Manipulative objects have long been an essential tool in the development of mathematics knowledge and skills. A growing body of evidence suggests using manipulative letters for decoding practice is an also an effective method for teaching reading, particularly in improving the phonological and decoding skills of students at risk for reading…

Today 195 countries exist in the world. The purpose of this review was to provide a global picture of the services and opportunities for individuals with dyslexia. The intent was not to provide an exhaustive review of each topic, but rather to provide examples of what is occurring in different countries around the world. Through an Internet…

In this article, the author narrates her application of what she learned from her internship at Sally Smith's Lab School of Washington to her new school and shares the favorable impact it had brought on her teaching career. The author shares her first exposure to the powerful effects of Smith's "Live It, Learn It" methodology as she…

The first edition of "No Easy Answers" (Smith, 1995) was published in 1979, thirty years ago. That seminal work is as relevant today as it was when the book first appeared. This article provides a description of how Sally Smith's Academic Club Method is implemented in the High School program of The Lab School of Washington.

Sally L. Smith had a clear vision of how she thought speech and language services should be integrated into her school, The Lab School of Washington. It was Smith's idea that language therapists should work individually with students to help them make gains in their particular areas of need, as well as to work collaboratively with the teachers,…

Founded in 1967, The Lab School of Washington (LSW) has been educating students with learning disabilities using an arts-based curriculum for over 50 years. Sally Smith originally started the school out of frustration with the inability of traditional educational environments to reach her intelligent, but learning disabled, young son and others…

Art and science are intrinsically linked; the essence of art and science is discovery. Both artists and scientists work in a systematic but creative way--knowledge and understanding are built up through pieces of art or a series of labs. In the classroom, integrating science and visual art can provide students with the latitude to think, discover,…

Central to The Lab School model is Sally Smith's Club Methodology, the full immersion of students into a time period where historical information is learned through multi-sensory activities. While immersed, through the use of costumes and elaborately decorated classrooms, students are engaged in project-based learning. As the student's…

In this article, the authors recall how the Academy in Manayunk adopted the famous Sally Smith's club methodology. They share how the influence of Smith pushed the school faculty and staff to create a school that focuses on the individual child and celebrates the unique talents and interests that each brings to the learning community. It is based…

What this author admired most about Sally Smith was the fact that she was a visionary about people and what they could accomplish. She saw more potential in a person--young or old--than anybody or even they themselves, frankly, had ever even considered possible. She was a genius at seeing the potential in people, expecting them to find it in…

In this article, the author shares how Sally Smith, founder of The Lab School of Washington, was right about her being a "history person" when she was assigned to teach Democracy at the Lab School. The author was hired to teach Democracy in 1996, after working in the Junior High for a year as an assistant teacher. Smith explained to the author…

To most people in the author's profession of Special Education, the "D" means "disabilities." At The Lab School of Washington, the "D" means "different"--learning "differently" and teaching "differently." Sally Smith, the founder of the school, had this uncanny ability to see things in her staff that they could not. The year the author graduated…

The purpose of this article is to provide teachers, tutors and parents with an effective and enjoyable approach to practicing reading fluency, increasing comprehension and encouraging the joy of reading, based on the theories and methods of Sally L. Smith. This method can be applied and adapted to individual student's needs. Sally Smith, the…

In recent years, Arts Education in America's secondary schools has been underfunded, undervalued, and underdeveloped. Music, in particular, has been under siege in the "No Child Left Behind" era as teachers increasingly teach students to pass specific written tests, and administrators focus on improving these test scores and struggle with related…

Students with learning disabilities have significantly lower achievement in math and science than students from the general population. If these students with learning disabilities also are English Learners, the challenges for success in math and science are even more difficult. Teachers need to infuse best practices into their classrooms to…