Service-Learning Reflection Journal Prompts

Respond to all prompts in your reflection journal (in a minimum of 300 words or
more and use specific examples if you can) and submit electronically the last week
of school:

Prior to your service experience:

1. You have identified a service-learning track. Describe the population you will
be serving. Go to SLCC Library Database (Opposing Viewpoints or Ebsco are
good sites) and research more about the population you will be serving.
Respond to the following questions: What issues does this population face?
What are root causes of this issue(s)? What actions are being taken in the
community to address this issue(s)? What contributions does this population
make to the community? What is one thing you wish more people knew
about this population (awareness as a way of social activism)? How is writing
used to create awareness?
2. Research the actual organization you will be serving. This could be the Youth
Resource Center that deals with homeless youth or the International Rescue
Committee that serves refugee communities, etc. What have you learned
from the organization’s website? What services are offered? What impact
does the organization have on the community? If you can, interview someone
from that organization via phone or email (or a visit if you can). What does
this person have to say about the value of the work he or she does? What are
obstacles this organization faces? What kinds of writing does this person do
on a daily or even annual basis?

During or shortly after your service experience:

3. How do the identity groups to which you experience belonging (race, class,
gender, sexuality) influence your interaction with individuals at your service
learning sites? What influence does power/privilege have on your
interaction with individuals at your service learning sites?
4. Based on Chapt 12 (Argumentative Essay), what types of issues related to
your service are debatable and could be argued from different perspectives?
How would you define your position on the issue? How can writing on this
subject provide an informed perspective while moving beyond personal
preference?
5. Pay particular attention to the ways the population you are serving in your
community organization is represented in the media. Choose a few films,
television shows, websites, music videos, etc. and make notes about what you
see and hear. Then respond to the following questions:
a. How are the stereotypes about this group reinforced in the media?
How do the media negatively portray this group?
b. How are the stereotypes about this group challenged in the media?
How do the media positively portray this group?
 c. How do these media representations connect with your own
experience of this population, and how are they different?
6. Choose one critical incident from your service experience (this incident does
not have to be dramatic, just significant to you) that is relevant to our course
content. Describe the incident and analyze what happened in relation to one
of the issues we’ve discussed in class.

Post-Service Reflections:
7. Based on your experience and having completed most of the course content,
describe how your service-learning experience in relation to the course
content has changed your views (if it has) about service in the community,
the population you served, your own goals (if you have them) for continued
service to underserved populations. How do you few written documents
based on this subject? Has your awareness about writing and activism
changed in any way? What do you notice as the most important function of
writing with your experience.
8. Based on your experience and having completed most of the course content,
write a summary of how you think others could be more involved in their
communities, what impacts they could have, and specific ways they might
become involved. Be specific and use the community at-large (not your
professor) as your audience to which you are writing. How might writing be
part of that involvement?