Students edit their memoir drafts, adding dialogue and figurative language in this guided writing session. This lesson will help students realize that struggles they experience in their lives often lead to a new understanding or lesson learned. Students will reflect on how their experience impacts others. They will use this realization to identify how they can address needs in their own community.

Students learn from examples of people who have experienced a struggle and used surrounding resources to make something better for themselves and the people around them. Examples of "servant leadership" are taken from the Our State of Generosity website.  

Learners identify the different roles people take in the cycle of bullying. They share their observations about bullying situations and discuss why taking action to address bullying behavior is good for the community.

Learners define bullying and identify the effects of bullying behavior on the individuals involved and the larger community. The learners create a survey or use another method to collect and report on the perceived status of bullying behavior at their school. They survey students, school staff, and families.

Students evaluate their learning about philanthropy and the process of selecting a service-learning project. They write a guided reflection on their experience.  

Step Five is where students create the presentation of the service-learning project they are proposing. They will receive feedback and then present their ideas in front of parents and community partners that you invite in. The presentations are a celebration of the learning that has happened up to this point.

Students form groups, sign group agreements, delegate tasks, and begin forming their service-learing project proposal. The teacher provides mini-lessons to individuals, as needed, who bring information back to groups on presentation skills, budgeting, and service-learning procedure.

Students determine which community need they want to address with a service project. Once a priority need has been determined, they research related nonprofit organizations with a student-generated list of questions.

In this lesson, students dream big and envision what it would look like to have the problem solved. They discuss steps to take and what they need to learn in order to accomplish the task. They take personal responsibility for carrying out the expectations they set for the final service-learning project proposal.