The Service-Learning Program is engaged in a number of projects in our partnership with the Montclair Board of Education and the Montclair Public Schools. Our Literacy and Urban Education projects are more centralized than our aging projects, as they mostly involve central programs that take place at a number of sites throughout the district.

The centerpiece of our partnership has been the School/Community Tutorial Program, a partnership that began in 1995. Here we have collaborated with the Department of Instruction as well as district teachers and literacy specialists at MSU to develop strategies to incorporate university students into after-school program. In the current academic year, more than 200 MSU students, under the direction of our program and six faculty members, will serve as Literacy Champions and tutors in the Montclair Public Schools, where MSU students are granting one book per month to each participating STARS student. A total of approximately 500+ MSU students will be providing service to Montclair Public School students in this and other projects district-wide, including special education programs and the Writers’ Room at Montclair High School and Glenfield Middle School, throughout this academic year, and we hope our partnership and commitment continues to grow. Click on the link above to learn about all of our on-going Literacy and Urban education projects in Montclair.

Literacy Champions & STARS Calculation After-School Program

STARS students, like many struggling readers, have minimal reading opportunities at home. As such, they do not have adequate opportunities to listen to the rich language of stories, think about the meaning of stories, or ask questions about aspects of the story they do not understand. Our goal is to have service-learning students help fill the gap between home and school by providing rich literacy opportunities to students enrolled in the STARS program. To accomplish this goal, the MSU Service-Learning program will develop and implement a literacy initiative that promotes and celebrates reading by providing each child enrolled in the STARS program with free books each month.

Through a partnership with First Book, a national non-profit that provides free and discounted books to campus literacy initiatives that serve low-income children, the MSU Service-Learning program will be granted free books, have the ability to purchase quality books at a deep discount, and have access to other educational materials. Good quality literature is the key to any literacy initiative, and will be critical to service-learning students’ ability to provide opportunities and motivation for children to read. As currently planned, STARS students will receive one First Book per month from their service-learning. The book(s) will serve as platform to engage children in various literacy activities over a two or three week period. These activities include book read-alouds, story retelling, and book extension activities such as the use of graphic organizers and book-making to develop comprehension and writing skills.

Through this book-centered approach, MBOE and its partners will: (1) provide more opportunities for STARS children to have a literacy experience with a caring adult who can model good reading behavior; (2) engage children in fun literacy activities that help improve important literacy skills such as fluency and comprehension; (3) cultivate a love for books and increase the likelihood that children see themselves as readers; and (4) foster much-needed literacy development in children that will enhance overall academic achievement.

STAR Calculations

In an effort to promote math achievement among STARS students the MSU Center for Community-Based Learning (CCBL) the Montclair Board of Education, and the Montclair Fund for Educational Excellence have teamed up to develop a math component for day-two of the STARS after-school program. One of the goals of the initiative is to ensure that STARS students receive supplemental support in math as a bookend to the literacy support that is provided on day-one of the program. Like Literacy Champions, STAR Calculations is intended to help fill the gap between home and school by providing math enrichment opportunities to students enrolled in the program. To accomplish these goals the MBOE Department of Instruction has developed a tutoring manual of grade level math activities that are aligned with New Jersey mathematic standards. Under the direction and supervision of MPS teachers, MSU America Counts tutors will use the manual to guide them in their work with STARS students. Among other activities, the America Counts tutors will teach STARS students how to use calculators to support their math instruction.

Through a grant provided by the Montclair Fund for Educational Excellence, The MBOE has purchased calculators for use in the after-school program. Each student participating in the STARS program will be given a calculator and will be taught how to use it as part of the STARS after-school curriculum. The calculators will be used throughout the program year and will given to STARS students to keep at the end of the school year.

Writer’s Room

America Counts / Reads

This is a special project of the Service-Learning program that incorporates Federal Work Study students into a program known nationally as The America Reads Challenge. We call our America Reads Project Links-to-Literacy. Each tutor works five to six hours per week in the classroom, providing one-to-one tutoring to two or three young struggling readers in first and second grade.

America Counts

This fall the Service-Learning Program in collaboration with the Office of Student Financial Aid launched an America Counts tutoring program. America Counts is a Federal Work Study program that allows the federal government to pay 100 percent FWS student's wages if he or she works as a math tutor for local schools and community-based organizations. In this initiative, over 50 MSU work-study students participated in STAR Calculations, a math program that is part of the STARS after-school program in Montclair Public Schools.