MindWing Concepts Blog

This is a MindWing Concepts Map of the components of a story taking into consideration “story grammar.” It is called “The SGM^® Episode Organizer.” The story grammar components, making up the beginning/middle/end of a story are shown as icons. The Character, Setting, Kick-off (problem or excitement), Feeling and Plan are in the beginning. The actions (attempts) to carry out the plan make up the middle and the Consequence and resolution make up the end.

Help them ask Who, What, When, Where & Why Using the Story Grammar Marker^®

Children often “don’t know” what they “don’t know!” Using the Story Grammar Marker^® manipulative, parents, teachers and specialists can give children the ability to ASK AND ANSWER “Wh” questions such as: Who, What, When, Where and Why. Development of these abilities improves children’s oral language, writing, critical thinking and comprehension. It also especially can help children in social situations and conversations.

Maryellen is having a conversation with her granddaughter Lauren at the age of two. Notice how Maryellen used a cuddly toy cow to encourage Lauren to remember a visit to a farm. The two had experienced the event is real time. This interaction centers on the memory of the visit and is expressed as a personal narrative...

It’s really exciting when a speech-language material is published that provides clinicians with a ready-to-go resource that jibes well with strategies we already have been teaching. Such is definitely the case with the excellent We Can Make it Better program recently released by Think Social Publishing and written by Speech-Language Pathologist Elizabeth Delsandro. We Can Make it Better is a set of 20+ stories in which social interactions go quite wrong due to “unexpected behaviors” by one of the characters. The materials and activities unfold in a very logical therapeutic structure that challenges students to “make it better” by deciding alternative actions for the characters...

Every year during the Superbowl, a few commercials stick out from the sea of repetitive beer, snack food, and summer blockbuster ads.  This past year, one of the best was Google’s Parisian Love ad, which told the story of an American’s romance with a French woman in a simple and brilliant way, as an unseen character “Googled” various search terms that reflected events in his life.  A follow-up ad about a girl switching schools, which I never saw aired, would be even more relatable for kids and is definitely a great model of a complete episode.

These commercials were so popular that Google created a wonderful tool that allows users to make their own Search Stories. Simply pick your search terms and the type of search you want shown in your movie (e.g. web, image, product, map, etc), select the music and upload to a YouTube account (if you have Gmail, you already have a YouTube account)...

Blabberize, a web app that allows you to add a talking “mouth” and recording for any picture, is a great tool for developing all kinds of organization and oral language skills. I recently used it with students in conjunction with a Setting Map from It’s All About the Story to develop descriptive skills and the concept of setting.  After having students pick a favorite setting, we located a visually supportive image of the place using Google Images.  Students completed a Setting Map and described key elements such as Location, Function/Use, Areas/Parts, etc.  We then downloaded the image, logged in to Blabberize, added a mouth and integrated the notes on the Setting Map into an oral description.  The example you can view here is one created with an individual student; you can always keep it shorter if you have a group!...