MindWing Concepts Blog

A trip to a local dollar store is always an adventure for teachers as we keep an eye out for items to use in our classrooms. Today, I netted a package of 75 plastic multi-colored counting chips, an inch and a half in diameter. With summer approaching, I also found a child’s small sand pail. Back at my desk, I took out my set of MindWing's Icon STAMPede Rubber Stamp Set and stamped out a complete episode, one stamp per chip...

Last month I visited the MindWing Concepts offices to lead a small group workshop on integrating tech tools with Story Grammar Marker^® and Thememaker^®. One of the biggest topics of interest involved ways to use MindWing’s story and expository maps on laptops, iPads and even within Google Apps, and we spent a chunk of time exploring these possibilities. We thought that this topic could use an update on the blog, so here we go! First of all, some rationale. Why might you want to work with these tools digitally (meaning the files—PDFs—provided with your purchase of any MindWing manual, either via CD-ROM in previous years, or more recently, via a free download code within the manual)? A few reasons:...

As I was reviewing blogs written last year at this time in May, I came across one (Magnetic Spinner Activity for Narrative Expository Text Questions) that used the Narrative/Expository Text-Based Question Cards from MindWing’s The “Core” of the Core manual (pages 171-182). This manual is chock-full of ideas for classroom use, both whole group and small group instruction. These narrative and expository questions may be used for both fiction and nonfiction. All you have to do is print them, laminate, and cut… then choose the ones which reinforce your student goals. The questions are easily paired with your current reading selections and with SGM maps. You may also add your own questions, modified for your students, but the ones presented will certainly get you started!...

Last week, Maryellen Moreau, creator of Story Grammar Marker^®, consulted with two special educators in southern Connecticut about a student with Autism. This particular child’s evaluation recommended Story Grammar Marker^® as an intervention. The school hired Maryellen to work with this child’s teachers as well as larger groups of staff in the school to get everyone on board with the SGM^® methodology. During our first session last week, one special educator looked up at Maryellen and with awe in her voice said, “This is just so amazing. It is so simple…yet so, so deep. I know I will be able to do so much with this – with so many different students. How did you EVER think of this?” The answer to that question is that it happened in the late 1980s while Maryellen, a speech language pathologist, was Curriculum Director at the Curtis Blake Day School in Springfield, MA (a private placement for children with dyslexia and language learning disabilities)...

Are you an educator or parent who has used Braidy® the StoryBraid^® or Story Grammar Marker^®? If so, you have likely realized the true depth and breadth of this approach and how much these tools help your children/students, who have various abilities, in so many social and academic areas. You might have tried to share these tools with colleagues or collaborators but their remarks (below) that are meant to downplay the depth of these meaningful tools and convince you that it is not necessary to collaborate with you...

“That’s cute.” You are right! It IS cute, which is one reason it is engaging for children. But in addition to being cute, do you know that the Story Grammar Marker^® is rooted in discourse language development research and it is designed to make this evidence-based methodology accessible to educators and children by having meaningful colorful icons, an appealing texture and being hands-on?...

In April, Autism Awareness and Acceptance month, we have a specific focus on the population of students with autism spectrum disorders, awareness of their strengths and challenges, as well as strategies to help them be successful. This diagnosis often accompanies difficulties in social attention and situational awareness, as well as the ability to use narrative language to describe situations. And what is a situation? Essentially it comprises people (Characters) in a place and time (Setting) when events typical to the situation or unexpected for the situation (Kick-Off) occur. Besides the clear tie-in with Story Grammar Marker^® in this regard, also see the work of SLPs Sarah Ward and Kristen Jacobsen on the Space, Time, Objects, and People (STOP and Think) model of situational awareness...