2019 Spring Work Shop

Winter Workshop Resources
Continue your preparation and planning for student-led service by linking to the books and media resources that were available at the Winter Workshop. Categories include: Immigration, Environment, Literacy and Early Childhood Ed, and Poverty. You’ll also find a list of the organizations who attended the meeting along with suggested links between their work and the UN Sustainable Development Goals. Coming soon … video footage of the meeting!
A Powerful Event to Investigate Poverty
This speaker series, held this month in Venice on June 20th from 7-9pm, directly correlates to our spring panel on poverty. Coordinated by a few of our panelists, we highly recommend attending this special event to witness the power of story and first-hand experiences as a form of service learning investigation!
No Poverty: Exploring the UN Sustainable Goal at our Winter Meeting
Cathy Berger Kaye led the ECSL Winter 2018 meeting, where she unpacked the issue of poverty and how teachers can use the related UN Sustainable Goal to help address the issue locally with students. Take a look inside the meeting to learn how!
Linking Frameworks of Student Inquiry (Fall Meeting Resources)
ECSL’s 2017-2018 professional development content was introduced at our fall workshop and focused on how the principles of service learning intersect with other student-led inquiry approaches (such as Challenge-Based Learning, Design Thinking, Project-Based Learning, etc). These frameworks are not mutually exclusive- they all support student-driven initiatives with outcomes that serve a purpose!
Participants were given the opportunity to hear two service learning stories with teacher and student presenters from Turning Point and Oakwood School. These stories helped attendees see the process of service learning in action and helped them glimpse ways they can expand and enrich their own plans for social action this year. Following the presentations, students and the supporting teachers engaged in discussion with participants. It was an opportunity for attendees to reflect upon their own programs and establish takeaways applicable to their plans for the school year ahead.
Participants were also encouraged to compare and contrast their existing curriculum frameworks (adopted in their classrooms or schools) with the Five Stages of Service Learning. Seeing the similarities in these philosophies offers teachers new ways of approaching student-led inquiry. ECSL welcomes you to use the framework comparison document shared at the meeting in order to explore ways popular curriculum frameworks intersect with service learning!
In this exercise, teachers examine other frameworks of student inquiry alongside the service learning process. The five stages of service learning are represented in the outer circle of the diagram. The inner circle is used to align elements of another inquiry processes with these stages to draw connections between the practices. With this exercise, teachers see how service learning themes tie into their existing curriculum and how they can use this five-stage method to add rigor to their student inquiry curriculum.