The ServiceLearning Group’s mission is to develop a system of teaching and learning that provides struggling learners the opportunity to achieve the same intellectual levels as the best performing kids in school. I identify struggling learners as those who are bright, average to above-average intelligence and show the potential to be successful students. They are students with learning disabilities and have deficits in attention, organization and focusing.
The ServiceLearning Group’s curriculum and instructional method is unique because:
First, all the teaching is research- and evidence-based. By that I mean the teaching methods and curriculum materials are built from research on effective learning or have published evidence that student achievement improves with their use. Our tutors spend lots of time reviewing the education and psychology literature and search for new methods and materials to try out.
Second, students are given extensive assessment to find out what they can do well, not so well, and not at all. Students are taught and practice all of their deficient skills, no matter how far below grade level. All their gaps are filled.
Third, students with similar needs are grouped together for instruction, even if they are different ages. I never understood why classroom placement was based upon age, not performance level. Teachers today have an impossible job to meet the needs of same-age kids with vastly different skills. This is where I believe differentiated, cooperative, and the universal design for learning instructional design frameworks will work to produce the best student academic performance.
Fourth, students practice everything we teach them until they are fluent. They time themselves and each other until they can perform quickly, effortlessly and accurately, like people who practice in sports and music do.
Fifth, teachers continuously adjust their instruction based upon performance data until the students are successful. They provide step-by-step advancement in curricula based upon evidence of mastery of previous steps. No one falls through the cracks.
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