The Greenwood School
Encyclopedia
The Greenwood School, established in 1978 by educators in the field of dyslexia
, is situated on a 100 ac (40 ha) campus outside Putney, Vermont
, 12 mi (19 km) north of Brattleboro in the south eastern part of the state. The Greenwood School is boarding and day school for boys ages 9 to 15 at time of admission. There are 41 boarders, 5 day students, and 20 teachers. The school has recently added 9th and 10th grades. The Greenwood School is accredited by the New England Association of Schools and Colleges
and is approved by the state of Vermont
and is a member of the National Association of Independent Schools
.
One major objective of the Greenwood School is to maximize the academic potential of boys with learning difficulties. Greenwood serves boys with language-based learning deficits, including dyslexia
, math deficits, writing deficits, comprehension deficits, memory and processing weaknesses, ADD/ADHD, Executive Function deficits, and difficulty reading social cues. Another major goal is to help these boys discover and develop their talents in many non-academic areas including art, music, sports, wood- and metal-working, drama, community service, and leadership.
, phonics
, morphology
, and orthography
. Students spend one hour a day in a language tutorial to study and practice reading, spelling, comprehension, handwriting, and writing from dictation. All instruction is multisensory, structured, sequential, and sensitive to students’ individual learning styles. Because written work is such a difficult process for most students with a language-based learning disability, Greenwood students spend an additional period in writing instruction. Assistive technology
programs such as Dragon NaturallySpeaking, Inspiration and Kurzweil are used to aid students in the writing process. The language remediation described above is combined with an academic curriculum that includes science, history, literature, art, music, crafts, and athletics. Twice daily study halls provide students with the opportunity to apply skills independently. All students attend weekly group social pragmatics lessons, and for some students speech and language therapy, occupational therapy, and/or additional social pragmatics are also part of Greenwood’s academic program.
The academic center houses the school library and assembly room, the dining hall, and 12 classrooms. A recent partnership with the Yellow Barn Music School and Festival has added nine eco-friendly, cabin-like classroom spaces that Yellow Barn uses as rehearsal spaces during the summer and Greenwood uses as supplemental classrooms during the school year.
The gym, which includes an indoor skate park and climbing wall, is used for physical education and large gatherings. A recently-expanded woodshop and pottery studio and the administrative building complete the list of buildings on campus.
Annie Quest, Art, Social Pragmatics and Drama teacher. Singer-Songwriter, recording artist, puppeteer. Her two-woman group The Annies
was recognized with a 2008 Parent's Choice Approved Award for their Crazy Stew CD.
Bruce Rosow – Academic Dean. Co-Author of Spellography: A Student Road Map to Better Spelling. Was recently recognized by the National Council on Teacher Quality as one of only three teacher-trainers in America named as "leaders in the field who provide excellent models of what future teachers should know about reading".
Dyslexia
Dyslexia is a very broad term defining a learning disability that impairs a person's fluency or comprehension accuracy in being able to read, and which can manifest itself as a difficulty with phonological awareness, phonological decoding, orthographic coding, auditory short-term memory, or rapid...
, is situated on a 100 ac (40 ha) campus outside Putney, Vermont
Putney, Vermont
Putney is a town in Windham County, Vermont, United States. The population was 2,634 at the 2000 census.On December 26, 1753 Col.Josiah Willard led a proprietors' petition for a Putney charter which was issued by Governor Benning Wentworth of the New Hampshire Grants under King George II of England...
, 12 mi (19 km) north of Brattleboro in the south eastern part of the state. The Greenwood School is boarding and day school for boys ages 9 to 15 at time of admission. There are 41 boarders, 5 day students, and 20 teachers. The school has recently added 9th and 10th grades. The Greenwood School is accredited by the New England Association of Schools and Colleges
New England Association of Schools and Colleges
The New England Association of Schools and Colleges, Inc. is the U.S. regional accreditation association providing educational accreditation for all levels of education, from pre-kindergarten to the doctoral level, in the six-state New England region. It also provides accreditation for some...
and is approved by the state of Vermont
Vermont
Vermont is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. The state ranks 43rd in land area, , and 45th in total area. Its population according to the 2010 census, 630,337, is the second smallest in the country, larger only than Wyoming. It is the only New England...
and is a member of the National Association of Independent Schools
National Association of Independent Schools
The National Association of Independent Schools is a U.S.-based membership organization for private, nonprofit, K-12 schools. Founded in 1963, NAIS represents independent schools and associations in the United States, including day, boarding, and day/boarding schools; elementary and secondary...
.
One major objective of the Greenwood School is to maximize the academic potential of boys with learning difficulties. Greenwood serves boys with language-based learning deficits, including dyslexia
Dyslexia
Dyslexia is a very broad term defining a learning disability that impairs a person's fluency or comprehension accuracy in being able to read, and which can manifest itself as a difficulty with phonological awareness, phonological decoding, orthographic coding, auditory short-term memory, or rapid...
, math deficits, writing deficits, comprehension deficits, memory and processing weaknesses, ADD/ADHD, Executive Function deficits, and difficulty reading social cues. Another major goal is to help these boys discover and develop their talents in many non-academic areas including art, music, sports, wood- and metal-working, drama, community service, and leadership.
History
The Greenwood School was founded in May 1978 by a group of parents, educators and other professionals in the field of dyslexia. Tom and Andrea Scheidler became co-directors of the school, and purchased the site in Putney, VT from the Experiment in International Living. Since 1986, The Greenwood School has been accredited by The New England Association of Schools and Colleges.Philosophy and Academics
With a 2:1 student to teacher ratio, classes are small at the Greenwood School, ranging from 1 to 10 students. Greenwood’s remedial language program uses a diagnostic-prescriptive approach, including the Lindamood-Bell and Orton Gillingham methods. The program targets all aspects of literacy, including phonologyPhonology
Phonology is, broadly speaking, the subdiscipline of linguistics concerned with the sounds of language. That is, it is the systematic use of sound to encode meaning in any spoken human language, or the field of linguistics studying this use...
, phonics
Phonics
Phonics refers to a method for teaching speakers of English to read and write that language. Phonics involves teaching how to connect the sounds of spoken English with letters or groups of letters and teaching them to blend the sounds of letters together to produce approximate pronunciations...
, morphology
Morphology (linguistics)
In linguistics, morphology is the identification, analysis and description, in a language, of the structure of morphemes and other linguistic units, such as words, affixes, parts of speech, intonation/stress, or implied context...
, and orthography
Orthography
The orthography of a language specifies a standardized way of using a specific writing system to write the language. Where more than one writing system is used for a language, for example Kurdish, Uyghur, Serbian or Inuktitut, there can be more than one orthography...
. Students spend one hour a day in a language tutorial to study and practice reading, spelling, comprehension, handwriting, and writing from dictation. All instruction is multisensory, structured, sequential, and sensitive to students’ individual learning styles. Because written work is such a difficult process for most students with a language-based learning disability, Greenwood students spend an additional period in writing instruction. Assistive technology
Assistive technology
Assistive technology or adaptive technology is an umbrella term that includes assistive, adaptive, and rehabilitative devices for people with disabilities and also includes the process used in selecting, locating, and using them...
programs such as Dragon NaturallySpeaking, Inspiration and Kurzweil are used to aid students in the writing process. The language remediation described above is combined with an academic curriculum that includes science, history, literature, art, music, crafts, and athletics. Twice daily study halls provide students with the opportunity to apply skills independently. All students attend weekly group social pragmatics lessons, and for some students speech and language therapy, occupational therapy, and/or additional social pragmatics are also part of Greenwood’s academic program.
Facilities
Boarding students live in the Greenwood dormitory, which has twenty-four student rooms, four faculty apartments, and three common rooms. The dorm is designed to allow developmental grouping. The remainder of the resident teachers live in Himmel House and in the Director’s and Assistant Director’s houses.The academic center houses the school library and assembly room, the dining hall, and 12 classrooms. A recent partnership with the Yellow Barn Music School and Festival has added nine eco-friendly, cabin-like classroom spaces that Yellow Barn uses as rehearsal spaces during the summer and Greenwood uses as supplemental classrooms during the school year.
The gym, which includes an indoor skate park and climbing wall, is used for physical education and large gatherings. A recently-expanded woodshop and pottery studio and the administrative building complete the list of buildings on campus.
Sports and Recreation
A physical education instructor and four coaches head a variety of seasonal sports and outdoor activities, including interscholastic soccer, basketball, and baseball as well as intramural track, rock climbing, volleyball, bowling, archery, outdoor leadership, and cross-country and downhill skiing. A network of trails that wind through the 100 acre (0.404686 km²) campus are used for hiking, mountain biking, and cross-country skiing. A 2 acres (8,093.7 m²) pond is available for science classes, fishing, and boating; and the campus has an outdoor skate/bike park and dirt jump area. The winter sports program includes a weekly trip to Mount Snow for downhill skiing, snowboarding and terrain park.Summer and Spring Vacation Program
The Greenwood School’s CONNECT Program provides dynamic, challenging and fun community service-learning programs individualized for boys with learning differences that foster self-reflection, mutual responsibility, and a commitment to community.National Recognition
The Greenwood School was recently featured on Public Television’s National Education Report.Notable faculty
Derrik Jordan, Music teacher. Recording artist, award-winning singer-songwriter, composer, producer, and multi-instrumentalist (electric violin, percussion, guitar, piano and voice).Annie Quest, Art, Social Pragmatics and Drama teacher. Singer-Songwriter, recording artist, puppeteer. Her two-woman group The Annies
The Annies
The Annies are an acoustic guitar and vocal children's music and puppet performance duo from Putney, Vermont made up of Annie Frelich and Annie Quest. Their live shows are characterized by the interaction between original music, stories, and a number of puppet characters that the Annies operate...
was recognized with a 2008 Parent's Choice Approved Award for their Crazy Stew CD.
Bruce Rosow – Academic Dean. Co-Author of Spellography: A Student Road Map to Better Spelling. Was recently recognized by the National Council on Teacher Quality as one of only three teacher-trainers in America named as "leaders in the field who provide excellent models of what future teachers should know about reading".