As of September 2009, Service Learning at Lincoln Park High School has undergone some changes.
We hope that these changes improve the service experience of students at Lincoln Park. These changes were announced in letters to the students and parents during orientation, but I also wanted to outline them here.
In-Class Service
In the past, students completed their own service learning projects by seeking out a community organization, and working with them. This has not changed. Students are still encouraged to find and work for community organizations if they would like long-term service opportunities. However, as another opportunity, in-class service projects are now offered in certain classes. In-class projects have three components to them:
-
4 hours Learning (in Class)
-
minimum 4 hours Teacher-directed service
-
minimum 6 hours Student-directed service
One of the requirements of the in-class project is student-directed service, where the student seeks out and completes his or her own service opportunity as it relates to the class. The student will be required to find their own community organization and complete their own service. This aspect of the in-class project allows students to pursue service opportunities that they are personally interested in.
Why include in-class projects? Service learning works best when it is tied into the curriculum. Student performance has also been shown to increase when service projects are used to enhance curriculum. In the end, students learn more, grow from their service, and the community benefits as well.
Service Learning Credits and Service Learning Hours
With the introduction of distinct in-class projects, service learning credits have been introduced as a way to keep track of student progress and completion of projects. Every 14 hours of service that a student completes will earn 1 Service Learning Credit. Therefore, completing one In-Class Project will earn 1 Service Learning Credit. Students will be expected to earn 3 Service Learning Credits for graduation. This works out to be 42 hours of service, which is only two more than the CPS graduation requirement of 40 hours.
To be clear, the service learning credits are non-academic credits. They are not the same as the academic credits which students earn for passing classes. Also, the hours that students earn are still counted and maintained for transcripts and scholarship purposes. If a student earns 100 hours of service, then that’s the number their transcript will reflect.
As with any new system, it will take time for everyone to be on the same page, and we completely understand if you have any questions or concerns about the changes that are being made. If you do have questions about Service Learning, I can be contacted via email at
shhewlett@cps.edu.
Thank you for your patience and feedback as we undergo this transition.
Mr. Hewlett
Service Learning Coordinator