Service learning
above: two students admiring the produce at the community garden at Hunts Mill in East Providence. They visited after they got a tip from Farm Fresh RI as part of their research into food insecurity and community gardens
Eighth grade service learning is a capstone of the Gordon experience. Since the first days at Gordon, students have been building the skills and the knowledge they will need to help make the world a better place. On their eighth grade trip to Georgia and Alabama, they meet with activists working for justice in their own communities, and then students return to Rhode Island ready to practice makign change in their own community.
Students work off campus, five days a week, three hours a day (9ish-12:00ish depending on bus drop offs and pick ups), for the final month of their eighth grade year to learn more about themselves and their community. Places we have partnered with over the years and continue to partner with include: Amos House, Avenue Concept, Down City Design, Highlander School, Pleasant View Elementary School, Osamequin Farm, McAuley House, Progreso Latino, and Community Music Works.
Gordon is continually working to expand this list so that this lesson can better highlight the diversity of need and challenges in our state and so that we can place students at sites that align with their passion or interest in social justice work.
If you know of an organization that could help Gordon students learn to apply their skills to benefit a real-world community, please reach out to Irene Horton, seventh and eighth grade dean, at ihorton@gordonschool.org
Service learning objectives
Students will:
Be active citizens in the larger Rhode Island community by participating in the daily work of an organization
Demonstrate social responsibility by working under the direction of the site supervisor to identify opportunities to support the mission of the organization
Demonstrate self-awareness by matching personal skills and interests to meet a need of the organization.
Develop empathy by making authentic personal connections with people who have different perspectives and experiences from their own.
Be more prepared to engage in and contribute to a diverse world.
Essential questions include:
1. What kind of concrete skills have you gained in this experience? They can be related to your specific organization or they can be more broad (farm specific skills, child care specific skills, cooking specific skills, academic skills, social skills, etc...)
2. How have your ideas about other people’s social identifiers been challenged by your experience? (The answer to this question might sound something like, “I used to think x, now I think y because of z.”)
3. What have you learned about how your own race, class, or other social identifiers influenced your lived experience and view of the world?
4. What social issues are being addressed through your organization? How are the issues being addressed?
5. How do you see yourself carrying this experience with you into your high school experience and beyond?
6. How has your view of your community (Providence, Rhode Island, the United States or the world) changed as a result of this experience?