Reflection Prompts to Guide Your Community Service Learning Course Design
by Ann Abbott During the 2014-15 academic year I traveled to many universities and met many creative people doing very meaningful work with their language students. I also took a very careful look at many course syllabi. They all were interesting and reflected the instructors' deep subject knowledge and intellectual curiosity to take a journey with their students. That is the kind of course we would all like to create! There were also red flags for potential issues in community service learning (CSL) courses. I don't have all the answers, of course, and my course design can look very different from someone else's and yet both be very successful. Still, in the spirit of critical reflection that is the backbone of a good CSL learning experience, I offer a few key questions that you can ask yourself about your CSL course design. What is the organizational capacity of your community partner(s)? You need a true partner, so ask yourself these questions. Does this ...