Service Learning
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Service learning has become an increasingly popular educational tool for middle schools in recent years (Musucci & Renner, 2000). More than just an opportunity for students to perform community service such as volunteering at a local soup kitchen, service learning is designed to integrate "service to the community" with classroom learning (qtd. in Griffin-Bonnaire, 2003). In service learning, students are challenged to apply their classroom knowledge and skills in a wide variety of disciplines to their provision of community service. Apart from their value to the community, service learning activities also personalize education for the students, thus increasing its meaningfulness due to its relevance to the real world (Marshall, 2004). In the process, students undergo a cycle of action and reflection as they apply their knowledge and skills and critically examine their experiences, thus enabling them to recognize the importance of education (Points of Light Foundation, n. d.). In view of this description of service learning, what role should be played by the middle school library, which will support, motivate and initiate serve learning opportunities with the students and the staff? For the remainder of this paper, the contribution of the middle school library to service learning opportunities will be explored by addressing the following areas: Role of middle school library and its media specialist (formerly known as librarian) in enhancing the quality of the lear
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ces and guiding them in the researching process, as described above. According to Loney (2000) who described a service learning program that is responsive to content standards requirements - Active Citizen Today (ACT), a service learning program should comprise five units. They are: a) "defining and assessing your community"; b) "choosing and researching a problem"; c) "examining policy"; d) "exploring options" and e) "taking action." Within this framework of a service learning program, the school library media specialist can certainly play key roles in the second and fourth units.
In Unit II, students are expected to conduct research on the problem in the community. Working within the parameters of the problem, the students and the library media specialist can utilize the Internet and the print media to identify alternative sources of information or obtain information directly. For example, through their library research, students can find potential experts or individuals whom they can interview with regard to the problem. In order to ensure that the students are complying with the language arts standards, the library media specialist can provide the teachers with the information of whether the students are able to "loca
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Some common words found in the essay are:
Musucci Renner, Learning Bookshelf, According Marshall, Unit IV, Unit II, Internet Essentially, Light Foundation, Citizen ACT, service learning, Retrieved February, library media, media specialist, library media specialist, school library, Options Throughout, school library media, middle school, middle school library, students teachers, learning opportunities, february 25, retrieved february, retrieved february 25, 25 2005, february 25 2005,
Approximate Word count = 1620
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page)
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