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Volume 10, Number 1 Fall, 1999 Author: Rae Pelletier Eighth Grade Teacher at Boothbay Region Middle School in Boothbay Harbor, Maine "We know emotion is very important to the educative process because it drives attention, which drives learning and memory." "There is no doubt that the rescue of ten-twelve slaves in Sudan is cause for celebration; however, the involvement of these eigth grade students taught them more about becoming responsible and involved citizens than any workbook lesson ever devised." "...free at last." - but only in America. "They learned that individuals make a difference, that age need not be a barrier to effective citizenship, and that they themselves had made a difference in a troubled world."

Meaningful Learning in Social Studies: Making a Case for Service-Based Learning How can teachers provide emotive learning experiences and still meet standards and curricular guidelines? Sometimes we stumble upon an answer, which then serves as a model for continuing practice. Like most social studies teachers, I longed for a way to make the study of the Civil War interesting. Despite my efforts, the Civil War and its issues remained a distant event, even when spiced with supplementary activities such as a musket-loading lesson and contest. The video, Uncle Tom's Cabin, provoked momentary sympathy for slaves, but like most history lessons, interest waned with the test. We plodded through the unit, zipped through the Reconstruction Era, the Roaring Twenties, then World War I. It wasn't until we reached the study of World War II and the Holocaust that interest seemed to blossom. Year after year my students got emotional about the Holocaust and World War II. How, then, could I provoke this same reaction towards one of the most significant events in our Nation's history - the preservation of the Union? Since performance tasks demand a great deal of student involvement, I decided to design a preliminary task that would cause the students to explore slavery and the slaves' points of origin. I found that students born free in a country where freedom is a right usually have mixed feelings about the study of slavery. There is some empathy, but the issue is so distanced by time, that ennui soon sets in. There might be a few humanitarians who are interested learning about slavery, but they are few. The Civil War and its attendant miseries remained just another lesson to be learned for the test. The Africa task was designed and performance tasks packets passed out to the students. The background information given at the beginning of the packet explained that people who are enslaved, not only lose their freedom, but all other aspects of their culture - language, art, music, and in the case of relocation, their homelands. The task was designed to foster an appreciation for the culture people who were enslaved were forced to leave behind. Through random drawing students selected a country in Africa which their self-selected team of three students would research. This research would culminate in informative posters which would be displayed in the school lobby. School staff would vote for the most informative. The contest format sparked students to participate - each team seemed to have among its number a student who had to try to win. The students responded with one hundred percent participation. Whether sparked by the contest or the subject does not matter - the display was awesome. Students who seldom engaged began to see slaves evolve as real people and not just a figment of history. For the next step students were asked to create an artifact that reflected the culture of the country which they studied. These artifacts were displayed in an African Museum created in the second floor lobby. One student's mother, who is a talented artist and works with African fabrics, made remnants available for the students to use for their artifacts. Again, the response was gratifying. The Museum was delightful and staff and students enjoyed visiting for the weeks the artifacts remained on display. Meanwhile, my daughter was watching the evening news. She heard about a group of school children in Colorado who found out about slavery in Sudan and Mauritania and were raising money to buy back slaves. I hit the Internet and found out about this program as well as the slavery issue. I simply gave my Sudan students the website address with no further information. The rest, as they say, is history. The student team visited the website and were outraged by what they read. They came to me and asked what the class could do to help the enslaved peoples. I told them about the children in Colorado and they expressed their desire to promote a similar project. We brainstormed, and decided to ask the PTA to host an auction of the artifacts the students had created. Sarah and Allison, the students who spearheaded the project, visited classrooms soliciting their classmates' cooperation and found that most students were willing to donate their artifacts for the project. We approached the PTA who were happy to host the auction at their next meeting. Meanwhile, we put bid slips in the museum so anyone who was not able to attend the actual action could participate. The girls collaborated on an article for the local paper, the Boothbay Register, and the auction was posted on the school website. The PTA distributed handbills about the auction. The fifth grade paper, the Boothbay Buzz, carried an article also. A generous patron wrote a wonderful note to the article's author, Maeve O'Connell, as well as sending her a twenty dollar donation towards the money raising effort. The auction, as well as a few subsequent donations, netted $953 which was sent to Anti-Slavery Abolitionist Group. Another article reporting on the success of the auction followed in our local paper as well as in the Anti-Slavery Newsletter. Sarah and I were interviewed on Maine Public Radio (Allison was out-of-town with her folks). The newswire picked up the broadcast and another article appeared in the Bangor Daily News. There is no doubt that the rescue of ten - twelve slaves in Sudan is cause for celebration. However, the involvement of these eighth grade students taught them more about becoming responsible and involved citizens than any workbook lesson ever devised. They learned that individuals make a difference, that age need not be a barrier to effective citizenship, and that they themselves had made a difference in a troubled world. This task did not begin as service learning, merely an effort to understand other cultures and peoples. The students made the task come alive and turned it into a salutary lesson about helping others, even on a small scale. My students learned the satisfaction of becoming involved as citizens of a free country helping others. They have a model to carry with them and an experience that made them feel good about themselves. The outcome could have been far different, but two students became emotionally involved and we all learned an indelible lesson. This performance task is available as a Webquest with additional graphics on the school website at http://www.bres.boothbay.k12.me.us.