”
“Because it’s right to help people.”
“Why?”
I often play the devil’s advocate and ask questions like, “Why not just let people starve?” Or, I question the very morality of charity, “What if soup kitchens just sustain the bigger social problems like unemployment and under-education that lead to people being hungry?”
It was surprising to see how emotionally aggravating many students found the process of questioning and deepening their ideas of good and bad, right and wrong. Male students seem to have found this experience more frustrating than female students.
Because I teach this course online as well as in person, I’ve noticed that I am often less able to have productive conversations, peer critiques, and oral presentations that increase the level of moral reasoning in the portfolios of the online students. I’ve struggled to duplicate the experience of conference and consultation in the online course, and it has improved--students post their projects on forums for peer review, for instance--but the online experience still isn’t as rich in critique and scaffolding as it is for the face-to-face students, mostly because of the lack of live critique in discussions and oral presentations. I continue to look for ways to duplicate or otherwise improve that experience.
What you do differently next time?
When we do service learning, students typically work with an off-campus organization of their choice, almost always a nonprofit. I’ve permitted students to propose alternative service projects, and one student made a case that working in her family’s small business might be an act that would more effectively make the world better. I was curious, and agreed to the project. This is the result:
She wrote, ““[Working to ready my family’s farm stand is] more than just a project for me now. It afforded me the opportunity to help my mother, strengthen the family business, the farming community and showed more support for other local businesses. I did this for no other gain than the simple reason that I believe it was right. Let’s think about the ethical differences of big business versus a local business... The conditions in their factories and job sites were atrocious and dangerous. The wages were low and workers were replaced easily if they were injured. The labor was intense and led to injury and death. These workers, primarily immigrants, struggled to attain a place in the middle class. Is there much of a difference now? Can anyone know where their fruit and vegetables come from?... I am making a stronger statement and more of a difference because I’m including other local businesses. Together we can help each other. We can put Kropotkin’s philosophy of cooperation to work on a smaller scale. We can allow small businesses to work together and strengthen the weakened fabric together.” I think I will plan to allow more proposals of nontraditional projects next semester.
SUPPLEMENTAL MATERIALS – Bunker Hill Community College
Ethics
M. Poole
SERVICE PROJECT GUIDELINES
The SERVICE PROJECT is another important part to this course. Here, you will get off the computer, out of the classroom and into your community. You will complete 10-15 hours of service at an organization that you believe is furthering a good moral cause--that is making the world a better place, morally speaking. In your e-portfolio (which you will create at ) you will document, describe, analyze, and reflect on the service you undertook to complete, the moral stakes of that act of service, and the moral nature of service and altruism in general.
In your e-portfolio, please explain:
WHAT you did—document and describe, in an engaging way and using multimedia (photos, videos, etc.) the service you undertook
HOW it impacted you and the people you served
WHY your act of service was morally good. Think hard: why should we feed the hungry, tutor children, or care for animals (or whatever you did)? Invoke our big ideas like rights, utility, social good, human dignity, telos, etc.!
Remember the two big goals for this class: think smarter and talk better (or, wisdom and wit). So, dig deep, analytically speaking, as you analyze the “why” of service. And make sure you express yourself in way that engages your reader. Don’t forget, even the most conversational and engaging writing will make 21st century readers become BORED—21st century readers need multiple kinds of media: words, poetry, music, photos, videos, everything!
Further thoughts:
The service project, together with the rest of the e-portfolio, replaces a term paper where students used to do some research on existing philosophies and construct their own moral philosophy or scheme of ethics--expectations of time, effort, and excellence are tailored accordingly. (In other words, yes, arranging and executing and reflecting on a service project is a fair bit of work outside the classroom, but you'd spend at least 15 hours outside the classroom doing the research for an end-of-semester research paper, wouldn't you?)
The SERVICE PROJECT is worth 25% of your final grade. This grade will be assessed based on your documentation and reflection on your project in your e-portfolio. You will submit this separately from the general e-portfolio, however, at a date earlier in the semester than the deadline for the full final e-portfolio.
A schedule:
1) First, begin to brainstorm alone and with your partners ('buddies') what sorts of service you might like to do. Meghan Callaghan (mrcallag@bhcc.mass.edu) is our Director of Community Engagement here at BHCC. You may want to meet with Ms. Callaghan in order to make your service happen. You are NOT, however, limited to things you can find through the college; your religious communities, neighborhoods, etc. can provide you great opportunities for service!
2) In Week 7, you will deliver a SHORT (Approximately one minute, TWO MINUTES ABSOLUTE MAXIMUM!) elevator speech introducing your service project and explaining why you believe it will make the world a better place, morally speaking. No Powerpoint nor visual aids--just you speaking!
3) Sometime in weeks 6-10, you will need to do your act of service! Remember, you should do 10-15 hours of service at an organization that YOU believe has a good moral mission.
4) In week 8 (subject to Prof. Poole's success in coordinating with the TLITC) we will visit the TLITC in E-building for a workshop introducing Digication () the web application that we use at BHCC to construct electronic portfolios.
You will then begin to document and reflect on your service in your e-portfolio. You will use the "Ethics" template, which has a section marked “Service Project” where you can easily create your reflections. This is a
“multimedia essay” that you are creating, explaining what you did, how it impacted people, and, most importantly, why it was good—why, MORALLY, it was the right thing to do.
Ideas for the project portfolio/multimedia essay:
First, in your portfolio, introduce the project briefly. Explain, in 100-400 words (OR AUDIO! OR VIDEO!), the moral stakes, the problem you were trying to solve, the way you believed your actions would make the world more moral, why you believe that would make the world more moral, and what you actually did.
Then, create a page where you describe and document what you actually did as an act of service. Multimedia--photos, video, audio--is especially useful here. This should be fairly specific and detailed: “For five hours last Saturday and Sunday afternoons, I prepared meals at the New England Shelter for Homeless Veterans...” is good; “I volunteered at a homeless shelter” is not nearly so good. Try to make your reader really see what you did! Some of your service sites might have privacy guidelines about taking photos of the people benefiting from your service. BUT: get creative! Take pictures of YOU at the service site—outside or inside! Take closeups of inanimate objects; for instance, if you’re preparing food, a photo with a closeup of the food could be cool!
Then, create at least four more pages on your e-portfolio, WITHIN the section on service, reflecting on your service and explaining why you think it made the world a more moral place, and then reflecting on the morality of service in general. (Or, if, after completing your service, you changed your mind and are now questioning its morality--reflect on that, too!)
Your reflective and analytical writing on your e-portfolio might answer any or all of these questions. These questions can get you started—you do not have to answer them all, and you should NOT go down the list and answer them mechanically!
-Why did you think your service would help the world to become more ethical or more moral--in short, a better place? How did your service experience affect your ethical convictions on the cause related to it? Are you stronger in your convictions now? Or less strong? Were there grey areas you discovered?
-Do you think service is an ethical *virtue*--but an optional one--or do you think service is ethically obligatory? Why or why not?
-If you think service is virtuous or even obligatory, is simply doing service a virtue irrespective of what cause is being served? Or, does it matter--is it only virtuous if we’re serving a good cause? Would it be better to not serve other people at all, or to serve other people in an ethically reprehensible way? (For example, if we suppose that abortion is always morally wrong, would it be worse to not volunteer at all, or to volunteer at a free clinic providing abortions?)
-Does the motive matter? If you’re doing service because it was court-ordered, or part of a college assignment :), or because you want to meet new people, or because that person who runs the volunteer site in question is pretty attractive and you want to get to know him/her better, or for motives other than the pure desire to make the world a better place, is the service worth less? What about pleasure? If I’m having fun and enjoying myself in the act of service, is the service worth less than if I’m indifferent or miserable and sacrificing my pleasure for a greater good? Or does my state of mind matter not at all, and is the morality of service simply dependent on the output--on the material good that is done, on the food that is served or money raised or clothing provided?
-How did the action undertaken by you and by your colleagues in service match up with the theoretical underpinnings of the issue? Can you excavate what sort of theories the organization you served with might hold "officially"? Look at the mission statement of the organization, if there is one--can you see an ethical theory at work there, either behind the scenes or on the surface? What is it? Do you agree with it?
-Ask your colleagues in service why they are passionate about the cause you are serving together, and why they think serving it--and doing service in general--is an ethical good. What reasons do they offer? How do their reasons differ from yours? Do you disagree at all, and if so, how?
Multimedia is required, and LOTS of multimedia is encouraged. Make sure your points are clear, whether you're expressing them in words, video, audio, photos, etc. A set of photos, without captions or narration or a clear order to the photos, is sometimes left without a clear message--try to make sure you are getting your message across!
At least one of these sections must be a traditional, written reflection (not unlike an essay). But please do get creative with multiple ways to tell your story of service. A poem, a photo portfolio with some written commentary, a Wordle, a video blog, a video interview with your colleagues, an audio podcast, a song--whatever works for you! (Do you not know what these are? That’s OK! Google it!) Even if you choose to mainly express yourself through written prose reflections, please integrate SOME multimedia (such as photos that you take at your service site). Remember, this is the 21st century: readers get BORED if they just have black and white words on a page!
5) In Weeks 10 and 11, you will sign up for a day to deliver an in-class oral presentation about your project. Please be prepared to deliver an engaging 5 minute oral presentation in class this week where you explain what you did to make the world a morally better place and reflect on the moral issues raised by your act of service. Your presentation should involve multimedia, such as photos. You will sign up using a Google spreadsheet THAT WILL BE LINKED ON THE COURSE WEBSITE.
6) ABSOLUTELY NO LATER THAN Week 12, once you have posted the above pages, add a final page, in which you write a 1-2 paragraph reflection on the project as a whole--briefly describe what you did and where you served, and tell me what did you learn, how did you like it, what did you get out of it. At this point, after your presentations, work on REVISING your whole service project display to make it more awesome.
7) ABSOLUTELY NO LATER THAN 11:59 PM on November 23, submit the link to your e-portfolio BY EMAIL TO PROF. POOLE, so that your good work on this project may be evaluated and your grade assessed! Make sure you have clicked “PUBLISH ALL” on EVERY PAGE OF YOUR PORTFOLIO, else it will not be visible to readers. EVERY SINGLE PAGE. THIS IS IMPORTANT.
Student work examples
APPENDIX
RUBRIC: CIVIC KNOWLEDGE, SKILLS & VALUES
Purposeful Civic Learning: Learning that directly and intentionally prepares students for active civic participation in a diverse democratic society.
|Civic Knowledge |Civic Skills |Civic Values |
|Sample Objective: Understanding root causes of |Sample Objective: Developing active learning |Sample Objective: There is important |
|social problems |skills |knowledge only found in the community |
|Sample Objective: Becoming familiar with different|Sample Objective: Developing competency in |Sample Objective: Communities depend on an |
|conceptualizations of citizenship |identifying community assets |active citizenry |
|Sample Objective: Understanding individual vs. |Sample Objective: Developing cross-cultural |Sample Objective: Voices of minorities are |
|institutional “isms” |communication skills |needed to make sound community decisions |
|Sample Objective: Learning about how citizen |Sample Objective: Developing advocacy skills |Sample Objective: Citizenship is about more |
|groups have effected change in their communities | |than voting and paying taxes |
|Sample Objective: Understanding the social change |Sample Objective: Developing skills that |Sample Objective: Understanding that |
|model of leadership |facilitate the sharing of leadership roles |leadership is a process, and not a |
| | |characteristic associated with an individual |
| | |or a role |
|Sample Objective: Understanding one’s multiple |Sample Objective: Developing problem-solving |Sample Objective: Learning an ethic of care |
|social identities |skills | |
|Sample Objective: How individuals in a particular |Sample Objective: Determining how to apply |Sample Objective: Responsibility to others |
|profession act in socially responsible way |one’s professional skills to the betterment of |applies to those pursuing all kinds of careers|
| |society | |
Adapted from the Michigan Journal of Community Service Learning “Service-Learning Course Design Workbook”. OCSL Press, Summer 2001, The University of Michigan.
LEARNING STRATEGIES & ASSESSMENT METHODS WORKSHEET
The worksheet that follows is adapted from the Service-Learning Course Design Workbook created by the Michigan Journal of Community Service (Summer 2001). The various objectives listed under civic knowledge, skills and values may help faculty in rethinking options that might fit with the content of specific courses.
|OBJECTIVES |STRATEGIES |ASSESSMENT |
|Specific Objectives |Classroom Strategies |Student Assignments |Assessing Learning |
| | | | |
|E.g. “Understanding root causes | | | |
|of social problems” | | | |
| | | | |
| | | | |
| | | | |
| | | | |
| | | | |
|E.g. “Responsibility to others | | | |
|applies to those pursing all | | | |
|kinds of careers” | | | |
| | | | |
| | | | |
| | | | |
REFLECTION ACTIVITIES & MULTIPLE INTELLIGENCES
Applying Gardner’s Work on Multiple Intelligences
Gardner (1983) suggests that we often honor only limited types of intelligence (linguistic and logical mathematical) in academic settings and in doing so may limit success --especially for less traditional learners. The authentic settings of community experiences may permit a wider variety of responses. Consider adapting some of the less common multiple intelligences in reflecting on students’ experiences.
• Spatial
Drawing of expectation of site before first visit, mid-point and at the end of the course: Changes in key ideas?
Create a concept map of participant at site and show how he/she links to specific setting, local community, state and national settings
Reflect on the visual art of the people being served
Create a community mural, poster, bulletin board or collage of images
Design a slide show, videotape or photo album
• Bodily Kinesthetic
Role play a typical dilemma from the site and enlist solutions from group
Describe the body language of the people at the service site
Design a product that may be helpful for individuals at the site
• Intrapersonal
List the best approaches and the mistakes to avoid at service site next time
Write a biography of someone at the site
Create a journal entry from your own perspective and then the perspective of a participant at the setting: What are important differences?
• Interpersonal
Present a critical incident from the site that involves many different viewpoints. Lead a class discussion about possible solutions.
Interview a staff member from the site and explore what motivates him or her to do the work.
• Musical
Analyze types of music enjoyed by clients at various sites and create a product that would be helpful such as large print song sheets for a senior center or an outline of favorite music for different ages at an after school program.
Students record and interpret sounds at the service site: Are some of these helpful or distracting? What are ways to improve problematic noise levels?
Create songs that provide a reflection of student experiences at a site
SERVICE-LEARNING CONCEPT MAPS
The Spinning Interdisciplinary Service Webs Guidebook provides examples of social issues and then creates a concept map to show how different disciplines might create assignments around the issues. Examples from the Guidebook for aging and hunger, homelessness and poverty in math and writing courses are summarized below. The concept maps use abbreviations to designate different components of each service-learning project:
P = Preparation
, IA = Indirect Action, DA = Direct Action, AA = Advocacy Action, R = Reflection,
C = Celebration
|Topic of Aging |
|ENGLISH/LANGUAGE ARTS
|
|P- Read short stories about senior citizens. Discuss how seniors are depicted, and research whether these depictions are accurate.
|
|IA- Carry out a student-senior pen pals project throughout the school year.
|
|DA- Have students interview seniors and write biographies of the older persons’ lives.
|
|AA- Write advocacy letters to legislators to take a position on a current issue impacting senior citizens.
|
|R- Have students predict their own life at age 90 and write a story or poem to illustrate their predictions. |
|MATH
|
|P- List categories of expenses individuals would need as they retire (such as food, housing, medical, etc.) and a possible budget. |
|
IA- Set up a seminar for seniors to learn ways to save money in housing, utilities, transportation, and/or medicine. |
|DA- Help seniors do taxes/balance checkbooks.
|
|AA- Lobby legislators on policies concerning SocialSecurity/Medicare.
|
|R- Project living costs for when students turn 80, and discuss retirement money needs |
|Topic of Hunger, Homelessness, and Poverty |
|ENGLISH/LANGUAGE ARTS |
|P- Read classics that deal with poverty issues and discuss. |
|IA- Collect and distribute used books for children and other residents at homeless shelters.
|
|DA- Go to shelter and read/help children with homework. |
|AA- Write press releases for Hunger Banquet. Post in community and on media.
|
|R- Write a story taking the perspective of being a homeless person. |
|MATH |
|P- Identify the poverty level for a family of four according to Federal guidelines. Determine how the family would need to spend |
|their money to survive.
|
|IA- Collect, count, and distribute food for a shelter.
|
|DA- Tutor children in math at a shelter. Set up Math Stars as rewards for children.
|
|AA- Advocate for lowering income level designated as “poverty.” |
|
R- Using food flyers, plan menus based on the amount of food stamp benefits a family of four living in poverty would receive each |
|month. |
AUTHOR BIOGRAPHIES
Donna Killian Duffy is a retired professor of psychology and former coordinator of the Carnegie Academy for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning at Middlesex Community College, Bedford and Lowell, Massachusetts. She is the coauthor, with Janet Wright Jones, of Teaching Within the Rhythms of the Semester, and the coeditor, with Robert Bringle, of With Service in Mind, a monograph on service-learning and psychology. Donna received the Thomas Ehrlich Faculty Award for Service-Learning in 1999 for her work connecting service in the community to student learning in classrooms. She has worked as an Engaged Scholar with Campus Compact and is one of the authors of The Community’s College: Indicators of Engagement at Two-Year Institutions published in 2004 and Service-Learning Course Design for Community Colleges published in 2007.
Shana Berger has over ten years of teaching and managerial experience working with low-income adults and young people from diverse ethnic and linguistic backgrounds. Before joining Campus Compact, Shana was an adjunct professor at Bunker Hill and Roxbury Community Colleges teaching college level composition, developmental English and ESL courses. In her teaching, she focused on creating dynamic, learner-centered curricula that allow students to draw upon their life experiences. She was director of the Open School for the United Teen Equality Center in Lowell, MA and has been an instructor at several community-based organizations including the Worker Education Program of the Service Employees International Union in Dorchester, MA and the Community Learning Center in Cambridge, MA. She earned her bachelor’s degree in anthropology and environmental studies from Colby College and her master’s degree in adult education from Cornell University.
NOTES
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