Rationale and Service Learning Lesson Plan:

Tying service learning (SL) with English language learning is an exciting and rewarding

endeavor because it promotes meaningful learning (Minor, 2000). According to Minor (2002),

the English learning classroom has not embraced service learning enough and awareness needs

to be raised in the English language education community about SL’s added benefits to learner’s

lives and overall educational experience. The following lesson plan is the first in a series of

lessons which introduce the academic and psychological benefits of SL projects in the language

learning classroom. Students’ interests, availability outside of class, and language learning needs

will be given high priority as they choose the community group they want to provide their

service too, which is a public, persuasive speech. Though the students will be supported and

encouraged if they wish to serve their chosen group further than the persuasive speech, they will

not be required to do so. Throughout the semester, the students’ will meet with the local group of

their choosing various times in order to learn enough about it’s purpose, goal, and constituents.

The goal is to become a voice for the group in order to avoid the problem of the single story, as

introduced by Nigerian author Chimamanda Adichie in her speech “The Danger of the Single

Story,” found on www.TED.com.

In the following lesson, adult ESL students at the Monterey Institute of International

Studies’ (MIIS) EAP Public Speaking course will be presented with an array of community

groups to chose from, and some of the groups will visit the classroom in order to entice the

students’ service. One of the aims of the lesson is to prepare students for their final project: a

persuasive presentation that gives a supporting voice for the marginalized local group they

choose. The final project presentations may take various forms, either live or video form, but

must be a persuasive speech for a public audience.

Current Context:

Prior to the lesson, the students were assigned to read about adding a SL component to an

English as a second language (ESL) course (Minor, 2002). During the lesson, social justice and

social change will be discussed in terms of the students’ lives, and the students will watch a

video on the danger of a ‘single story’ and stereotypes. Also, a guest speaker, representing a local

community group, or Seth Pollack, director of the Service Learning Institute at CSUMB, will

come in to talk about the positive effects of SL on the language learning environment.

As mentioned above, this is an introductory lesson that is part off a unit long project on

SL and persuasive speaking. The lesson will intertwine SL and persuasive public speaking and

will encourage students to partner with a local group whom they want to be a voice for in order

to avoid the problem of the ‘single story.’

Learning Goals:

Cognitive: SWBT show their understanding of the connection between service learning and

persuasive public speaking by collectively listing the positive aspects of adding an SL

component to an ESL class and whether they agree or not.

Performative: SWBT express in speech and writing the stereotypes placed on them by those

who impose a ‘single story’ on them.

Affective: Students will be encouraged to feel comfortable sharing and discussing their thoughts

on and experiences with the problem of a ‘single story’ by their teachers own sharing and

discussion of their thoughts and experiences.

Metacognitive: SWBT reflect on their place in their community and any responsibilities they

have towards the social fabric by creating a short, in class, reflection speech for homework.
 Lesson Outline

Time Activity Materials, Actions & Outcomes

Materials:
• Projector
• Internet Access
• Chimamanda Adichie TED Video
• http://www.ted.com/talks/
chimamanda_adichie_the_danger_of_a_single_story.html
Getting set up
and Activity
2 Teacher Actions:
Intro
min. • Welcome Ss to class and tell them they need to prepare to silently
watch a video.
• Tell the Ss that at the end of the video there will be a short reflection
discussion, so it is important that the Ss watch the video intently.

Outcomes:
• Ss are quiet and ready to watch the video
 Lesson Outline
Materials:
• Projector/Screen
• Internet Access
• Chimamanda Adichie TED Video

Teacher Actions:
• Introduce Chimamanda Adichie, the speaker in the video. Say
Focus Task & something like, “Our lives, our cultures, are composed of many
Understanding overlapping stories. Novelist Chimamanda Adichie tells the story of
how she found her authentic cultural voice, and warns that if we hear
only a single story about another person or country, we risk a critical
misunderstanding. Chimamanda Adichie is an acclaimed Nigerian
writer whose first two novels won literary awards. In 2008 she was
20 awarded a MacArthur Fellowship (nicknamed the Genius Award),
min. which is an award given by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur
Foundation each year to United States citizens or residents, of any
age and working in any field, who ‘show exceptional merit and
promise for continued and enhanced creative work.’ The award is
worth $500,000.”
• Play the video (two options):
• TED Talk’s YouTube website:
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D9Ihs241zeg
•TED’s main site:
• http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/
chimamanda_adichie_the_danger_of_a_single_story.html

Outcome:
• Ss watch film intently.
 Lesson Outline
Materials:
• N/A

Reflection and Teacher Actions:

discussion on • Ask the Ss the following questions during the reflection session
Chimamanda’s about Chimamanda’s message to spark discussion (Share your own
message experiences to encourage Ss to do the same):

• Are the characters/people Chimamanda refers to only in literature? (her

stories include her stereotypes of Mexican immigrants, housekeepers,
herself as a Nigerian writer, and her editor’s stereotype of African
writers, as well as stereotypes of Nigerians and Africans by
Westerners, etc.). Give personal examples.
• How do stories expose our impressionability and vulnerability in the
face of stories, particularly as children? Explain your answer.
• Chimamanda said that “power is the ability not just to tell the story of
another person, but to make it the definitive story of that person.” Then
she quoted the Palestinian poet Maurid Bagutti as writing, “If you want
to dispossess a people, the simplest way to do it is to tell their story
and to start with secondly.” Tell us what she means, in your own
20-25 words. Give a personal example. Why do you think she chose to talk
about power and storytelling?
min. • Chimamanda admits to making the mistake of having a single story of
her family’s house boy in Nigeria and Mexican immigrants in the US.
What is the purpose of her admission of making such a mistake?
• Chimamanda tells many stories about herself and her birthplace. She
says, “All of these stories make me who I am, but to insist on only the
negative stories is to flatten my experience and to overlook the many
other stories that formed me.” Can you identify with this statement?
Explain. Why do you think she uses it in her speech?
• Chimamanda states, “Stories have been used to dispossess and malign,
but stories can also be used to empower and to humanize. Stories can
break the dignity of a people, but stories can also repair that broken
dignity.” Can you give an example of such stories? Why did
Chimamanda make this statement?

• End with the question: What does Chimamanda’s message say about
the responsibility public speakers have when telling a story? What
can we learn from Chimamanda’s persuasive style?

Outcome:
• Ss verbally express the stereotypes placed on them by those who
impose a ‘single story’ on them.
 Lesson Outline
Materials:
Break • HW reading: Minor, James (2002). Incorporating service learning into
(5 minutes) ESOL programs. TESOL Journal, 11(4), 10-14.
• Enough copies of CSUMB’s Service Learning Institute brochure and
newsletter for each S.
• Whiteboard and markers

Service Learning Teacher Actions:

Introduction and • Introduce the service learning (SL) component of the course and
Discussion give the Ss the goals of the course and talk about how the SL
component complements the course (found on TEDx Curriculum
Project Google Site). Mention that as a result of SL:
• Ss will have real interactions with native speakers of English.
• Ss will be able to apply a number of skills (e.g., field and in-
house researching, interviewing, project management, etc.) in a
real life situation for the purposes of creating a persuasive speech
that may be used by a local community group.
• Drawing from the homework reading, ask Ss to identify the positive
aspects of adding an SL component to an English learning situation.
Write their list on the whiteboard and ask whether they agree on not.
• Tell the Ss that in the next four class sessions the class will be
30-35
welcoming guest speakers who represent different community
min.
groups. The goal is to provide the Ss with many options from which
to choose a partnership, and that they will have a week to decide
which community group to partner with for the SL project.
• Handout the SL project guidelines and review them (found on TEDx
Curriculum Project Google Site).
• Tell Ss that part of the assignment entails building a relationship
Guest Speaker based on trust and understanding with the local community group.
(25-30 minutes) • Introduce the guest speaker: Either Seth Pollock from CSUMB’s
Service Learning Institute (SLI), a representative from a community
group or an ESL college student from CSUMB who participated in
an SL project in the past.
• watch a video from CSUMB’s SLI website:
• http://www.youtube.com/user/csuco#p/u
• Questions and Answers Session

Outcome:
• Ss will show their understanding of the connection between service
learning and persuasive public speaking by collectively listing the
positive aspects of adding an SL component to an ESL class and
whether they agree or not.
 Lesson Outline
Materials:
• N/A

Assign HW & Teacher Actions:

Closing • Assign a reflection assignment where the Ss will give a short in class
reflective speech. They can choose to respond to either one of the
following prompts:
• Respond to Chimamanda’s message and closing remarks about
regaining a kind of paradise and reflect on whether her speech
was persuasive. Explain why or why not: “The American write
Alice Walker wrote this about her southern relatives who had
moved to the North, and she introduced them to a book about the
southern life that they had left behind. “They sat around reading
the book themselves, listening to me read the book, and a kind of
paradise was regained.” “I would like to end with this thought,
that when we reject the single story, when we realize that there is
never a single story about any place, we regain a kind of
5-8 paradise. Thank you.”
min. • Respond to Chimamanda’s remark on stereotypes. Reflect on
whether her statement persuaded you in making you reconsider
stereotypes that you or others may have. Why or why not?: “A
single story creates stereotypes, and the problem with stereotypes
is not that they are untrue, but that they are incomplete. They
make one story become the only story...I’ve always felt that it is
impossible to engage properly with a place or a person without
engaging with all of the stories of that place and that person. The
consequence of the single story is this, it robs people of dignity.
It makes our recognition of our equal humanity difficult, it
emphasizes how we are different rather than how we are
similar.”

Outcome:
• SWBT reflect on their place in a community and any responsibilities
they have towards the social fabric.
• SWBT express in speech and writing the stereotypes placed on them
by those who impose a ‘single story’ on them.

References

Minor, J. (2002). Incorporating service learning into ESOL programs. TESOL Journal, 11(4),
10-14.