Students in Mrs. Davis's high school media class are designing instructional videos. Their target audience is students in grades 1-3 . Their goal is to help these students use technology safely, wisely, and abide by rules of netiquette. As they finish developing a video lesson, they arrange to go into the classrooms in grades 1-3 and present the lesson to the children. After each lesson, the high

Question

school students discuss their reflections about the session. They look for ways to improve the lesson and transfer those types of changes to the next lesson. The attentiveness of the young children helps Mrs. Davis's high school students feel that they are making a difference.

Is this an example of service learning? Explain why or why not on the basis of established characteristics of service learning.

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

Suggested Response:
Yes, this is an example of service learning.
Students are engaged in organized activities that meet a community need. The young students in the school community benefit from the instruction they receive from the older students.
The service involves students' use of knowledge and skills they are learning in their high school media class. The service project is tied to the learning objectives for the curriculum of the course.
Students apply knowledge and skills they learn in media class to develop the instructional videos and to share their knowledge with the younger students.
They reflect on their service when they return to their high school classroom and discuss the effectiveness of their sessions with young students. Their reflections lead to improvements on following sessions.
The service learning experience enhances academic learning with direct application to a real-world setting. It seems to enhance these high school students' sense of caring for others as they notice the attentiveness of the young children and feel they are making a difference.
Text Reference: Service Learning