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Middle School Students Serve Those in Need
Created by Lisa Catania, Frederick County Public Schools
Subject Area: Language Arts, Social Studies, Math, Science
Grade Level: 6
Middle school students address poverty in their community. The plans
assume service-learning is new to the students. So, the lessons are
designed to guide the students through their first service-learning
experience. Students will gain the skills, awareness and confidence to
initiate future projects both in and out of school. Students read "A
Christmas Carol" as part of their semester-long integrated Language Arts,
Social Studies, Math and Science course, and design a project to help
single mothers and their children. However, the project could easily be
implemented entirely in Language Arts or divided among the four major
disciplines.
Preparation: While reading "A Christmas Carol" the students
will focus on the theme of poverty. Preparation activities will include
defining community, defining service-learning, and identifying needs in
the community. They will complete a vocabulary contract based on the
words in their service-learning unit, and will also complete a packet of
activities of higher level thinking skills to tie into curriculum of the
four major disciplines.
Action: In this project students provide short
term assistance to needy single mothers of infants. The students form a
partnership with a local agency to determine what the mothers and babies
need. As students collect items they hang a "Helping Hand" with their
name on it onto the "Giving Tree" to promote a sense of community spirit.
The baby items are distributed to the mothers either directly or
indirectly. This project can be adapted to help any poor family with
young children.
Reflection: Students will keep a portfolio of all the
activities to be done during the unit. They will analyze the service they
have done and what they have learned about themselves and others. The
reflection will also include a celebration of the students' hard work!
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