Looking beyond ourselves: Service learning in a suburban school district

By Vanessa Heller: Educator at Oak Park Unified and trainer at Oak Park Inquiry Institute

Who we are

Oak Park Unified is becoming a district focused on inquiry based teaching and learning. This focus also includes a growing dedication to service learning. Because we are always moving forward as a district, our question is:

How might we move from service learning opportunities to true civic action?

I have taught about 10 of my 19 years in this small yet progressive-minded school district in suburban Southern California. Our district and its schools have always stood out as different from other districts - we are small, a district of choice where 40% of our students come from outside our boundaries, and we are known for high achievement and high expectations. Our teachers have much autonomy in their curricular and instructional decisions because we are trusted as professionals. We do not teach to the test, yet we outperform other districts consistently. Our professional development is seldom mandated but self-selected. These factors lay the foundation for our foray into inquiry and its outcome, service learning. It is our goal to one day move towards true civic action as our impact expands ever outward.

Setting the stage for inquiry and civic action

“American society’s intense focus on individual achievement and well-being tends to eclipse community needs and efforts.” Zemelman in From Inquiry to Action

Several years ago, we revamped our mission, one aspect being that each student “Will Become a Compassionate and Creative Global Citizen”. This goal is supported by the following objectives:

• By recognizing, celebrating and embracing diversity, inclusiveness and personal beliefs

• By fostering character development, acceptance, ethical and compassionate behavior, social responsibility, community service and global stewardship

This is a lofty goal goal indeed, but four years ago, a grassroots effort by many teachers helped make this ideal of a global citizenry a reality. This reality would be realized through inquiry and our additional goal of engaging in sustained civic action.

Like a few teachers before me, I attended a multi-session professional development on inquiry at UCLA’s Critical Thinking Institute (CTI - now defunct) at the university’s Lab School. This school is inquiry-based. I had never heard nor seen of such a thing...I was hooked. This was the teaching model I never knew I wanted and was everything I believed about teaching - hands-on, high level thinking, student centered, and based on asking and honoring critical questions from students about content and its application to the word outside of the classroom. I also knew that many of my colleagues felt the same way about teaching as I did - they had to see this method in action!

If you know anything about public education, the standard reply when you ask to attend a workshop, conference, etc. is,  “We’d love to send you, but there is no money.” Since I am not one to take no for an answer - which my administrators do know about me - I sat myself down in the assistant superintendent's office and said, “So, I have this idea….” (This is not recommended in a larger district by the way, but we all know each other in OPUSD). And so I proposed that CTI come to us for professional development in a more effective and cost efficient way to teach our staff, whom I felt sure would be receptive to this new-fangled idea of “inquiry”.

After a three year partnership with CTI, over 70 teachers from our elementary schools through our high school have experienced CTI’s inquiry training. This fourth year, OPUSD has established its own Oak Park Inquiry Institute (OPII). Our agreement with CTI was to train a few of our teachers to carry-on inquiry training in-house and in a way that best fit our district's needs. I am happy to be the lead trainer and help OPII spread its wings. OPII is now training its first cohort/ CTI fourth cohort in inquiry.

What is Inquiry-Based Learning?

As Larmer & Mergendoller of the Buck Institute for Education discuss in their article on project based learning (PBL) and in our own model of inquiry we teach at OPII, in real inquiry, students begin with their own driving questions or pose real-world problems, then search for resources to discover possible answers or solutions. This process leads students to generate new driving questions, research and test ideas, and draw their own conclusions. With authentic inquiry comes creativity, engagement, collaboration, and new ideas and ways of thinking –  perhaps a new answer to a driving question, a new product, or a new solution to a problem.

OPII was created to help fellow educators teach through inquiry, or what is also known as problem/project-based learning. The emphasis with inquiry is on authentic, meaningful real-world experiences for students. Teaching through inquiry allows us to ask driving questions about all issues, especially those pertaining to social justice. Inquiry units that OPII teachers have designed have action and advocacy integrated.  For us at OPII and our OPUSD teachers, we value going beyond a classroom project to making an impact either locally - at school and in our community - and/or globally through charity work and awareness of real issues.

For example, in my 6th grade humanities classes, one unit includes water conservation efforts as students ask, "What is the impact of water on the development of civilization?" A driving question such as this takes students far beyond the textbook into the real world where they advocate for change locally by recycling and globally by donating money to charities such as Heifer International and Charity Water. We actively recycle, have petitioned the school board to ban the sales of plastic water bottles, donated monies towards the installation of hydration stations on campus, and successfully implemented the distribution of eco-friendlier reusable water bottles at every school in our district - 6th graders did this! Our content may be social studies, but what we learn is not only how ancient civilizations depended on water for survival and success, but how we as Southern Californians depend on a vital resource that, in our region and in other regions around the globe, is less and less accessible.

Through OPII and inquiry, we help our students learn that as Americans, and as students living in and around Oak Park, we are privileged. Others are not so fortunate. It is our duty to help others - this is what social justice is about. There is no common core standard stating this. We are compelled to ask important and perhaps uncomfortable questions, then take steps to make a big impact. This is the essence of service learning and ultimately taking civic action.

What have we accomplished so far?

Our service learning accomplishments both trickle up and trickle down. At the district level, we are a Green Ribbon School District - we have been moving towards a more eco-friendly and sustainable design in our habits (sorting trash, composting, drainage, and Meatless Mondays) and even our architecture (solar panels and new construction). Our cafeteria programs even earned a Golden Seed Award from the California Farm to School Network. Senator Fran Pavley awarded OPUSD the Sustainability Award for our pest management system! Two examples of district-wide efforts are our annual Super Saturday Sustainability Fair and Recycling Event and Big Sunday, a community-wide service learning event. Schools host events such as disability fairs, campus clean-ups, etc. A big push at the elementary and middle school level are school gardens where fresh produce is grown for use in our cafeterias. At the middle school, the garden is also a research opportunity for science classes and clubs. In a 7th grade science class, students were given a design challenge to create garden box covers.

At each school, you will find service learning in action. Students learn various ways to appreciate those less fortunate and to give back to the community. From volunteering and donations at MyStuffBags, Heifer International, Charity Water, and Water for South Sudan to name only a few. We skype with charities we donate to and even have guest speakers from the charities we support.

What’s most important is that we choose our content to support service learning endeavors (while still meeting standards).  For instance, in 6th grade, students read A Long Walk to Water by Linda Sue Park about the struggles for clean water, education, and safety in war torn Sudan to compliment our study of how water impacts the development of civilizations. One student was inspired by ALWTW so much that he carried around a jug of water all day to experience the many trips a typical young Sudanese girl must take to fetch water for her family - just as one of the main characters had done!

In 7th, students read I Am Malala as they study ancient Islam and current events in the Muslim world today. Many students join together to support the Malala Fund by setting up lunch clubs where they increase awareness and host fundraisers for the charity. At the elementary level, the service learning bug is spreading so much so that at one school, 4th graders are teach 5th graders how to be of service.

Of their own accord, students fundraise for class-selected charities in ways that kids know best - lemonade and hot cocoa stands, donating old clothes, and recycling! We have found that the more we do as far as service learning, the more volunteers we attract. OPUSD is definitely civic minded and many many classes and individual students engage in service learning. But we still ask, how might we do even more?