K-12 Service Learning Program

Changing the way communities think about education

Each course is interactive with readings, discussion, experiential projects, assignments, live chats, and reflection. It's up to you to set your study routine and decide when it works best for you to log in within the weekly commitment required to participate in discussion threads and to meet assignment deadlines.

Pick and choose which courses you want, or take all five to become an expert with a certificate of completion. Courses may be taken in any order. Generally, we offer one course per quarter (10 weeks) at both undergraduate and graduate levels.

ELP 410/510 Service-Learning Design and Practice: Instructional Strategies for Community Engagement (3 credits)
Service-learning is an instructional strategy that makes classroom learning authentic and engaging, connects students to their communities, embodies the elements of community-based learning, fosters civic responsibility, and enhances academic achievement. Focus on a hands-on approach to Service-Learning design and practice. Course is recommended for practitioners interested in working in schools or youth-serving organizations. Others interested in the technique also find the course relevant. You understand the theory and practice of Service-Learning, develop service activities that teach or demonstrate academic learning, build learning partnerships with community organizations, and develop a specific Service-Leaning plan for your classroom, school, or community organization.

ELP 410/510 Planning for Service-Learning: Creating Lessons, Implementing Projects, Achieving Impact (3 credits)
Service-learning is shown to improve academic achievement and student attitude, and is a strategy for meeting district standards from career-related standards to extended application. One might think, “Combining service and learning… but my lesson plans and activities are already set. I don’t want to start over.” Service-learning is an add-in not an add-on! This course will instruct you on how to incorporate service into your learning seamlessly. Whether it is a new lesson you would like to develop or enhancing an existing lesson; at the end of the course you will have a tool box of lessons, project management skills, and deeply integrated service that will show results in the classroom and the community.

ELP 410/510 Sustaining Service-Learning through Effective Resource Development and Marketing (3 credits)
You create a stellar service-learning curriculum. It is connected to your content standards and it is changing student’s lives and the life of the community. But how do you keep up the momentum? This course discusses how to raise resources in the community to provide sustainability. Whether it is grant funding, in-kind donations, or expertise, resources are needed to sustain and expand. Another key component to sustainability is telling the story of your service-learning successes. Writing press releases, documenting stories, and visually capturing projects are all strategies to telling your success story to the community, your legislators, and funders.

ELP 410/510 Service-Learning Best Practice: Collaboration (3 credits)
We can’t do it alone. Service-learning creates opportunities for collaboration between schools, students, and community. Students see themselves as an integral part of an effective community, enhancing their learning as they meet community goals. This course explores how to bring together K-12 teachers with community organizations and agencies in the process of building a partnership. Teachers learn how organizations work, their goals, and measures of success. Community organizations learn about the culture of K-12 schools and the specific needs of teachers and students. All learn how to work together to create high-quality, high-impact service-learning opportunities. The result: integrated learning meeting real community priorities.

Objectives:

Teachers learn about the "culture" of community-based organizations and agencies and how that differs from a school culture.
Teachers and administrators learn how to identify, recruit, and sustain effective school-community partnerships.
School personnel learn how community partnerships can help students meet extended application and career-related learning requirements.

ELP 410/510 Service-Learning Best Practices: Youth Voice (3 credits)
Youth are not leaders of tomorrow… they are the leaders of today! Facilitating youth leadership results in powerful learning outcomes for the students. From elementary grades through college, studies show when young people are involved and engaged academic learning increases, and leadership skills and civic leadership emerge. This course outlines the theory and practice of engaging youth as leaders. From successful youth movements to current youth leadership models, this course provides you with the skills to make sure youth are the leaders of today.

For more information, please contact Cailín O’Connor at 503-725-8234 or caoconno@pdx.edu.

K-12 Service Learning Program

Program Courses