Peace Corps

• Subject(s): Service Learning
• Grade Level(s): 6–8, 9–12
• Related Publication: Insights From the Field

Overview

Students will learn why and in what ways service organizations privide assistance to communities.

Objectives

• Students will be able to explain the ways in which service organizations work for the common good in their own community.
• Students will be able to explain why working for the common good matters in their own community.

Materials

• 3 or 4 members of volunteer community organizations

Procedures

1. In advance of this lesson you will need to contact three or four members of volunteer community organizations and invite them to prepare a 5–10 minute presentation to your students addressing the following issues:
   • The purpose of their service organizations
   • The needs the organization addresses
   • The way the organization works for the common good
   • Why the volunteer chose to serve
   • A special story illustrating the impact of serving
   Volunteer community organization representatives may also wish to provide students with literature about the organization and the ways in which students might get involved.
2. Tell students you have invited representatives from volunteer and community service organizations in your own community to visit the class to help the class better understand what the common good means. Preview for students the kinds of things the volunteers will be talking to them about:
   • The purpose of their service organization
   • The needs the organization addresses
   • The way the organization works for the common good
   • Why the volunteer chose to serve or work in the organization
   • A special story illustrating the impact of serving
   Let students know that the community organization representatives will provide ideas about the ways in which students might get involved.
3. Ask students, as they are listening to the speakers, to take notes using Worksheet #3: Presentations by Community Volunteers.
4. Following the presentations, allow time for questions and answers. After the speakers have left, ask students to respond to the these questions:
   • What would happen if there were no people or organizations who worked for the common good in our community?
   • What are some ways our class could pull together and begin working for the common good of our school or community?
5. Journal Entry. Ask students to respond in their journals to the prompts below. Afterward, have students share their responses in small groups.
   • What does the common good mean? Why does it matter in our own community?
   • What would happen if there were no volunteers working in our community?

Framework and Standards

Essential Questions

• How do people in our community work for the common good?
• What difference do they make?