Abstract

This action research project at The Dodge Renaissance Academy (TDA) in the inner city of Chicago was conducted with two middle level mentor teachers and their residents, who are National-Louis University graduate students. The two main undertakings of the 2006-07 academic year were a composting and global warming awareness project in a sixth grade classroom and a photography/beautification project with a group of seventh graders. Few service-learning studies involve inner city young adolescents as the producers of the project. The additional layer of involvement by our university students in this project enhances the benefit as they have contracted to teach in underperforming schools in Chicago for at least five years after they receive their degrees. Gaining firsthand knowledge of the powerful pedagogy of service-learning as preservice teachers enables them to utilize the pedagogy in classrooms throughout the city.