Maryellen Moreau’s Musings

Yesterday, we did a “Virtual Meet and Greet” with a 3rd Grade PLC in a school district in Connecticut. The 3rd grade teachers, special educators and specialists were all on Google Meets, and then Sheila and I joined for 30 minutes as guests. One of the questions that came about was in regard to the book “Officer Buckle and Gloria” by Peggy Rathmann. I love when I get asked about books that I have not previously analyzed, as it gives me the opportunity to showcase the flexibility of SGM^®! Here is my analysis below. I love to use these “seemingly simple” books with older students to have them investigate and talk about complexities within episodic organization and the use of vocabulary words (feelings/thoughts) and also cohesion within sentences as the students strive to discuss the book...

Recent federal funding and educational research has highlighted the need for trauma-informed programs and trauma-sensitive approaches. For many years I have shared how Story Grammar Marker^® can be used to help children in trauma to think about and express their “stories” (personal narratives) as well as how to think about kick-offs, feelings and plans in life. Story Grammar Marker^® is aligned with trauma-informed care. SGM^® is an effective tool to use with trauma-informed strategies for working on oral language development, critical thinking, and social-emotional learning. In my research, I came across an article entitled “Want Your Children to be Kinder? Try This Assignment” by Justin Parmenter. The author encouraged his students to be “Undercover Agents of Kindness” as they each drew the name of a classmate and planned to perform a mission of kindness: “an unexpected act of kindness for the classmate.” After doing the unexpected act of kindness, the students were asked to write a “mission report…detailing what they did and how it went.”

All of the upcoming MindWing workshops have a social communication component in addition to the need for oral language narratives as a base for literacy. The title above is exactly what we are attempting and intending to do! Make the oral language, particularly the narrative language connection, to vulnerable children in our care. The ability to tell one’s own personal story, independent of prompting by others is of vital importance to children (and adults, for that matter!) throughout the world. The Story Grammar Marker^® tools and approach serve this purpose: hands-on, self-cueing, icon-based system, multisensory in construct, following evidence-based social communication focus as well as application to academics in the areas of oral language, retelling, and writing!...

When viewing the emails on my computer today, I came across an article from Education Week Teacher entitled “Want Your Children to be Kinder? Try This Assignment” by Justin Parmenter. The author encouraged his students to be “Undercover Agents of Kindness” as they each drew the name of a classmate and planned to perform a mission of kindness: “an unexpected act of kindness for the classmate.” After doing the unexpected act of kindness, the students were asked to write a “mission report,” “detailing what they did and how it went.”...

Today I finished a blog for our website about using the Story Grammar Marker^® and/or Braidy the StoryBraid^® with Aesop’s Fables. The blog was the result of a discussion with colleagues centering on problems teaching a fable as a read-aloud with few illustrations as guides. My comments focused on the need to develop perspective taking in our students so that they will be able to see both sides (perspectives). What led me to write this piece today? I received my latest issue of the Journal of Adolescent and Adult Literacy (International Literacy Association). Connections to my Aesop’s Fables blog were made with an article listed below: Branum, Lezlie & Strong, Ashley & D'On Jones, Cindy. (2018).
Mitigating Myside Bias in Argumentation. Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy. 62. 10.1002/jaal.915...