This document discusses the benefits of community service learning projects for students and communities. It outlines why such projects are important to foster relationships between schools and towns, engage students in hands-on activities outside the classroom, and help students see writing as a useful skill. It provides examples of components for effective community-based programs, such as shared decision-making, student choice, and reflection. The document also lists some effects of these projects, such as increased civic participation, stronger town-school partnerships, and improved writing and self-awareness in students. It provides examples of organizations that support place-based education projects.

1. Community Service Learning What is Community Service Learning? Why Community Service Learning?

2. Brief Outline of Presentation Why Community-Based Learning is Essential for Students and Towns/Cities Components of Good Community-based Education Projects and Lesson Plans Effects of Good Community Based Projects Bibliography Good Projects that are out there Names of Books on the Subject

3. Some history...Foxfire What is Foxfire? non-profit educational and literary group dedicated to developing lessons and units that blur the lines between classroom and community.

4. WHY Teach Community-based Projects? Foster good relations between schools and towns. Students are excited about activities that take place outside the classroom Writing comes to be seen as a useful, practical skill rather than something produced in a vacuum

5. Components of Good Community-Based Programs

6. Components: Sharing of student/teacher decisions and role within the project Encouraging some student choice Creating a sense of community amongst the students as they work Giving students time to reflect on the process: what is working and what has been difficulty Publishing of final product for a community-wide audience

7. Effects of Community Based Projects Students’ increased awareness of ways to participate in the community Partnerships between towns and schools Better writing!! Improved sense of self for students

8. The Orion Society Stories in the Land Teaching Fellowships Stories in the Land: A Place-Based Environmental Education Anthology Awards $1000 Defines stories in the broadest terms (examples) Contains reports from teachers who have implemented the place-based environmental education practices

9. Voices, Inc., Tucson, AZ www.voicesinc.org Don’t Look at me Different A bi-lingual oral history of Tucson’s first housing projects 110* youth staffed magazine Snapped on the Street: A Community Archive of Photos and Memories from Downtown Tucson 1937-1963 World War II Book Project with Sierra Middle School

10. Final Words... If our schools are not of the community, then they will produce students who too are not of the community. This creates generations of people unaware of their history and their roles in civic life. Further, students fail to see the way that skills such as writing have any relevance in their lives. By creating a voice for their community and within their community, students also create an authentic voice for themselves