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All MindWing products incorporate Story Grammar Marker®’s patented icons to give children a visual, kinesthetic tool for help with “WH” Story Grammar questions and common graphic organizers. The SGM® delves into the “why” question: motivations, feelings, plans—all necessary for the development of critical thinking skills. The colorful, hands-on tools enable children to externalize the macrostructure of the story so they can concentrate on literate language features (microstructure).
The reason that MindWing’s methodology is so unique and child-friendly is the visual, kinesthetic, tactile tools, comprised of a series of patented icons that are colorful and meaningful. MindWing’s tools are three-dimensional, non-linguistic representations of narrative and expository structures. Children can see, touch and move these icons to cue them for the “Wh” questions about stories and help them to recognize text structures in content area selections.
MindWing Concepts provides highly interactive professional development workshops and multi-sensory materials for public school districts, private schools, early childhood settings and parents.
Our goal is to give every child—regardless of age, ability or culture—the skills to think, communicate & learn effectively in order to achieve academic and social success.
$ 19.95
The Universal Digital Icons: Complete Set of Braidy®, SGM® and ThemeMaker® Images Set contains 104 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.
Contains Braidy®, SGM® and ThemeMaker® icons — 142 images within a Powerpoint file, ready to use or to copy into other programs.
$ 7.95
The Braidy The StoryBraid® Digital Icons Set of 40 high quality, color images is to be used by professionals, parents, and students to expand the use and flexibility of the Braidy® methodology for expository (information) text.
Nothing can replace the look and feel of our Braidy® Doll and other Briady tools in the hands of young children. However, we know that having the icons in this additional format will be helpful in:
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.
$ 9.95
The Story Grammar Marker® Digital Icons Set of 33 high quality, color images is to be used by professionals, parents, and students to expand the use and flexibility of the SGM® methodology.
Although nothing truly replaces the “magic” of a student holding the Story Grammar Marker® tool in their hand, or using our other multi-sensory materials, our SGM® iPad App is a great way to use the SGM® on a digital platform. Even though the app is available, we 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.
$ 7.95
The ThemeMaker® Digital Icons Set of 31 high quality, color images is to be used by professionals, parents, and students to expand the use and flexibility of the ThemeMaker® methodology for expository (information) text.
Although nothing completely replaces our hands-on tools and manipulatives, our SGM® iPad App is a great way to use some of the ThemeMaker® icons (description, listing, sequence, cause/effect) 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.
$ 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
$ 78.95
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.
$ 164.95
Different from the SGM® Quick Start (our starter set) or the full Story Grammar Marker® Kit (geared for classroom use, grades 2-5), this Story Grammar Marker® KICK Start contains 7 vital SGM® materials that an SLP or specialist would need to “kick start” implementation of this approach across elementary grade levels and ability levels.
The Story Grammar Marker® Teacher manipulative is a hands on, multi-sensory tool for developing narrative language competence. It has colorful, meaningful, patented icons that represent the macro-structure of a story episode. Stories are the human mode of thought (Bruner) and provide a context for thinking about problems and making plans, and for sharing our thoughts, feelings, ideas, dreams, hopes, memories and beliefs in both academic and social situations. The SGM® addresses expressive and receptive language, reading comprehension, writing, pragmatics, perspective-taking, critical and creative thinking, social communication, executive functions, and self-regulation of emotions. It can be used in all tiers of intervention and instruction (MTSS).
The SGM® Manual contains the “how to”, the research base, the methodology, developmental stages of narratives, student maps, children’s literature analyses, ELL/cultural aspects, and suggested book lists. Stories for Teaching and Modeling Narrative Text Structure provides 5 stories analyzed up to the Complete Episode of narrative development for getting started with using the SGM® Approach and for quick assessment. The SGM® Stickers can be used in comprehension, writing/editing, for bookmarks and more! The Critical Thinking Triangle in Action Set and the SGM® Thinking Bubble are visual, kinesthetic tools with activities for deep thinking about the elements of kick-offs, feelings, plans, and mental states. The Cohesive Tie JAR-gon contains a creative, engaging group activity for learning how to use conjunctions to glue the elements of a story together. Each basic conjunction also contains a more complex synonym (ex. BUT and HOWEVER).
***$181.75 if each item is purchased separately
$ 139.95
Academic Conversations include 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:
($155.85 value)
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.
$ 179.95
"Learning is social and emotional. Decades of research in human development, cognitive and behavioral neuroscience, and educational practice and policy have illuminated that major domains of human development—social, emotional, cognitive, linguistic, academic—are deeply intertwined in the brain and in behavior. Moreover, all are central to learning and success." (www.aspeninstitute.org/, 2018) The Story Grammar Marker® is a cognitive-linguistic-social-emotional-academic approach with the goal of giving children the ability to be successful in school and in life.
Narrative Development provides the structure needed for children to “tell their story,” self-regulate emotions, and achieve goals - paving the way for problem solving and conflict resolution - all aspects of social emotional development. “Social and emotional learning (SEL) is the process through which children and adults understand and manage emotions, set and achieve positive goals, feel and show empathy for others, establish and maintain positive relationships, and make responsible decisions.” (casel.org)
Narrative Language Competence using the SGM® Approach fosters:
The materials included in this set assist teachers SLPs and specialists with help children with the Social Emotional Learning processes. It’s All About the Story and use of the Teacher Story Grammar Marker® Manipulative focuses on the components of the narrative episode. Making Connections, the SGM® Thinking Bubble and the Critical Thinking Triangle in Action Set fleshes out the elements of the Critical Thinking Triangle (kick off, feelings, mental states, plans) necessary for perspective taking, empathy building, and problem solving. Facilitating Relationships focuses on building central coherence, social problem solving, conversation initiation and repair, and social cognition. The SGM® Stickers can be used to make bookmarks for each student or for student journal entries, depending on age and ability.
The components of a narrative episode enable children to:
***$196.70 if each item is purchased individually.
$ 9.95
Braidy the StoryBraid® empowers children with the ability to tell their stories! And, the Super Braidy® Superhero Cape provides a motivating way to develop your students’ (child’s) storytelling superpowers!
Communicative competence and confidence is essential for social-emotional learning, language processing, academic conversations, writing, argument, problem-solving, critical thinking and SO much more in school and in life.
This Super Braidy® Cape is a creative, engaging and exciting way to encourage and reward the use of Braidy® in therapy and in the classroom. This bright red and deep violet satin cape, fastened at the neck with Velcro, sports the “Super Braidy” crest across the back.
Included are 9 Lessons, a downloadable Super Braidy® Storytelling Certificate, downloadable Story Starter Cards and the lyrics to the vibrant, catchy The Braidy® Song that is available on CDBaby, GooglePlay, iTunes, or wherever you get your digital music. Empower your students with Super Braidy® Cape!
$ 29.95
This set includes Narrative and Expository Mini Magnets AND Stickers: (1) SGM® Mini Magnets, (25) SGM® Icons Stickers, (1) ThemeMaker® Magnetic Snaps!, (25) ThemeMaker® Sticker Snaps!
This new set includes 3 NEW items. You get the 4th item for FREE ($38 sold separately). These mini magnets and low tack, reusable stickers are for use in therapy, small group, individual work, paired work and in classroom settings.
Item No. 03 027
$ 44.95
Set includes a 2-sided 11x17 Discourse and Thought Development Chart with DoK/Bloom’s 2-sided Taxonomy Wheel
Guide Book is Also Available By Itself Item No. 07 020
This Guide gets in-depth how to analyze text complexity using the Model of Text Complexity Triangle; Quantitative Measures, Qualitative Analysis and Reader and Task Considerations. Close Reading, SGM®/ThemeMaker®-style is also explained for helping students access complex text. Since their inception in the early ’90s, Story Grammar Marker® and ThemeMaker® have been used to tackle the case of complex text, as is evident in the included Discourse and Thought Development Chart that delves into content complexity for both narrative and expository text, as well.
Item No. 07 200
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
We hope this message finds you well and healthy. COVID19 is certainly the biggest“Kick-Off” that many of us have ever experienced. As teachers, specialists and/or parents, this thrusts you into the position of having to completely change how you teach, or how you deliver services or has put you into the homeschooling role. At MindWing Concepts, we want to do what we can to assist you with these distance learning and homeschooling challenges as well as offer alternative ways to access training and PD. Maryellen will continue to “GO LIVE” on social media daily and we will continue to offer FREE Webinars. THANK YOU! Thank you for being concerned with our personal well-being and the well-being of our small family...
I have always Zoomed and Skyped at work and done the occasional FaceTime, but in the past week I have spent A LOT of time on HouseParty, MessengerKids, GoogleHangouts, and Zoom. I have “HousePartied” with my friends on St. Patrick’s Day, and with my girlfriends from college on my BFF’s birthday. Maryellen and I held a Zoom webinar yesterday for 1098 teachers and specialists, and we have Zoomed with our friend and colleague in New Zealand many times. My 6-year-old daughter even got on “MessengerKids” (a Facebook app) yesterday and now video calls me on a whim, along with video chatting with her friends.
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