MindWing Concepts Blog

It’s amazing how quickly summer flies by! I have mentioned many times that throughout my 38 years of teaching, I always appreciated the fact that each school year brought about new opportunities to improve my teaching techniques. Not all occupations offer one a chance to reflect on what worked and what could be refined, both in materials and delivery, with the overall goal of building upon children’s strengths. From our group at MindWing, we wish you a successful school year and hope you enjoy the following blog to help with ideas to “KICK-OFF” your school year!...

Recently, I saw a clever sound blending idea on Pinterest using rings and small cards. It reminded me of our very popular blog using popsicle sticks to teach story elements using the Story Grammar Marker®. With these thoughts in mind, here are two ideas that are simple to make and easy to transport from one site to another making them ideal for teachers/interventionists/therapists who move from class to class...

Kids love talking about the beach, and so many Kick-Offs can happen in a beach setting! While not everyone is close to a coastal beach, trips to beaches or pools with family are a hallmark of summer, and can be a great context for narrative work during summer sessions or upon return in the fall. Here are a number of technology resources that can serve as contexts and scaffolding for this summer topic. The Toca Life apps, featured here on the MindWing Blog previously, are excellent contexts for any level of narrative development. Toca Life: Vacation features a number of Settings from which you can develop descriptive elaboration: a beach (naturally), airport, and hotel. Toca Life: Town contains several homes...

Maryellen recently received a very special package at her MindWing office in Springfield, MA. Inside was a lovely note along with a recently published children’s book, Narwhal Makes a Sandwich. This book is written by Laura Addington, a Speech Language Pathologist, and Aryn Franklin, an Occupational Therapist, and illustrated by Tara Put, also a Speech Language Pathologist. As written in the note, they used the Story Grammar Marker^® to scaffold their story! We thought you would enjoy this selection outlined as a Complete Episode...

Today we are winding back the clock to the early 1990s. While cleaning out her basement, Maryellen Rooney Moreau, creator of Story Grammar Marker^®, found some really cool SGM^® “mementos” from the early days of SGM^® when she started this business in her basement. To the right is Maryellen (today) standing next to the first-ever banner that was made for trade shows and conferences that Maryellen attended when she first published Story Grammar Marker^®. It is complete with vinyl lettering and fancy, colorful decals. To Maryellen’s far left is the life-size custom cut-out of Story Grammar Marker^® from last year’s American Speech Language Hearing Association Convention. WOW! There is quite a difference...

I recently came across a book, Fireflies! written and illustrated by Jule Brinkloe, that I had used to demonstrate the concept of two episodes in a story: the first episode leading to a new Kick-Off, creating a second episode. Told in the first person, the beautiful pencil drawings compliment and enhance the story of a young boy learning a valuable lesson of letting go and doing the right thing. Following, we have analyzed the book in two episodes...