Early

When my children were young, one of our favorite summer pastimes was a weekly trip to our local library here in Springfield, Massachusetts. A recent visit reminded me to check out the many interesting programs available for children as well as adults. We are so fortunate! I remember teaching in the classroom and having a much anticipated visit from our city’s librarian who went over the many options for summertime fun. During my days as camp counselor, a walk with the campers to our local library was always on the agenda! A friend of mine who will be teaching elementary school this summer and I visited our local branch library to check out books for her to use to review SGM components with her students. The following are a few of the choices we made...

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!...

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...

To Maryellen: “Wishing you good luck and true friendship forever!”  This was the inscription that author Martin Nelson Burton wrote in November 2004, on Maryellen’s copy of Dear Mr. Leprechaun, Letters From My First Friendship. This is a delightful, true tale based upon the author’s childhood writings to his leprechaun friend. The original letters and the responses (written by the author’s father, aka The Leprechaun) are presented in the book. On each page, there is a leprechaun that younger children will enjoy searching for. The beautiful artwork of Clint Hansen was created with paper sculpture. The last page of the book gives a brief description of the sculpture process that children and adults will find fascinating...

Are you looking for a way to reinforce SGM icons with students in your small groups? Using the stamps from our Icon Stampede Stamp Activity Set and Post-It Filing Tabs, create a set of icons as shown below. I picked up a clipboard to store them in order. Notice how the set of Post-It notes are green, yellow, and red to correspond to the beginning, middle, and end of a story. Various sizes are available; you may also decide to cut the larger ones in half, depending on your needs. I like the 2 inch by 1½ inch size, as I found them easy to remove...