Service Learning

Service Learning is the heart of our school. It allows our entire school community to service the area we live in and beyond. The program is a catalyst for change concerning issues that affect our lives and the lives of those around us. As members of the community, our students have the responsibility to live the core values of wisdom, justice, integrity, love, compassion, respect and courage. Service Learning is a teaching and learning strategy that integrates meaningful community service with instruction and reflection to enrich the learning experience, teach civic responsibility, and strengthen communities.

DSLA partners with numerous companies and organizations such as Meijer, Greater Grace Church, COTS, WJLB, Barns and Nobles, Ronald McDonald House, DMC, and others. These partnerships help ensure that our service learning program is meaningful and engaging. We have worked diligently to ensure curriculum alignment and embedding techniques that allow our teachers to focus on the academic standards while including the service learning strand. The academic, service learning component allows the classroom teacher to teach the state standards and benchmarks of the Michigan curriculum, while also giving the students real life, real world experiences. It is through this process, our students learn the value of their voice and the power of service.

2010 SERVICE LEARNING PROJECTS

Kindergarten "Animal Activists"

The Kindergarten service learning project will be about caring for animals again this year, with some technology additions as well as how animals help us in return portion. We will again begin our project by talking to the students about wants and needs of humans and then compare our wants and needs to those of animals. We will re-connect with the Humane Society and strike up another relationship with them. We are looking to see how possible it would be to go and visit a shelter with the students. We will create our tips of the month to display on the PID as well as our school websites. We will also use the clickers to administer some online surveys, hear our students' voice when it comes to picking our tips of the month, and picking how we will do fundraising. I also want to SKYPE with a farmer so they can explain to the students how animals help us. We will also be taking several virtual tours of farms and other establishments. Our newest addition to the project is leader dogs. We want to highlight leader dogs as an example of how when we care for animals they have the capacity to care for us right back.

1st and 3rd Grade "Literacy - The Link to Life"

This year, our service learning project for first grade will be focusing on literacy and its importance in the community and in everyday life. The project will be entitled, "Literacy - The Link to Life". We will be helping students to realize that reading leads the way to all other subject areas and is very important in everyday life. Also, our goal is help students become more aware of the problem with illiteracy in our surrounding area, as well as other parts of the country. By gaining this knowledge, we are hoping students will be motivated to read because they will know why it is important not only in first grade and in school, but even after graduation when attending college or seeking employment.

Third Grade (Partnering with First Grade)

The third grade is going to partner with first grade and work on literacy. Students will read books to other students, children in hospitals, and senior citizens. We hope to bring in an author or write letters to our favorite authors. We are also going to have a library card drive.

2nd Grade "Living in a Silent World"

The theme of the second grade team is "Living in a Silent World". We will tie this into our Social Studies theme "Our Community." We want to create an awareness of the similarities and differences between our community and the community for the deaf. We are looking to partner with one of the local deaf schools as well as possibly a deaf church around the corner from our school.

4th Grade: Be A Bucket Filler!

Project Members: Fourth Grade Students and Staff, Mrs. Mendell, and Ms. Hicks

Our Service Learning Project aims to integrate Social Studies and Language Arts academic content to promote and enhance positive student culture and interactions. The foundation of our project rests on the idea that students thrive in an environment that is positive, secure, and respectful. The focus of our project is for our fourth grade students to educate their peers about the power of positivity as it relates to school culture and peer interactions. Additionally, the students will arm and empower themselves and other students with positive strategies to combat negative and bullying behaviors. Ideally, armed with positivity students can reduce both the incidence and impact of negative and bullying behaviors in schools. Proposed "actionables" for our project include public service announcements, surveying student current knowledge and beliefs about the school culture, promoting a model for increasing the intrinsic value of positive behavior in students. We will seek to engage a wide range of community partners to support our student-project goals.

5th Grade Project "College Bound Initiative"

Project Members: 5th Grade Students and Hombase Teachers, Ms. Healey and Ms. Danley

In today's economy it is hard for parents to send even their high achieving students to college, with all the tools and supplies needed to have a successful college experience. Our goal is to partner with Henry Ford High School and sponsor 20-30 seniors with a College Bound Kits. These kits will include all supplies needed for a dorm room (bedding, toiletries, towels, face towels, microwaves, irons, etc. Our students will also host a College Bound Walk at Belle Isle where they will raise money for 2-3 scholarships for first semester books.

"Campaign Against Bullying."

The seventh grade service learning project for the 2010-2011 school year is a student "Campaign Against Bullying." Our vision is for our students to "Identify injustice and work to enact social change." Through our project, students will learn about the serious consequences of bullying and will educate other students in our school community about how to stop it, as well as alternative ways to handle conflicts. Groups of students will research various topics related to bullying including the dangers of cyber-bullying, how to use peer mediation with younger students, and the legal ramifications of bullying. The students will reflect on their research and create informational presentations, as well as partake in fundraising for peace organizations. Our final projects will include a Web Site, Powerpoint presentations, and video podcasts that feature students against bullying.
See the website

8th Grade "Turn the Lights On"

Project Members: 8th Grade Students and Staff

Our program will assist people 65 and older in our communities, who have faced issues of safety and necessity during a power outage. It will specifically find those who live alone and those who use medical devices at home that need electricity in order to run. Our project will help these individuals feel safe in their homes when outages strike and assist with helping them find a safe place to be until the outage has ended.

Spanish: "Steps to Become a Bilingual Community"

Parents of children from different grade levels will be mentored and tutored by their own child to learn Spanish. Instruction will be provided by our Spanish department teachers, text books and workbooks for the twenty participating parents will be funded by Service Learning administration. The objective is to serve the community teaching a great skill that will benefit them in so many levels such as: job opportunities, social interactions with Spanish speakers, academic achievements for student parents, etc. Parent recruitment will be done in cooperation with the parent's activities coordinator Mr. Aaron.