Fostering Lifelong Volunteering -- Start 'em

YoungKevin Days, Program Coordinator,

Learn & Serve AmericaCorporation for National and Community

Service

Debra Hart, M.S., Director, Education & Transition

Institute for Community InclusionUniversity of Massachusetts Boston

Debbie Gilmer, M.EdMaine Support Network,

Western Maine Partnership

Service Learning Options

Why Bother?

• Provides students with the opportunity to apply what they are learning in the classroom to the real world ensuring acquisition of the skill(s)

• Can align with curriculum frameworks & state standards

Why?

• More engaging helping to decrease drop-out

• Shows students relevance of curriculum to their life

Special Educators &IDEA 2004

• Need to conduct outreach to special educators

• Need to include Service Learning goals & objectives in a students IEP

• Need to work with special educators on how service learning can help enrich a students portfolio with evidence of skill acquisition to demonstrate competency /mastery of skill if in a ‘high stakes’ testing state

Community Service

• Sometimes considered a “punishment” & only for students who have misbehaved…

Universal Design: Strategies for Including

Students

What have you learned recently?

Name one thing that you learned Name one thing that you learned last month (a new recipe, a yoga last month (a new recipe, a yoga pose, how to change a flat tire, pose, how to change a flat tire, how to use PowerPoint, etc.)how to use PowerPoint, etc.)

What helped to learn it? What helped to learn it?

What made learning it more What made learning it more complicated? complicated?

Today’s Students

• Who are your students now?

• What are their goals?

• What are their primary learning styles?

• How is the diversity of students addressed?

What is Universal Design?

• Consider the needs of the broadest possible range of users from the beginning

• Proactive

Quick Inquiry Write, think of, or draw your responses quietly

Who is number one user of captioning?

Who uses curb cuts?

Who uses international symbols?

What is Universal Design?

Universal Design (UD) is the design of culturally responsive service learning opportunities including curriculum, instruction, assessment and the environment, to be usable by all students, to the greatest extent possible, without the need for accommodations.

Universal Design • Emphasizes meeting individual needs of a broad range of

students

• Provides alternative ways students can engage in the learning process

• Removes barriers to information access

• Provides flexibility without watering down the activity and curriculum

• Varied presentation of content to accommodate all learning styles

• Provide multiple means for students to engage with the content/activity

• Provides multiple options that allow student to demonstrate competency / knowledge of material

Overall….• Levels the playing field

• Benefits all students

Favorites (often low cost)

• natural supports (e.g., assistance from classmates)

• reduce distractions whenever possible (e.g., provide space enclosures or a private area, allow students to leave & return to activity)

• provide notes and/or video clips for each activity (e.g., post on class website)

More….

• provide clear map of the area

• institute use of unscented, non-toxic products & a no scent policy

• ensure that the environment is clutter free & that it is wheelchair accessible

Universally Designed Service Learning

ExampleBlackstone Valley Watershed

• Reviewed major elements of the project• Task analyzed key tasks & made available in

text, pictures, video / podcast• Braille, large print• Low tech solutions on-hand

What are your next steps?

Inclusive Practice: An opportunity to count

• All students learning, growing and playing together in their local neighborhood schools

• All students have access to (and support) to achieve in a rigorous curriculum (in Maine, the Maine Learning Results, our state standards)

• All students are prepared to succeed in college and the work place upon graduation

• Personal learning plans guide each student’s individual learning

• Student led conferences showcase their work and actively engage parents in school

Inclusive Practice and Service Learning: An Opportunity to Make a

Difference• Most of these examples come from a leadership

course at one of our GEAR UP districts (middle and high school) that has a strong service learning component (and a long history of exemplary inclusive practice)....

• A student with multiple disabilities uses a switch to read stories to children in a Montessori school

• A non verbal student uses her AAC device to socialize with elders in a nursing home

More examples

• The Leadership class has produced a “State Legislative Forum” for local candidates. The current class’ “CEO” is a student with physical and learning disabilities.

• Clean up and trash collection (and analysis is then shared with the DEP)

More examples

• Another student works in a soup kitchen rolling and passing silverware to guests

• A student began running a "gift cart" three afternoons a week at a nursing home---she and her support staff shops for items for the cart, visit residents, and makes sales. While this started as part of a school class, it became an ongoing volunteer opportunity after graduation and she is still the “cart lady.”

Baxter School for the Deaf

• http://www.maine.gov/education/lsa/stories.htm

For more information:

• Deb Hart: debra.hart@umb.edu

• Debbie Gilmer: gilmer@maine.edu

• www.gearupme.org

• http://www.maine.gov/education/lsa/stories.htm