Mondays with Maryellen
Hi Everyone! I’m sorry this post is a couple of days late – “Mondays with Maryellen” is on Wednesday this week ☺. We just returned from a whirlwind series of workshops in both San Antonio, Texas and Billings, Montana. We had great audiences, fabulous times with colleagues, and of course the San Antonio RiverWalk, the Alamo and the Big Sky Sunsets were marvelous to visit. Sheila’s 20-month-old daughter Casey and our friend Mary accompanied us on this trip — we’ve included some photos!
San Antonio was 95 degrees – wow! Billings was comfortable in the 70s. However, when we returned to Massachusetts, it was to a 19-degree morning! Alas, Fall, the prelude to snow in New England!
The trip to Billings and the return to the 19-degree morning prompt me to relate a new invitation we’ve received: A visit to Alaska upon the invitation of AKSHA—Alaska Speech Language and Hearing Association 2016 Convention next October...
A Trip Down Memory Lane: Feelings and Character Description Using a Classic Golden Book
The Saggy Baggy Elephant, written by K. and V. Jackson, was first published in 1947 as part of many tales in the Little Golden Book series. I was recently reminded of this story when my neighbor’s grandson brought it to me to share. First published in 1942, Little Golden Books were created as an affordable choice of books that appealed to children. The books originally sold for 25 cents (www.randomhousekids.com/
goldenbooks) each. These books are still readily available to children, and, as of 2002, over 2 billion Little Golden Books were in print.
The following is The Saggy Baggy Elephant outlined as a basic complete episode...
Adobe Voice gives “Voice” to Narrative or Expository Language
It’s Technology Tuesday, and this month we will cover a simple, free tool to practice combining visuals and oral narration to produce an engaging video! A main goal of using MindWing’s Story Grammar Marker® and ThemeMaker® tools is to provide structure for oral discourse. Narrative or expository maps provide a “plan” for the elements of discourse, along with key words to help students connect their thoughts when formulating a story or explanation. In this way, a culminating activity of using any language map can involve asking students to “connect the dots” in formulating a complete story or using expository language. Adobe Voice, a free, easy-to-use app, provides a fast and motivating way to do this!...
Writing: Expository/Informational Descriptive Map to Paragraphs
Today, we will look at some writing samples using the topic of Koalas and ideas to scaffold the process from using the Character Descriptive Map to paragraphs. As stated previously, any book/resource that you use may be adapted to these activities.
We used several resources including:
We followed the same procedure as in the Armadillo and Cheetah lessons: reading short segments, making a list of facts, and placing each fact in the correct category (physical appearance, habitat, food and eating, young, special characteristics)...
Teaching SGM® Components — continued 2
Back by popular demand: Use this new story to review the SGM components in a group or to sharpen student awareness of narrative structure.
- Read the story below to the child. (download printed version).
- Review the SGM® components on the SGM® Teacher Marker.
- Have the students draw or stamp the icons above the correct SGM® component. Note that the story is a complete episode, the first paragraph having the character, setting, initiating event, feeling and plan stated; the second paragraph containing all the planned attempts to carry out the plan; and the last paragraph having the direct consequence (tie-up) and resolution (feeling about how the story ended). We have found it helpful to go paragraph by paragraph. (See completed version)
- Using the Teacher Marker, model retelling the story to the children.
- After the activity is completed, have the student(s) work with a partner, Turn and Talk, and use his/her SGM® Student Marker to retell the story.
Create Visual “Explanimations” to go with your Expository Lessons
On this Technology Tuesday, our monthly post in which we describe a simple technology resource that can be useful in integrating MindWing’s tools in your work, I wanted to align with recent posts describing resources for expository language, specifically listing and describing. As these posts describe, almost any text can be used as a context for analyzing expository language (see also the many engaging expository texts in the EPIC! app). In addition to Thememaker® expository language maps, a number of apps serve as a “blank slate” for you to create a short-or more extensive—activity targeting these language structures.