Academics

L. M. Smith Middle School employs many instructional strategies and approaches to address the learning preferences and needs of ALL learners, such as Understanding By Design (UbD) as its endorsed instructional methodology.  This methodology employs is the use of in-depth and rigorous classroom projects to facilitate learning and assess student competence.   Project-based learning is an instructional method that provides students with complex tasks based on challenging questions or problems that involve the students' problem solving, decision making, investigative skills, and reflection that includes teacher facilitation, but not direction. PBL is focused on questions that drives tudents to encounter the central concepts and principles of a subject hands-on. Students form their own investigation of a guiding question, allowing students to develop valuable research skills as students engage in design,problem solving, decision making, and investigative activities. Through Project-based learning, students learn from these experiences and take them into account and apply them to the world outside their classroom. PBL is a different teaching technique that promotes and practices new learning habits, emphasizing creative thinking skills by allowing students to find that there are many ways to solve a problem.  Research has proven that this type of active and engaged learning inspires students to obtain a deeper knowledge and understanding of the subjects in which they are studying. The core idea of project-based learning is that real-world problems capture students' interestand provoke serious thinking as the students acquire and apply new knowledge in a problem-solving context. The teacher plays the role of facilitator, working with students to frame worthwhile questions, structuring meaningful tasks, coaching both knowledge development and social skills, and carefully assessing what students have learned from the experience. Project-based learning helps prepare students for the thinking and collaboration skills required in the workplace.