Informed Action

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Informed Action/Service Learning

Teachers provide opportunities for all students, regardless of academic skill or ability, to engage in civic action by using knowledge and skills to address genuine community needs on a school, local, regional, state or broader level through preparation, action and reflection by:

Helping students differentiate between different forms of civic participation — including face-to-face and online tactics — and identify when to use various strategies depending on the goal, audience, and context
Developing central leadership roles where students lead the preparation, action and reflection
Develop a plan to address identified needs in the community by building upon previous civic learning experiences, student knowledge of the community, investigation and research, and discussion
Engaging participants in informed, meaningful and personally-relevant action that may include direct action, indirect action, research, advocacy, or a combination of the approaches that are available
Facilitating opportunities for participants to engage in an ongoing reflection process that includes deep thinking and analysis about oneself and one’s relationship to society, showcasing what and how they have learned, and connecting learning to essential question(s) of the unit/course
Assessing the impact of the project, the ability to meet specified goals, and feedback from community partners (if possible)

Concept Map

Definition

Opportunities for all students, regardless of academic skill or ability, to engage in civic action by using knowledge and skills to address genuine community needs on a school, local, regional, state or broader level through preparation, action and reflection

Evidence

Examples

Identify community need and use skills from Math course to build a solution to meet that need
Research and understand candidate perspectives on issues for an election in Social Studies class and then volunteer for your preferred candidate
Analyze issues related to immigration in World Language class and create a project to address an identified need
Identify themes from texts in English class and create projects that address community needs related to that theme
In science class, analyze effects of lead in homes and provide opportunities to conduct lead testing and create brochures to educate community members on the issue

Connections to Principles of “Lived Civics”

Projects stem from student interest and build upon their lived experiences and identities
Projects include analysis of power as it relates to topics discussed
Awareness and reflection on how identity affects engagement with service learning
Understanding the unique needs of different groups in the community that students are working with

Case Study

The Monarch Butterfly project at J. Sterling Morton West High School is a student citizen science human impact project aligned to the performance expectations of the Next Generation Science Standards and Common Core, and is about much more than saving monarchs. The primary goal is for students to learn how to solve real world problems, save one of the most endangered species in the world, and help build a better community around a common cause. It has connected Morton West students to students, citizens, and scientists all across America, Mexico, and Canada who are also urgently working on this endeavor. Students began by using scientific inquiry to study existing pollinator habitats to gather knowledge about biodiversity and the ecological needs of monarch butterflies. Building on this, they worked to determine a solution: to plan, design, and create a monarch butterfly habitat to be constructed on school property. Each student has a unique leadership role to play in their group: the team scientist, technologist, engineer, or mathematician, thus ensuring that each student is invested in the project regardless of skill and ability.

In addition to designing the habitat, each student devises a solution to a separate problem (their passion project), where they write a song, create an educational sign, make a film, create artwork or come up with anything they can that invokes the everyday person to stop and think about their impacts on their environment, and ideally, makes them change their behavior to reduce those impacts on the environment. Parents, teachers, administrators and all students are invited to view this work at an end of the year exhibition to better connect the local community to this project.