Our Mission

We will explore the ways in which service learning can be incorporated into a freshman writing classroom, as well as how a service learning philosophy can fit into the overall objectives of writing curriculum and the ideology of the university.  Specifically,  presenters will share the results of three pilot freshmen composition courses, each based around one of Thomas Deans' paradigms for community writing, that is, writing about, for, or with the community.  Our medium-sized research university, recently formed a service-based learning council to coordinate efforts to diversify the undergraduate curriculum.  These pilot courses are the first organized attempt to incorporate service learning into the freshmen composition course.
 
 

---

   

• WRITING ABOUT THE COMMUNITY

The first course will allow students to write about the community through activist research and writing.  Students will identify current problems or social issues in their community and use their writing to affect change.  This course does not require the students to physically
leave the classroom and fosters a close relationship between the students and instructor.
 
 
 

• WRITING FOR THE COMMUNITY

The second course will explore how writing for the community can be facilitated in a classroom that is highly structured by the instructor and a nonprofit agency.  Prior to the course, the instructor identifies a need at a specific community organization that can be fulfilled through students' writing.  Throughout the semester, the students work for the nonprofit agency and meet their needs through writing, such as newsletters, web design, or other volunteer services. This course relies on a close relationship between a specific agency contact person, the instructor, and the students.
 
 
 

• WRITING WITH THE COMMUNITY

The third course involves students writing with the community.  This course will allow the students to identify the needs of the community, instead of having a project constructed by the instructor. The students will work directly with community members in individualized
projects.  Because students will have free reign to design their project, the instructor will observe the difference between projects that utilize public and private forms of service learning, as defined by Bruce Herzberg and Aaron Schutz and Anne Ruggles Gere.  

• RESULTS AND IMPLICATIONS OF OUR STUDY

Because reflection is an essential component of any service learning course, these three courses will radically reverse the typical structure of a freshmen composition syllabus
by starting the semester with the research paper.  This research will inform and prepare the students to engage with the community outside of the academy.  The semester will conclude with writing that reflects on their service learning and growth as a writer.  Steve Parks and Eli
Goldblatt have called for continual reflection and interrogation of how service learning meets the needs of the students and whether it actually makes stronger writers.  The fourth speaker will look at methods for evaluation and measurement.  Specifically, she will evaluate the
effectiveness of each pilot course in terms of how it met the course objectives, the students' needs, and the community's needs; therefore, the presentation will try to answer the call for additional studies of how service learning can most effectively be incorporated into the composition classroom.