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Problems at the discourse level of language development are evident when students experience difficulties using language to think, communicate, and/or learn. Our goal is to give children – regardless of age, gender, ability, race, gender, socioeconomic status, or culture – the literacy skills, problem solving skills, and communicative competence to be successful in school and in life.
By providing professional development training and materials for teachers, parents and specialists, MindWing Concepts helps children:
The Story Grammar Marker® Approach and related focus areas are designed to link language to literacy by targeting “discourse development” (conversation, narratives, and expository text) through use of engaging, hands-on, multi-sensory tools and colorful, distinctive icons.
Implementation of this Approach and instructional materials in the home, clinic, school, district, state, or at the national level supports children’s progress in essential academic, social, and personal areas. Ultimately, we want to help children become literate, confident, healthy, independent, empathetic, happy people in their homes, schools, their communities and workplaces, and in their interpersonal relationships.
$ 197.00
For the first time ever, we are offering our popular 6-hour THEMEMAKER® WORKSHOP for Informational Text—virtually via Zoom Meeting—and it is open to the public!
We have tailored and curated the “best of the best” contents and activities from the thousands of ThemeMaker® Informational Text workshops and training sessions we have presented over the past 25 years to design a distance learning experience that closely mirrors our in-person workshops.
Date: Wednesday March 3, and Thursday March 4, 2021
Time: 6:00-9:00 PM EST (each day)
Location: Zoom Live Virtual Meeting
Included: Extensive E-Book with Templates, Progress Monitoring Forms, Lessons, and Activities; Certificate of Completion; 0.6 ASHA CEUs (if eligible)
This Master Class is open to the public. To register, add this THEMEMAKER® MASTER CLASS to your shopping cart and check out. You'll receive a confirmation receipt by email prompting you to register for the class. You will then receive a Zoom Link. ALL REGISTRANTS will have access to the RECORDED VERSION of this Master Class until March 25, 2021. If you watch the recording ONLY, you will be eligible for Certificate of Completion only. You are eligible for the 0.6 ASHA CEUs only when participating LIVE in the class (see ASHA CEU information).
Story Grammar Marker®’s focus is narrative development (stories). Our ThemeMaker® method centers on informational text (expository text) which is found in content area sources such as: websites, news shows, sciences, social studies, history, current events, true fact books, textbooks, podcasts, biographies, magazines, cookbooks, documentaries, product manuals, in nonfiction literature, and in everyday life!
Due to its complexity, expository text is challenging to teach. Our Master Class provides an evidence-based method for integrating informational text structure strategies and underlying oral language skills into your instruction. Since 1996, ThemeMaker® text structure strategies have helped students to think about, remember, and use the information they are learning, rather than learning isolated skills and memorizing facts. The presenters of this Master Class will share how to teach students to activate background knowledge, grow oral language for informational text, generate inferences, monitor comprehension, make connections among and within texts, find the main idea, learn new vocabulary, and write informational passages.
Using MindWing’s ThemeMaker® method, the presenters will conduct activities using selections of literature, science, and social studies with ThemeMaker® maps, hands-on and digital resources, and lessons.
ThemeMaker® is a uniquely designed approach that organizes the already familiar “icons” of the Story Grammar Marker® into concrete mental models of the 7 informational text structures.
When these text structure strategies and corresponding transition words and phrases are integrated into the instruction of informational text, students build both their higher order thinking skills and their knowledge simultaneously.
Maryellen is the Founder and President of MindWing Concepts. Her 50 year professional career includes: school-based SLP, Assistant Professor, Diagnostician, and Coordinator of Intervention Curriculum and Professional Development. She created the Story Grammar Marker and was awarded two U.S. patents. In 2011, Moreau received the Boise Peace Quilt Project Award for her work with children in the area of conflict resolution and social communication. In 2014, she received the Alice H. Garside Lifetime Achievement Award from the International Dyslexia Association, Massachusetts Branch (MABIDA) for exemplary leadership, service or achievement in the area of helping children with dyslexia and language learning disabilities Moreau is an internationally recognized presenter.
Linda M. Lafontaine, M.A., CAGS, CCC-SLPLinda received her master’s degree in Speech-Language Pathology in 1981 from the University of Maryland. In 2014 she received her CAGS designation from American International College as a Reading Specialist. Linda has practiced in many settings, including hospital, public and private schools. She is the former Principal of the Curtis Blake Day School of the Children’s Study Home, for students with dyslexia/LLD. Linda has presented at the Massachusetts Speech Language Hearing Association and the American Speech Language Hearing conventions. She also presented on the topic of “Narratives” at a learning disabilities conference in the United Arab Emirates. In her current role, Linda uses her 25+ years of experience with Story Grammar Marker®, ThemeMaker® and MindWing’s other methodologies as a trainer, presenter, and co-author on new publications.
Participants will be able to…
| SESSION 1 | |
| 6:00-6:30 | Connection of Story Grammar Marker® to Informational Text and ThemeMaker® |
| 6:30-7:00 | ThemeMaker®’s 7 Informational Text Structures with selections of expository text |
| 7:00-7:30 | Activities to explore expository text selections and identifying text structures/features |
| 7:30-8:30 | Process of Integrating ThemeMaker®’s Informational Text structure strategies |
| 8:30-9:00 | Question and Answer |
| SESSION 2 | |
| 6:00-7:00 | Practice using informational text structure strategies with science and social studies |
| 7:00-8:00 | Domain Specific Vocabulary, Signal Words and Expository Features |
| 8:00-8:30 | Group Activities with nonfiction and informational literature |
| 8:30-9:00 | Question and Answer Session |
There is a fee for this course and it will be rescheduled if cancelled for any reason. If for any reason, the course is cancelled by MindWing Concepts (and can NOT be rescheduled), MindWing Concepts, Inc., will notify participants via email and refunds will be issued. If you are ill or there is another emergency and you are not able to attend on these dates, we will transfer your registration for the next available SGM® Master Class.
Maryellen Rooney Moreau, M.Ed., CCC-SLP, has ownership interest in MindWing Concepts, and holds intellectual property rights and patents. Maryellen is employed as president of MindWing Concepts. In that capacity, she writes books, creates materials, consults, trains and presents.
No relevant non-financial relationships exist.
This presentation will focus exclusively on narrative development with the Story Grammar Marker® Approach and will not include information on other similar or related narrative development tools.
ASHA Statement
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This program is offered for a maximum of 0.6 ASHA CEUs (6 hours, Intermediate level; Professional area). No partial credit will be provided. |
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THANK YOU! |
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Item No. 08 104
$ 407.00 $ 492.78
The ThemeMaker® Master Class with Implementation Kit for Informational Text is a combination of training and tools with a HUGE, never-been-offered-before savings and an incredible VALUE!
This special bundle includes 6 hours of virtual synchronous Professional Development (asynchronous recording available as well), a 100+ page eBook, Certificate of Completion and 0.6 ASHA CEUs (if eligible). It also includes 20 ThemeMaker® materials and tools to effectively implement this methodology whether you are teaching remotely or in person. The total value of this bundle is $492.78!
Due to its complexity, expository text is challenging to teach. Our Master Class provides an evidence-based method for integrating informational text structure strategies and underlying oral language skills into your instruction. Since 1996, ThemeMaker®’s informational (expository) text structure strategies and related materials have helped students to think about, remember, and use the information they are learning, rather than learning isolated skills and memorizing facts.
— Learn More About the ThemeMaker® Master Class —
Participating in the Master Class training and using this set of materials, participants will be able to teach students to activate background knowledge, grow oral language for informational text, generate inferences, monitor comprehension, make connections among and within texts, find the main idea, learn new vocabulary, and write informational passages.
Item No. 06 501G
$ 139.95
Academic Conversations includes a set of conversational concepts that can be modeled and practiced to help all students engage in extended meaningful conversation about narrative or informational texts (Zweirs, 2011). The skills include the following:
Academic conversations are important oral language uses to develop the deep comprehension task of interpretation of the content of a story. This “group interpretation” and discussion results in content needed for ultimately writing about the character’s challenge/trouble or problem, and then, how the character ultimately deals with it and moves on in life.
This is a multifaceted language processing task which requires students to respond in an expository way: state a claim, elaborate, clarify, support own and add to others’ ideas, challenge perspectives, paraphrase (“I think you mean...”) and summarize.
Deepening Discourse and Thought is road map for using Story Grammar Marker® with a selection of quality children’s literature for in-depth analysis which is necessary for building the narrative and expository language competency necessary for academic conversations.
$ 99.95
This group of materials includes three of our best-selling and most foundational products. At conferences and conventions, colleagues ask, “What are the basic items I need to get started with Story Grammar Marker®?” This Story Grammar Marker® Quick Start is the answer. Get started TODAY!
Includes:
Learn More About The SGM® Manual
Includes:
Learn More About Stories for Teaching...
The Teacher Story Grammar Marker® is a 24-inch manipulative with removable patented icons. The marker is designed to assist education professionals in the instruction of narrative development to their students.
More About The SGM® Teacher Manipulative
Item No. 03 200
$ 89.95
Get started by focusing on Oral Language Development for young children in early childhood settings (PreK- 1st grade), using Braidy the StoryBraid®, an engaging way to help young children tell their own story and re-tell stories. The Braidy® Manual shares how to implement Braidy® using children’s literature, activities, drawing, maps for narrative development, transitions, conflict resolution, conversations, personal narratives and problem-solving.
Our Friend Braidy Interactive Poster is a motivating hands-on tool that appeals to early childhood education students. The iconic structure of Braidy scaffolds narrative and oral storytelling following the developmental sequence of language acquisition. Targeted lessons foster meaningful conversation skills, problem-solving, and comprehension for your youngest students! A must-have for early childhood educators!
Item No. 01 000-QStart
You are allowed to download the icons to 4 devices.
$ 78.85
Jump right into using the icons of the Story Grammar Marker® to tackle expository (information) text. The ThemeMaker® Manual explore the 7 expository text structures of description, list, sequence, cause/effect, problem/solution, compare/contrast and persuasion/argument. The ThemeMaker® Student Tool contains the SGM® Complete Episode, the Critical Thinking Triangle®, the 7 Expository Text Structures and Inferencing. To make text structures and their contents visible to learners, use our NEW SGM® Mini Magnet Set.
You are allowed to download the icons for 4 devices.
$ 79.95
This set is an even more advanced set for those professionals who want to focus on deepening discourse and social learning with their students using online videos specifically chosen for this purpose. The YouCue Feelings book is a guide to using specific online videos and activities for this purpose. This set includes an expanded group of SGM® tools as well as the Critical Thinking Triangle® In Action! Set. This combination of instruction, activities and materials will help in identifying social cognition and narrative thought concepts in specific online videos and enable use of SGM® tools to analyze the story/social situation.
Using the Critical Thinking Triangle In Action! Set with the online videos can help teach perspective-taking of characters, problem solving and how to build complex language. Incorporating the videos with the SGM® materials will help students to deconstruct characters and personal mental states and thoughts as well as practicing with “mental” dialogue with the videos.
YouCue Feelings guides students in thinking about, talking about, and ultimately, practicing important social learning ideas in their everyday lives.
Prod. No. 03 303G
$ 49.95
Prod. No. 01 500G
$ 39.95
Prod. No. 03 500G
$ 19.95
The Universal Digital Icons: Complete Set of Braidy®, SGM® and ThemeMaker® Images Set contains 127 high quality, colorful, icon images from MindWing Concepts’ narrative and expository text approach. This set can be used by professionals, parents, and students who have a range of ages and abilities in their students, clients or children and want access to all of the icons.
Although nothing truly replaces the “magic” of students holding the Story Grammar Marker® tool and other MindWing tools in their hands, these digital icons expand the use and flexibility of Braidy®’s, SGM®’s and ThemeMaker’s approach. Our SGM® iPad App is another a great way to use our icons on a digital platform. That being said, we also know that having the icons in this additional format will be helpful in other ways such as:
Thank you for respecting our trademarks, copyrights and intellectual property. Please refer to the download-file-included Usage Agreement for information about authorized use of the icons. You are allowed to download for 4 devices.
Contains Braidy®, SGM® and ThemeMaker® icons — 142 images within a Powerpoint file, ready to use or to copy into other programs.
$ 174.95
Deepening student knowledge through discourse language development is a key to student engagement. Our latest product is chock full of hands-on materials and activities that are explained, laminated, and ready to use! Based upon reciprocal teaching and learning strategies, you will be able to guide students as they engage in complex projects and academic tasks through explicit instruction in the structure and use of discourse processes. The kit also includes our innovative Discourse and Thought Development Chart which graphically demonstrates the process of deepening knowledge through oral discourse development.
This Kit contains:
This new cutting-edge Kit applies a macro-strategy approach to narrative and expository text selections. Pulling together discourse level language development and Webb’s Depth of Knowledge, this Kit shows students how to use text structure as a guide to create text dependent questions and answers and encourages the development of self-teaching procedures.
Facilitate the modeling of strategies to increase comprehension and encourage academic discussion using included pragmatics chart and conversation moves cards. Also, use this Kit to help children develop complex sentence structure using cohesive ties and other academic vocabulary.
Prod. No. 03 095
$ 39.95
The Critical Thinking Triangle® In Action! Thought Process Manipulative was created to make specific use of the Critical Thinking Triangle®—the crux of the Story Grammar Marker®, our tool for narrative development, story-telling, personal narratives, comprehension, writing and social communication.
This Manipulative is an enhancement to Story Grammar Marker® and contains 5 elements that connect and interact among each other to enable students to think about their thinking: to infer, solve problems, resolve conflicts, take perspective and more!
Thinking deserves its own hands-on tool. This new tool makes it possible for children to actually manipulate, talk about, and comprehend the elements of the Critical Thinking Triangle® including:
Watch a Webinar Using The CTT in Action!
Extended Demo Lesson Video with Three Second Graders
Prod. No. 07 100
Download the Complete Product Catalog
HASKINS LABORATORIES at YALE UNIVERSITY used Braidy the StoryBraid® for the comprehension and expression module of a 4-year, US Office of Education Developmental Study on early literacy acquisition: “Students made an average of 1 year’s growth in reading skills after 45 hours of RtI instruction.” See Evidence-Based Research
MindWing Concepts, Inc. is the owner of U.S. Patent 5,658,150 and Pending Application Number 29/284061. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
MindWing Concepts Icons are Protected Under "Portfolio of MindWing Images" U.S. Copyright Office Registration Number VAu 1-300-209
See Also “Maryellen’s Musings” Blog
I wanted to know exactly HOW the COVID19 Vaccine worked and WHY you should join our ThemeMaker® Master Class… Learn how to use ThemeMaker® for teaching your students informational text by giving them the strategies, modeling, visual supports, and guided, step-by-step practice to handle the cognitive load and deconstruct the information necessary for reading informational texts, answering complex questions, and forming arguments. Read below for an example of this learning process in my life. Imagine one of your students wanting to know this information and navigating this process. Would they have the tools they need to do it?...
Get ready to Jam! This past year, Google introduced the interactive and collaborative tool Jamboard, which could not have come at a better time given the pandemic and our need to engage students via distance learning. Jamboard allows for quick and easy co-creation of visuals in a shared space via addition of images, sketches, text boxes and post-its. Therefore, it is a great venue for making interactive scenes, brainstorming, and generating language on graphic organizers. To access Jamboard, follow the steps you would to get started with any Google tool: go to the “waffle” in the upper right corner of a Google space such as Gmail or Drive, and select Jamboard...
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