USC AIKEN’s EDPY A334 ADOLESCENT GROWTH & DEVELOPMENT SERVICE LEARNING PROJECT

The pre-service teachers will:

1. Volunteer for 10-20 hours at a CE-MIST middle school (see page 4 of your syllabus).
2. Serve as a mentor for one young adolescent. Identify a student from a racial, ethnic, socioeconomic, or linguistic background different from your own. You will visit the classroom for approximately one hour, once or twice a week, for 12 weeks. You will help this child with schoolwork and will interview him or her each week to collect data for an Identity Concept Map. If at all possible, try to visit your child during his/her lunch period from time to time.
3. Take handwritten Field Notes during each visit. Please use a two-column format. On the left side, describe what you observe and data you collect during each visit. On the right side, analyze and reflect on those observations. I will check these in class periodically.
4. Construct your adolescent’s Identity Concept Map. Prepare ten index cards. Each index card will have one topic. Each week, lay all the index cards out on a table and ask the middle school student to select one or two of the topics to discuss. They may select, reject, or repeat any topic. Make sure they know that one topic is, “What do YOU think we should include on your Identity Concept Map?” Begin teach interview with: “Tell me about your _____,” or “How would you describe your _____?” Allow them to dictate their responses as you write down what they say. At the end of the project, you and the student will co-create their Identity Concept Map. It may be done by hand or on the computer. The student will keep a copy and you will turn in a copy. The ten topics are: • Appearance • Family • Personality • Role Model • Talents • School • Interests • Career • Friends • Free choice or what the child thinks is important
5. Write a 2-3 page Summative Report to reflect, summarize, and evaluate the service learning project experience, with connections to This We Believe.

At the conclusion of the project, you will be asked to turn in FOUR things:

1. Field Notes
2. Identity Concept Map
3. Summative Report
4. Attendance Verification Form (initialed and signed by the teacher)

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

Leavelle McCampbell Middle School
82 Canal Street Graniteville, SC 29829
Tel: (803) 663-4300

From the USC Aiken entrance closest to the RPSEC building, turn left and then go straight through the intersection at the light. You will pass the Exxon station. This is Trolley Line Road. Follow this road for about 2.5 miles. You will go through a traffic light and then will see railroad tracks. The brick 3-story building school will be on the left. Enter the one-way circular drive and park in visitors parking. If the front doors are locked, you will need to enter the building through the side door near the principal’s parking spot.

Please sign in at the main office (there is a bright green notebook just for USC Aiken students) before you report to your assigned classroom each week. Please let your classroom teacher know if/when you cannot attend class as he/she is expecting you each week. Please ask the teacher to initial your Service Learning Verification Form after each visit, and then sign it at the end of the semester.

The goal of this project is to understand the unique characteristics and needs of young adolescents and to establish mutually respectful relationships that support their intellectual and personal development. You will develop professional, collegial relationships with teachers and serve as a positive role model for students. Therefore, professional attire, punctuality, and confidentiality are expected. Please turn off all cell phones and portable electronic devices while in the building.

Deborah H. McMurtrie
(803) 641-2834
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.