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Article Excerpt
Abstract
Onekama Middle School teachers and students have embarked upon a three-part service learning project involving sixth, seventh, and eighth grade students in four classes: English, Computer Applications, Social Studies, and Michigan History. Students make connections with senior citizens in our community as they teach them about computer skills (Project NetGap), learn more about their lives (Oral History Project), and create a publication based on the lives of the senior citizens that is distributed county-wide (The Wellspring).
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Background
Our quiet village of Onekama, Michigan leisurely rests between grand Lake Michigan and a small inland lake called Portage Lake in Northern Michigan. There are only 500 year-round residents in Onekama village, and many of these are senior citizens who have retired "Up North" because of our peaceful setting. Although the retired community thrives, living as a teenager in Onekama is sometimes challenging. There are no fast food restaurant chains, no teen centers, and no movie theaters; in fact, there is not even a stoplight.
Being myself a transplant from the city, I can recognize all that our town has to offer--clean air, little traffic, kind neighbors, little crime. However, convincing my eighth grade students to look beyond the lack of excitement to recognize the value of our town is not often an easy task. In response to this challenge, the middle school teachers at Onekama School embarked upon a three-part Service Learning activity to help our students see that one of the greatest gifts of our town is the wealth of history, experience, and knowledge within the people surrounding us.
Service Learning as a Curricular Approach
We chose Service Learning as our approach because of the proven positive outcomes this method has demonstrated. Service Learning benefits students and the community at large while meeting academic objectives. Maddy Wegner states: "Reformers agree that the challenges lie in helping students feel their education is not only relevant but also critical, and in changing the relationships among students, teachers, administrators, and the larger community" (1993, 6). Service Learning is an answer to this challenge. Beyond...
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