Middle School and Service-Learning: Selected Resources

Source: National Service-Learning Clearinghouse, January 2009.

Programs and Curricular Materials

Active Citizenship Today Field Guide [Middle School Edition]
Written for middle school youth, this citizenship manual guides students in learning about their community and exploring how they can help to change it.

Active Citizenship Today Handbook for Middle School Teachers
Active Citizenship Today (ACT) is a school based program infusing service learning into the curriculum and preparing students to be informed, responsible, and involved citizens. The handbook details the ACT framework, reviews practical considerations, outlines teaching strategies and provides fourteen sample lesson plans which include classroom handouts.

Adventure of Adolescence: Middle School Students and Community Service
This book presents seven case studies of middle school youth service programs that challenge their participants to change from takers to givers and from observers to active members of the community. A tutoring program is described in which Hispanic at-risk middle school students tutor Hispanic at-risk elementary school students.

Case Portraits of Exemplary Service-Learning Programs in Middle and High Schools in Florida
This publication presents five case portraits for exemplary Learn and Serve America grantee service-learning projects in Florida, and identifies and describes some common characteristics of these projects.

Case Study: The Integration of Community Service-Learning into the Curriculum by an Interdisciplinary Team of Teachers at an Urban Middle School
Documents the origins of community service-learning and describes literature relating how service-learning can be used in middle schools. Examines how an interdisciplinary team of teachers integrated service-learning into the curriculum.

Chiron Middle School: A Community-Based Approach to Learning
Chiron is a community-based middle school. Students spend a portion of their school day out among the businesses and agencies in the area. These organizations provide support to Chiron in a broad range of areas from curriculum development to public relations. These partnerships emphasize hands-on learning. This introduction outlines the demographics for the school, history, planning process, and goals.

Downtown Beaufort as a Classroom: Lady's Island Middle School
This publication is the culmination of a project at Lady's Island Middle School of Beaufort, South Carolina. Students discover history (via oral histories and written records), write, illustrate, and publish a top-quality children's account of folklore and fact based on Beaufort's architectural past.

From 19th Century Social Reform to 21st Century School Improvement: A Community Service-Learning Quilting Project for Middle School Students
In this unit, students explore the history of 19th century social reform movements using concepts and skills from the disciplines of social studies, English, and mathematics. Students not only examine the past but imagine the future by proposing ways to improve education for all students. It is the use of interdisciplinary teaching and the emphasis on social change that make this unit such a unique resource for teachers and students alike.

Middle/High School Hunger Service Learning Program
This program gives young people the opportunity to take responsibility through the concrete action of working to end hunger. The program has several goals: to let students play a role in feeding hungry children; to enable young people to discover the needs in their own communities; to help students learn about hunger and its impact; to give students the ability to help end hunger by promoting particular remedies.

We the People: Project Citizen: A Portfolio-based Civic Education Project for Middle School Classes
We the People: Project Citizen is a civic education program for middle school students that promotes competent and responsible participation in state and local government. This informational packet gives an overview of the program and some examples of its implementation.

We the People: The Citizen and the Constitution: Middle School Student Text

We the People: The Citizen and the Constitution: Middle School Teacher's Guide

Research and Resources

Afterschool Arrangements in Middle Childhood: A Review of the Literature
This paper reviews literature on the effects on children of various out-of-school time activities, and the impact of various care arrangements.

Building Character Through Service Learning
This book offers an in-depth look at the integral role service-learning plays in the development of character. It offers insight and practical information on how to connect service-learning with civic, family, or character education.

Building Life Options: School Community Collaborations for Pregnancy Prevention in the Middle Grades
This handbook was written to encourage and assist school districts, schools, and community based organizations to respond to the growing need for adolescent pregnancy prevention activities in the middle grades. It reflects the experiences of adolescent pregnancy prevention programs across the country, particularly those of the eight Urban Middle Schools Adolescent Pregnancy Prevention Program projects.

By Whom and How is Service-Learning Implemented in Middle-Level Schools Involved in Documenting School Improvement: A Quantitative Study of Opportunity-to-Learn Conditions and Practices
National educational standards call for an increased focus on meaningful teaching and learning that is developmentally appropriate and helps all student reach levels of proficiency not only in basic skills by in higher order thinking skills and real world application of skills. Among the recommendations for including real world experiences in the community into the studentAAEAa¢AAEAAc‚¬AAEAAc„¢s education is service-learning. This study examined the opportunity to learn conditions and practices in 271 middle-level schools in 16 states involved in documenting school improvement efforts in order to find out by whom and how service-learning was implemented.

Civic Problem-Solving: Results of a Mentoring Project with At-Risk Middle School Students
In this paper, the authors report the initial findings of a two-year study on the impacts of a civic problem solving approach involving preservice teachers with at-risk middle school youth. Preservice teacher/mentors worked both one-on-one and in small groups with middle school youth to develop and implement community action projects as part of an after school program.

Connecting Communities and Middle Schools: Strategies for Preparing Middle Level Teachers
A resource monograph designed as a resource on teacher preparation programs for middle school teachers. Included are examples of how training can be provided.

Draft Instructional Framework in Service-Learning for Middle School
This draft includes activities that help students prepare for service as well as reflect on their experiences. The activities are experiential; the community and its citizens become the students' classroom and resources. Includes template forms to be used by instructor and students.

Effectiveness of the Reach for Health Community Youth Service Learning Program in Reducing Early and Unprotected Sex Among Urban Middle School Students
This study evaluated the effectiveness of a community youth service (CYS) program in reducing sex risk behaviors among African American and Latino urban young adolescents.

Effects of Service-Learning on Middle and High School Students With Emotional Disturbance
A qualitative investigation into the efficacy of the integration of service-learning into the curriculum for emotionally disturbed students as a means of fostering social/emotional well-being was considered in this thesis.

Effects of Service-Learning on Middle School Students' Social Responsibility and Academic Success
This article studies the effects of service-learning on 1,153 racially and socioeconomically diverse middle school students from Kentucky, Massachusetts, and Missouri.

Enhancing Middle School Science through Community Service: Teacher Impact Evaluation Report
The Social Science Education Consortium (SSEC) recruited and trained teachers and administrators in two cycles of four-week institutes designed to train middle school educators to develop and implement integrated science, social studies, and service learning units in their classrooms. This report provides a summary of 55 in-person and telephone interviews conducted as part of the teacher impact evaluation designed to determine the effects of participation .

Enhancing the Middle School Curriculum Through Service Learning
This article discusses the connection between middle school instructional goals and service-learning as a new and exciting instructional methodology. Particular emphasis is placed on the relationships between middle school science, social studies, and service-learning.

Guide to Service Learning: River Bluff Middle School
This guide facilitates successful and meaningful service-learning activities for middle school students. It provides a philosophical and practical introduction to service-learning as well as descriptions of projects with instructions for replication.

Impact of Service-Learning on Civic Attitudes and Behaviors of Middle and High School Youth: Findings from Three National Evaluations
The purpose of this chapter is to summarize and discuss finding from three major evaluations of national service-learning initiatives and to ask what kinds of conclusions we can draw from them about the value of service-learning as a tool for civic development of young people.

Learning through Giving: Using Service Learning as the Foundation for a Middle School Advisory Program
Kurth teaches at Field Middle School, a school that has implemented service-learning into its curriculum. Kurth discusses the process from preparation to action to reflection to recognition.

Meta-Analysis of Service-Learning Research in Middle and High Schools
This study examined the relationship between service-learning innovations and improved academic progress, self-concept, and social or personal growth in middle and high school students. A historical overview of service-learning is presented and a detailed description of the study selection process is provided.

Middle School Youths as Problem-Solvers
City Year has embarked upon research to learn how to maximize its capacity to promote the development of real-world problem solving through its Young Heroes program. The qualitative study presented here includes a taxonomy of strategies suggested by 91 middle school young people for changing things they wish were different in their schools and communities.

Middle School: Intergenerational Experiences Support Teaching and Learning
Community service-learning closes the gap between youth and elderly, as students not only learn language, history, and science, but also gain perspectives about the lives of seniors. Examples are cited of students learning history by bonding with senior citizens or improving their writing skills, self image, and appreciation for an older generation by adopting seniors as pen pals.

Relationship of Service Learning Project Models to the Subject Matter Achievement of Middle School Students
This study proposed to investigate the model of instruction middle school students received through a service learning project and students' understanding of the studied social issue; determine whether certain variables related to students understanding; and learn which components of the project the students considered most meaningful.

Serve and Learn: Implementing and Evaluating Service-Learning in Middle and High Schools
This volume provides a framework grounded in theory and best professional practice that middle and high school teachers, their students, and community partners can use to design, implement, and evaluate service-learning projects that address authentic community needs.

Service Learning in Middle School: The Day from Hell?
This paper explores the implications of an effort to promote service learning in two middle schools in the Palo Alto (California) Unified School District. The study concludes with some reflections on why service learning is a difficult reform to implement, makes recommendations for practitioners, and suggests considerations for policy makers who are considering implementing service in their communities.

Service Learning in the Middle School Curriculum: A Resource Book
This book incorporates teaching strategies to enhance middle school science and social studies using service learning. The book was developed by teachers who participated in a series of institutes conducted by the Social Science Education Consortium and the Science Discovery Program at the University of Colorado during the summers of 1993 and 1994.

Service Learning in the Middle School Curriculum: Supplement
The supplement provides detailed information on five middle school social science teaching units intended to apply service learning.

Service Learning in the Middle Schools: A Perfect Fit [video]
Teachers and students discuss the benefits of service learning. Projects around Colorado illustrate how service learning supports the Carnegie Turning Points for transforming middle schools.

Service-Learning and Standards-Based Instruction in Middle Schools
National curriculum standards call for meaningful teaching and learning that are developmentally appropriate and that help all students reach proficiency not only in basic skills but also in higher order thinking skills and real-world application of skills. Service-learning (SL) is among recommendations from educators for including real-world experiences into students' education. The paucity of research and mixed findings on academic outcomes from K-12 SL led the author to examine opportunity-to-learn conditions and practices of 2,164 teachers in 271 middle schools involved in school improvement.

Service-Learning as an Integrated Experience in Middle School Education: An Introduction to Resources and Information
Provides an introductory overview of service-learning for middle school students. This guide uses examples to describe various service-learning approaches and benefits. Service-learning is described in terms of benefits to existing curriculum and curriculum integration. An example of program planning is included as well as tips for the field.

Using Service Learning to Achieve Middle School Comprehensive Guidance Program Goals
An example is provided of a service-learning class where middle school students received comprehensive guidance curriculum instruction and then taught a similar curriculum to elementary school students