Children Making a Difference through Service Learning
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Abstract
This article addresses the concept of poverty and its accompanying problems as taught in the elementary classroom forces us to face a complex series of pedagogical decisions. For example, should elementary children learn about the physical and emotional abuse that is frequently correlated with child labor and poverty? We. It takes into account how young children seem to have an innate desire to help others. In elementary school classrooms, the concepts of poverty, hunger, and homelessness are most often discussed in terms of a canned food drive during a holiday season, but the deeper level of understanding is generally avoided in the classroom. The lessons in this article include songs, stories, photographs and texts about people living in poverty around the globe and in local communities. The activities included here are geared at helping students develop empathy and understanding for the plight of those in poverty and to better realize their role in bringing about change both locally and around the globe. The causes, consequences, and potential solutions to poverty are introduced through discussion, various activities, and surveys of socially conscious magazines, websites and other media. A framework of service is modeled through both fiction and non-fiction stories of children who have had an impact on the struggle against poverty. Service projects developed by children are researched to discover ways children have made a difference in the struggle against poverty. A children’s literature selection is used to focus the children on the project and to give examples of both small and large service projects. As a summative assessment activity, students work in teams to create visuals and prose to demonstrate their understanding of living in poverty without some or all basic human needs being met.
