ThemeMaker® Master Class—Dates TBA

PRESENTS

ThemeMaker^® Master Class

Break Down Informational Text
To Build Knowledge

For the first time ever, we are offering our popular 6-hour THEMEMAKER^® WORKSHOP for Informational Text—virtually via Zoom Meeting—and it is open to the public!
We have tailored and curated the “best of the best” contents and activities from the thousands of ThemeMaker^® Informational Text workshops and training sessions we have presented over the past 25 years to design a distance learning experience that closely mirrors our in-person workshops.

DATE & TIME

Date: Two Days, Dates to Be Announced
Time: Three hours each day
Location: Zoom Live Virtual Meeting
Included: Extensive E-Book with Templates, Progress Monitoring Forms, Lessons, and Activities; Certificate of Completion; 0.6 ASHA CEUs (if eligible)

MASTER CLASS DESCRIPTION

Story Grammar Marker^®’s focus is narrative development (stories). Our ThemeMaker^® method centers on informational text (expository text) which is found in content area sources such as: websites, news shows, sciences, social studies, history, current events, true fact books, textbooks, podcasts, biographies, magazines, cookbooks, documentaries, product manuals, in nonfiction literature, and in everyday life!

Due to its complexity, expository text is challenging to teach. Our Master Class provides an evidence-based method for integrating informational text structure strategies and underlying oral language skills into your instruction. Since 1996, ThemeMaker^® text structure strategies have helped students to think about, remember, and use the information they are learning, rather than learning isolated skills and memorizing facts. The presenters of this Master Class will share how to teach students to activate background knowledge, grow oral language for informational text, generate inferences, monitor comprehension, make connections among and within texts, find the main idea, learn new vocabulary, and write informational passages.

Using MindWing’s ThemeMaker^® method, the presenters will conduct activities using selections of literature, science, and social studies with ThemeMaker^® maps, hands-on and digital resources, and lessons.

ThemeMaker^® is a uniquely designed approach that organizes the already familiar “icons” of the Story Grammar Marker^® into concrete mental models of the 7 informational text structures.

When these text structure strategies and corresponding transition words and phrases are integrated into the instruction of informational text, students build both their higher-order thinking skills and their knowledge simultaneously.

PRESENTERS

Maryellen Rooney Moreau, M.Ed. CCC-SLP

Maryellen is the Founder and President of MindWing Concepts. Her 50-year professional career includes school-based SLP, Assistant Professor, Diagnostician, and Coordinator of Intervention Curriculum and Professional Development. She created the Story Grammar Marker and was awarded two U.S. patents. In 2011, Moreau received the Boise Peace Quilt Project Award for her work with children in the area of conflict resolution and social communication. In 2014, she received the Alice H. Garside Lifetime Achievement Award from the International Dyslexia Association, Massachusetts Branch (MABIDA) for exemplary leadership, service, or achievement in the area of helping children with dyslexia and language learning disabilities Moreau is an internationally recognized presenter.

Linda M. Lafontaine, M.A., CAGS, CCC-SLP

Linda received her master’s degree in Speech-Language Pathology in 1981 from the University of Maryland. In 2014 she received her CAGS designation from American International College as a Reading Specialist. Linda has practiced in many settings, including hospital, public and private schools. She is the former Principal of the Curtis Blake Day School of the Children’s Study Home, for students with dyslexia/LLD. Linda has presented at the Massachusetts Speech-Language Hearing Association and the American Speech-Language Hearing conventions. She also presented on the topic of “Narratives” at a learning disabilities conference in the United Arab Emirates. In her current role, Linda uses her 25+ years of experience with Story Grammar Marker^®, ThemeMaker^® and MindWing’s other methodologies as a trainer, presenter, and co-author on new publications.

Learner Outcomes

Participants will be able to…

• identify ThemeMaker^®’s 7 primary informational text structures: description, sequence, list, compare/contrast, cause/effect, problem/solution, and persuasion/argument.
• explain how ThemeMaker^®’s text structure strategies are different than the traditional method of teaching informational text.
• facilitate the growth of students’ oral language skills in preparation for discussions of informational text.
• integrate ThemeMaker^® text structure strategies to teach describing, listing, and sequencing, as well as develop students’ higher-order thinking needed for similarities and differences, causes of problems, effects of solutions, and arguments for or against issues.
• expand use of domain-specific vocabulary and complex sentence structure.
• increase students’ content knowledge and literacy knowledge in both natural and social sciences.
• teach students how to break down informational text passages in order to activate background knowledge, grow oral language, make connections, find the main idea, learn new vocabulary, generate inferences, monitor comprehension, and deepen oral and written communication.

Course Cancellation Policy

There is a fee for this course and it will be rescheduled if cancelled for any reason. If for any reason, the course is cancelled by MindWing Concepts (and can NOT be rescheduled), MindWing Concepts, Inc., will notify participants via email and refunds will be issued. If you are ill or there is another emergency and you are not able to attend on these dates, we will transfer your registration for the next available SGM^® Master Class.

Disclosures

Financial

Maryellen Rooney Moreau, M.Ed., CCC-SLP, has ownership interest in MindWing Concepts, and holds intellectual property rights and patents. Maryellen is employed as president of MindWing Concepts. In that capacity, she writes books, creates materials, consults, trains, and presents.

Non-Financial

No relevant non-financial relationships exist.

Product Disclosure

This presentation will focus exclusively on narrative development with the Story Grammar Marker^® Approach and will not include information on other similar or related narrative development tools.

ASHA Statement

This program is offered for a maximum of 0.6 ASHA CEUs (6 hours, Intermediate level; Professional area). No partial credit will be provided.

THANK YOU!

ASHA CEUs will be provided by Community Rehab Associates,Inc. www.cratherapy.com

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