Service-Learning and Basic Writing Bibliography

Rosmary Arca reflects that students often come in to basic writing courses with a diminished sense of authority. She argues that community writing can help students rediscover their authority because they are composing for real audiences with real responsibilities.

In the introduction to this anthology, Alder-Kassner, Crooks, and Watters assert that service-learning provides students and instructors with a greater sense of purpose and that service-learning gives coursework meaning. They believe that service-learning connects students to diverse groups and to the community.

In “Digging a Groundwork for Writing,” Linda Adler-Kassner states that Service-Learning can play a valuable role in helping basic-writers learn to express their experience from the margins in language appropriate to the university. Adler-Kassner is responding to Bruce Herzberg—who emphasizes Service-Learning’s role in forming critical consciousness—in her article.

In this guide, Sally Berman offers an overview to service-learning and provides examples of basic, intermediate, and advanced service-learning projects for a variety of grade-levels and disciplines.

Ellen Cushman considers the role of professors in ensuring that service-learning programs are sustainable. Cushman reminds us that community relationships forged through service-learning should be central, rather than peripheral, to compositionists disciplinary interests and classroom practices.

In “English Studies and Public Service,” Thomas Deans introduces instructors to the theoretical and practical intersections between service-learning and composition. Relying heavily on social-epistemic rhetoric, Deans argues that service-learning facilitates students’ writing within fully realized social contexts, the development of their critical consciousness, and their improved comprehension of course material.

This textbook contains many readings and writing prompts for students, as well as a detailed explanation about the purposes of service-learning. Deans’ three ways of thinking about service-learning - Writing about the Community, Writing for the Community, and Writing with the Community - each have their own chapter and writing assignments.

In Writing Partnerships: Service-Learning in Composition, Deans elaborates on his three paradigms of community writing - Writing about the Community, Writing for the Community and Writing with the Community. The appendicies to this text include course materials, student samples, course and program descriptions, and a list of service-learning resources and contacts.

Thomas Deans et al’s critical sourcebook is a primary resource for instructors interested in service-learning. Their anthology—which is available for free from Bedford/St. Martin’s—gathers articles on topics such as “Writing in Communities” and “Pedagogies in Action” in one accessible volume.

In this article, Thomas Deans and Zan Meyer-Gonclaves recount and reflect on their experiences in incorporating service-learning into English 112, a beginning composition course. They describe specific examples of student work, tips for working with agency partners, and thoughts about building social awareness and civic responsibility through service-learning.

James Dubinsky states that service, learning, and reflection are the “three legs” of the stool service-learning pedagogy rests on—in this article he argues that reflection in particular needs to be an integral part of effective service-learning. He gives guidelines for how to incorporate reflection activities when designing assignments.

In “Tapping the Potential of Service-Learning,” Cheryl Hofstetter Duffy critically reflects on her first experience integrating service-learning into a composition course. Duffy illuminates both the potential, and the challenge, of using service-learning in our classrooms and discusses much practical advice.

Catherine Gabor details her Writing Partners program, which pairs basic writing students with elementary school students in correspondance through letters. Garbor argues that this service-learning style encourages, rather than suppresses, basic writing student authority. This essay describes the program, the theory supporting it, and her students’ experiences with it.

In this article, Brock Haussamen details his own experiences teaching first-year composition with a service-learning component, and discusses how to deal with issues such as student incentives for service-learning, disengagement, and lack of agency support.

In “Community Service and Critical Teaching,” Bruce Herzberg addresses the challenge of facilitating students’ formation of critical consciousness through Service-Learning. Herzberg argues for the central role of critical reflection and academic rigor in helping students draw connections between their service-learning experiences and academic life.

In a study that buttresses the arguments of service-learning proponents, Alexandra Hilosky et al. assess whether writing health brochures for the community helps basic writing students improve their academic skills. Hilosky et al. report that writing for the community both results in improved student engagement, and a substantial increase in their college preparedness.

While primarily targeted for K-12 instructors, this text provides a clear introduction to what service-learning is and how to implement service-learning in to the classroom. Kaye provides thirteen examples of service-learning themes and many reproducibles.

Cynthia Cornell Novak and Lorie J. Goodman stake a middle ground between Maxine Hairston and Mary Louise Pratt, arguing that service-learning facilitates the formation of “Safe/r Contact Zones” in which students can test longstanding beliefs about social problems against their experience. Because service-learning helps students move away from the dogmaticism prevalent in our broader culture, Novak and Goodman argue that service-learning facilitates students’ development of the nuanced discourse favored in academic settings.

Nancy Pine describes her case study of one basic writing student, William, in a service-learning course. After reflecting on William’s experience, Pine recommends instructors scaffold activities to help basic writing students contextualize and write academically about their service-learning.

This article is an excerpt from Wurr’s dissertation research with first-year writing courses and service-learning. Wurr argues that incorporating service-learning in college composition courses improves the quality of writing overall and in individual categories such as use of rhetorical appeals, logic, coherence, and mechanics.

Refering to Boyer’s vision of change for higher education, Zlotkowski calls for a shift in the way service-learning is viewed and discussed. He argues that academics must look beyond personal and civic development to explore what service-learning does to achieve academic goals, and that this shift is necessary if service-learning is to survive.