The Activist Learner

Book excerpt: This dynamic book explores a variety of ways teachers can integrate service learning to enliven their classroom, meet the unique developmental needs of their students, and satisfy the next generation of standards and assessements. The authors demonstrate how inquiry-based teaching with service learning outcomes cultivates, requires, and rewards literacy, as well as important skills like perspective taking and compassion. Through the pursuit of service learning projects, students develop and apply literacy and disciplinary knowledge, experience real-world implications, and learn to think in more connected ways. At the same time, students acquire literacies essential for creating a culture of civic engagement and for mastering the Common Core.