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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, ability, race, 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.
In 2003, Carol Westby, Ph.D., CCC-SLP, did a review of the SGM® for Word of Mouth magazine; in it, she writes:
“Telling stories puts a tremendous load on working memory because students must engage in several activities simultaneously. When children tell a story, they must keep in mind the overall gist of the story they are telling while simultaneously organizing each utterance, linking the utterances together in a temporal/causal sequence, and making certain that all utterances link to the theme and overall organization of the story. The Story Grammar Marker® reduces the load on working memory by externalizing the global structure and sequence of components in stories. This allows students to concentrate on translating their ideas into words and sentences to convey the content of each element of the story. When using the SGM®, they do not have to keep in mind where they are in the story.”
$ 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.
Prod. No. 03 099G
$ 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.
Prod. No. 06 050G
$ 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
$ 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 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.
Prod. No. 04 090
$ 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
$ 309.70 $ 358.55
This special bundle includes a hand picked combination of 29 Story Grammar Marker® materials and tools for the most effective implementation of this methodology whether you are teaching remotely or in person! Currently, educators are faced with remote, hybrid, and/or in-person models for teaching and providing therapy. These various “modes” of delivery created additional hurdles for all of us. How can we possibly focus on leveling the playing field for our kids, teaching grade-level content, and ensuring they have the skills needed to achieve along with their peers? As we know, the problem cannot be solved with a hack, a quick fix or a no-prep lesson. The solution must have a scope and sequence, as well as a research and evidence base. It must work seamlessly with all modes of delivery, with all students, and with all curricula.
The unique combination of materials that can be used in remote as well as in-person teaching and therapy are:
This bundle will support you in your ability to…
Prod. No. 03 502G
See Also “Maryellen’s Musings” Blog
We’ve spoken in this space before (blog link) about the links between narrative language and problem solving that can be scaffolded through the use of Story Grammar Marker® and its relevant icons, particularly the digital kit. Moveable icons are very useful in guiding thinking and discussion when bringing students back to a relevant detail (or story element) that they may not have been considering. See also the work of Westby and Noel (2014) on the connections between story and problem solving. Recently I have been working with several students on test-taking skills and strategies, a process in which it is helpful to address the thought processes, self-talk, as well as social cognition and self-regulation that underlie this situation...
In a little deviation from what might be considered “high” tech this month, I’ve recently been thinking a lot about the role of play in language 
interventions. Play is closely connected to narrative, as we often use story components to structure our play. I recently presented at ASHA Convention providing a “Play on Words” (click here for the handouts), and discussed a variety of playful contexts that can be used to target language (including narrative) and social learning. In particular, cooperative games with a shared goal and no real “winner”— except the group—can be used to target many communication skills...
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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
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