MindWing Concepts Blog

After a TORNADO, an EARTHQUAKE and now a looming HURRICANE, at MindWing we have become preoccupied by the weather. Usually snowstorms are our biggest threat! The past couple of months of weather have been surreal. We have had workshops cancelled and have spoken to colleagues and friends throughout the east coast who have had school called off due to the hurricane warning.

The paragraph below about Hurricane Irene was found yesterday on http://thesiweather.com/ and exemplifies the IMPORTANCE OF COMPREHENDING EXPOSITORY TEXT IN A “REAL LIFE” SITUATION. Below the paragraph are ThemeMaker® maps organizing the complex, extensive information from this weather report. We thought this could be used for a “content area” lesson...

Are you looking for a fun summer get-away with a purpose? How about a trip to scenic New England?

A few out of state colleagues asked, “What could my family do if they came with me and I attended both of your workshops this summer?” So, we put together a sample itinerary we thought we’d share:

• You could fly into Bradley International Airport in Hartford, CT on the weekend of July 16/17. (Make sure to rent a car that has GPS so that you will have no problems finding your way around New England!)
• Over the weekend into Monday, you could drive to New York City, it is about 90 minutes from there. Here is a link (http://www.iloveny.com/) to help you navigate the many attractions including: Rockefeller Center, Ground Zero, Time Square, Empire State Building, Statue of Liberty, and maybe even catch a Broadway Musical!...

There have been a number of apps for iOS (iPad/iPod/iPhone operating system) that have been released in recent months that seem like they were created for use with Story Grammar Marker! Digital Storytelling apps such as Story Patch allow children to create stories while having an emphasis on narrative structure, with choices about character, setting and actions. Students with language disorders will need assistance with organizing, expanding, and adding complexity to their narrative and sentence structure, and that is where you and the SGM come in!

In this video, I give a quick walkthrough of Story Patch (iPad only, currently only $.99- yes, that’s 99 CENTS) and its choices for story creation. You’ll see how its “Create a Story with Help” mode is a great opportunity...

April is Autism Awareness Month, and I wanted to highlight one of my favorite tools that I employ with students with autism spectrum and related disorders: The Incredible 5-Point Scale by Kari Dunn Baron and Mitzi Curtis. The 5-Point Scale is a tool designed to help students understand the confusing, emotional and language-heavy range of human behaviors by boiling it all down to a scale of 1-5. The approach is very versatile and can be applied to many situations and target behaviors, such as emotional state, voice volume or scales to help students grade their responses to everyday occurrences such as a “Participation Scale” within the classroom...

Maryellen Rooney Moreau '68 is one alumna who has turned her undergraduate thesis into a lifelong career. Over 40 years ago, Moreau completed an honors thesis on language development in the department of communication arts and sciences, which is now known as communication disorders. Her thesis prompted a continued interest in researching the link between oral language development and literacy, turning Moreau into an entrepreneur whose business has changed the way educators teach...

ThemeMaker, Mindwing’s expository companion to Story Grammar Marker, helps children break down and produce the more challenging expository text that becomes central to learning as they advance through the grades! I have found that children are more open to working with expository text once they learn that the familiar SGM icons can help them along the way! While each ThemeMaker Expository Text Map (e.g. List, Sequence, Description, Compare-Contrast) is helpful on its own, kids need to be moved toward understanding that ALL of these structures are contained in curriculum discourse and text!

That can seem like an overwhelming task, but it becomes manageable and fun using a recently developed and FREE online tool, GlogsterEDU, a site that tells all students to “poster yourself!” What is a poster, really, but a display of information that utilizes these key expository structures? Using GlogsterEDU, you can choose and research any topic with your students using ThemeMaker maps and icons, then create a “Glog” with pictures, images and graphics, text (structures!) links, and even recorded audio and video if you wish!...