Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Spcaadvocacy
Spcaadvocacy
as a non-kill, highly successful animal shelter adopting out over 3,500 animals a year.
What many people don’t know about the organization is that they provide informal
learning opportunities for communities and schools in a variety of ways. One of the most
students ages 6-12. The program Pet Pals is conducted on Tuesday afternoons from 5-
6pm allowing students to come sit with the animals in the shelter and read them books.
The program encourages reading as well as developing advocacy and empathy for lonely
animals. The organization also offers facility tours, dog training and programming for
assemblies at schools. The MDSPCA also works to partner with other organizations and
After researching different delivery models that could apply to what the
MDSPCA does, I would classify their delivery model for informal learning as
discusses the inclusion of other delivery methods to encompass all styles of learning in
his blog The Emerging Landscape of Educational Delivery Models. Phil Hill (2018)
states the following “What I believe we are seeing in 2011 and 2012 is a transition to an
variety of educational strategies are employed depending on the type of event. For
instance, students may use cooperative learning to create a poster for the organization to
use at an event. They also take advantage of having adorable fur babies to use for hands
also teams up with local schools and teachers to participate in the MDSPCA Art Show
fundraiser.
The delivery model in this case includes Cooperative Learning, Flipped Learning,
program is set up to have students answer a list of questions by exploring the MDSPCA
website with a partner. During this unit there are multiple demonstrations and modeling
how to research, choose an animal, how to draw the animal, and best practices of each
material chosen. Students choose a picture of a real shelter animal given to the teacher by
the MDSPCA. Students create sketches of their animals and use their critique skills to
assess each other’s work before starting their final copy. Independently, students create
their picture and choose their materials. Once completed students have their artwork hung
which learning outcomes are identified, students assess as well as the teacher based on
whether or not they succeeded. The program was co-developed by staff members of the
MDSPCA and a Baltimore County Art Teacher. In Chapter 6 of Surrounded by Science:
of the community it is meant to serve, should be brought into the planning process”
(p.105). This program was created by all necessary people involved and has been wildly
successful. Each year the art show grows due to increased participation from Baltimore
County Schools. The learning outcomes are based on the Maryland Visual Arts standards
and reflect development appropriate concepts. My 5th grade students will receive a rubric
for each step of their process, have peer and personal check in’s and will be expected to
complete their artwork as well as write a statement about the MDSPCA and how their
When considering the different kinds of unique and informal learning the
MDSPCA offers the communities, the pros and cons vary. I can find no cons for the art
show program my students are involved in. It is well designed, offers a variety of
learning strategies, is evidence based with specific learner outcomes identified, but more
than anything, it gives my 5th grade students a sense of responsibility and ownership of
how they choose to help those who cannot help themselves, the shelter pets. Seeing
students weep reading stories on the MDSPCA website, sharing what they read with
friends, getting excited about choosing an animal to represent and the sheer pride they
have in themselves for doing something meaningful for someone else is priceless. I get
misty-eyed writing about it. This program is blended learning at it’s best! According to
the Authors (Powell et al., 2015) of Blending Learning: The Evolution of Online and
Face-to-Face Education from 2008-2015 blended learning offers the highly encouraged
online learning with some element of student control over time, place, path,
from home. The modalities along each student’s learning path within a course or
The pros of community events, school assemblies, and facility tours are that they
inform the public about the mission of the MDSPCA. Animals can be adopted out at
these kinds of events. It offers hands on learning as well as instructional learning. Often
times, it is a way to recruit more volunteers as well. The cons of this kind of informal
learning is that it is difficult to truly assess as there is little evidence after an assembly
increasingly difficult if you are advocating for MDSPCA at a larger event and people are
just passing through collecting information. The elementary reading program is a pro as it
encourages students to want to read and bond with shelter pets. However, there is not any
formal assessing of whether a child is becoming a stronger reader or not. Just having
students of this age and development reading on a regular basis outside of school does
not negatively affect them in anyway but it is the only small con I can see in an ocean full
of positive outcomes.
References
Powell, A., Watson, J., Staley, P., Patrick, S., Horn, M., & Fetzer, L. et al. (2015).
Blended Learning: The Evolution of Online and Face-to-Face Education from 2008-
https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED560788.pdf
from https://mfeldstein.com/the-emerging-landscape-of-educational-delivery-models/