Writing

We are often asked which books/materials to use with the SGM^® and ThemeMaker^® maps. Although there are many suggestions given in our manuals, the answer is: any selection that you are using will work! The strength of the SGM/ThemeMaker lies in the fact that it is a flexible approach that adds needed scaffolding to make text, whether narrative or expository, assessable to all students.

A recent post, Exploring Expository Text Using the SGM Descriptive Map (August 12, 2015), focused on transitioning from the Narrative Character Map to the Expository Character Descriptive Map.

It’s an Armadillo! written by Bianca Lavies was the text chosen for that first post. Today, we present an extension of this Descriptive Map activity with the topic of cheetahs, which we have presented whole group in grades 2-4. You may modify to meet your needs...

Creating foldables is one way to make reinforcing the SGM icons an enjoyable experience. Using a flipbook and our Icon STAMPede Stamp Activity Set is a versatile way to engage students. There are a variety of flip book ideas online which may be adapted to this activity and the stamps make it easy for students themselves to create their own booklets during centers.

The Basic Flip Book/STAMPede activity…

1. Decide which icons you would like students to work on… this will vary by what you want to reinforce with your students
2. Place as many sheets of paper as needed, one on top of the other...

By Patricia Reilly Giff  — Read the story to the children. Review the Character Map. Discuss using illustrations and text to help fill in the maps. We have found it helpful to have a list of personality traits which have been generated by the children posted in the classroom. As the year progresses, add to the list. You may also like to add the title of the story and name of the character that the trait reflects… this makes it a nice way to reference back to previous stories that the students are already familiar. It is important to discuss WHY you choose certain personality traits to describe characters.

Over the years I have developed a special interest in collecting and using picture books that are tangential to the classroom curriculum. It’s wonderful to find books that contain touches of our content areas but aren’t “in your face” about it! These books can engage students in a story (and thus help them develop narrative language) while also providing a context to access abstract curriculum areas.

Although many schools cover this topic at different times of year, Spring is a great time for a science unit on the five senses. For younger students, this is a basic overview on how we experience the world though hearing, sight, smell, taste and touch. For older students, these simpler concepts can serve as an entry point to the more difficult intricacies of how the sensory system works. Additionally, May is Better Hearing and Speech Month in the USA and May Month in Canada, so what better time to talk about the sense of hearing, and maybe sync with some lessons about hearing and speech?...

Read the book to the students. Review the character map and the categories with the children. Reread Flossie to the children having them listen to details to use on the Character Map. Pair the children and give them the Character Map to complete. Have them write the character’s name under the character icon.

With the students participating, complete the Character Map with the class showing the pictures and/or reading the text that relate to the each section of the map. This book lends itself very well to this activity as the text is simple and illustrations are wonderful. We have used this activity with students in K-3, modified according to the needs of the grade level.

Below are two samples from second grade students.

The MindWing Narrative and Expository Maps are to me an invaluable part of the visual language tools within the Braidy the StoryBraid^®, Story Grammar Marker^®, and ThemeMaker^® programs. Of course the SGM iPad App gives you one option to work with the icons in these programs digitally while scaffolding language development--but it’s not the only way!

Google Apps for Education is a resource that is now implemented in many public school districts, allowing for digital creation, storage, sharing, and collaboration on word processing and other types of documents. The power of Google Apps (a.k.a. “Drive” or “Docs” — they all pretty much mean the same thing) is that it gives you access to your files from any computer or device, and allows you to share important information between key staff members without handing off any paper! If your district has not implemented Google’s tools, you can also access all of them for free with a Google account (i.e. if you have a Gmail, you can just navigate to your Google Drive). Click on the “matrix” of squares in any Google account to navigate between apps, including Google Drive...