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The Clarity Series: Community-Based Learning
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The Clarity Series: Community-Based Learning
Awakening the Mission of Public Schools



October 2014 | 160 pages | Corwin

To fully prepare K-12 students for life and career, connect with your community!

 

A successful community-based learning program is a triple win—for students, schools, and the entire community. Curriculum becomes more meaningful and relevant, students are more engaged, and schools and districts benefit from new advocates.

 

Authors Prast and Viegut show how to move beyond guest speakers and field trips to creating a vibrant program that promotes academic achievement and future career skills. In this second acclaimed book in The Clarity Series, readers will learn how to

  • Forge rewarding partnerships with local partners, from major employers to small businesses and community groups
  • Implement a high-quality, sustainable initiative that bridges disciplines
  • Recognize and overcome barriers to effectiveness
  • Apply best practices from today’s most-effective programs

 

Turn to this helpful guide to tap the limitless opportunities and potential offered by community-based learning.

"Community-based learning, as described in this series, just might be the missing piece we are looking for on our competency-based, personalized learning quest for our students. If we can bring this work together—if we can connect them to their passion (personalize), move them along when they are ready (competency-based) and ground them in real life experience (community-based), perhaps we can truly give them the roots and the wings we have only been theorizing about for fifty years.”

—Dr. Sandra Dop, Program Consultant

Iowa Department of Education

 


 
List of Figures and Tables
 
Preface
 
Acknowledgments
 
About the Authors
 
1. An Introduction to Community-Based Learning
Increase student engagement

 
Make the curriculum relevant and experiential

 
Strengthen the connection between the community and schools

 
The foundation for community-based learning

 
The levels of community-based learning

 
Changing the work

 
 
2. The Foundation for Community-Based Learning
Learning theory

 
Learning processes

 
The social nature of instruction

 
A vital connection

 
A new solution to a new problem

 
 
3. A Framework for Community-Based Learning
The CBL framework

 
 
4. Case Study: Community-Based Learning School
The beginning of community-based learning school

 
Making progress

 
Challenges arise

 
Creating a curriculum

 
Setback

 
Exceeding expectations

 
 
5. Essential Practices in Community-Based Learning
Drinking the good wine first

 
Get the right people on the bus

 
Source your champions

 
Increase intentionality

 
Seek transfer

 
Customization and individualization

 
Evaluate current partnerships

 
 
6. Professional Development for Community-Based Learning
Establish student learning goals

 
Determine the best practices to achieve those goals

 
Identify the necessary resources

 
Decide what teachers need to know and be able to do

 
Gain the knowledge and skills

 
CBL needs development

 
 
7. Leading Community-Based Learning
Responding to the need for high quality

 
A tolerance for risk

 
Situational leadership

 
Distributive leadership

 
Mindful leadership

 
Systems implementation

 
 
8. Overcoming Barriers
Time

 
Large-scale tests

 
Risk aversion

 
Partnership peril

 
Waiting for the right time

 
Toxic leaders

 
Facing down detractors

 
Good to great

 
Existing structures

 
Wants over needs

 
 
9. Starting Community-Based Learning—Today
For teachers

 
For principals

 
For superintendents

 
For boards of education

 
For everyone

 
 
Appendix: Sample community-based learning unit
 
References
 
Index

"Community-based learning, as described in this series, just might be the missing piece we are looking for on our competency-based, personalized learning quest for our students.  If we can bring this work together—if we can connect them to their passion (personalize), move them along when they are ready (competency-based) and ground them in real life experience (community-based), perhaps we can truly give them the roots and the wings we have only been theorizing about for fifty years. "

Dr. Sandra Dop, Education Program Consultant
Iowa Department of Education
Key features
(1) A practical guide to designing, implementing, and sustaining community-based learning in schools and districts that results in a win-win for educators, community stakeholders, and -- most of all -- students.
(2) Addresses the common barriers that practitioners of community-based learning encounter and proven methods to overcome them.
(3) Includes detailed examples of community-based learning in-action, based on the authors' own experiences and successful programs across the U.S.
(4) Provides an array of strategies and tools for various stages of design and implementation.

Sample Materials & Chapters

Preface


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