Parents Promoting Peace

Grade Level: 9-12

Academic Areas: Interdisciplinary

Duration of service: Year-Long

Character Virtues: Justice and Fairness, Respect, Responsibility

Service Areas: Human Services, Public Safety

 

Service Learning Project:

In this project, students will learn the skills of mediation and non-violence necessary for academic (and professional) success. They will study how parents’ attitudes can perpetuate or prevent violent behavior among students, and will conduct research to determine the best strategies for capturing the interest of parents from all backgrounds. Once students have secured the participation of a parent group, they will develop presentations based on their conflict-management skills and their understanding of the role of the family in affecting student behavior. During a series of workshops, students will train parents to use good conflict-management strategies that discourage violence.

Goals and Objectives

Academic

Learning Goal: Students will acquire mediation skills useful in maintaining a safe social environment.

Standard: PE 2

Learning Goal: Students will learn communication and presentation skills, including speechwriting, power-point, etc.

Standard: ELA 4

Learning Goal: Students will learn research skills, including survey writing, interviewing, etc. and will conduct research into all types of social groups.

Standard: SS 1,2,5 ELA 1,3,4

Service

Community need: Lack of effective, non-violent conflict resolution and mediation skills among parents and therefore a lack of skills among their children.

Possible Community Partners: Conflict mediation groups, School Safety Officers / Youth Officers, PTA, church and civic organizations

Objective: Students will reach out to parents to increase their involvement with the school community.

Objective: Students will offer alternatives to violent response to conflict and convince parents of the importance of their role in reducing school violence.

Character

 Virtue: Justice and Fairness

Objective: Students will learn to resolve conflicts in an objective, even-handed and non-violent manner.

Virtue: Respect

Objective: Students and parents will increase their respect for the value of safety and human life.

Virtue: Responsibility

Objective: Students will proactively seek a solution to the problem of violence within the school community.

Key Activities

Key Planning Activities

  1. Students will complete training in conflict mediation/anger management.
  2. Students will generate and evaluate surveys designed to assess best practices for reaching out to parents

Key Service Activities

  1. Students will train parents in the skills of and need for peaceful conflict resolution.
  2. Students will train younger students to use non-violent conflict resolution and mediation skills.

Key Reflection Activities

  1. (oral – justice and fairness) Students will role-play conflict situations, utilize mediation skills, and conduct oral critiques.
  2. (written – responsibility) Students will distribute pre and post surveys to parents and analyze efficacy of their presentations based on parental feedback. They will determine how their trainings could be improved.
  3. (performance – justice and fairness) Students will make a video about their perceptions of changes, if any, in violent behavior in their school during and following the project. Did the project have an effect on school violence?

Celebration Activity

The students will organize a peace week to be held at school. Throughout the week, all students will make origami peace cranes to add to a peace chain. The culminating event will be an assembly (to which all parents will be invited) at which students reflective essays, poems, and stories about peace and violence will be featured.