MindWing Concepts Blog

For this first Technology Tuesday of 2016, we’ll be sharing some strategies for delivering whole-class instruction, some involving electronics and others...simpler technology such as giant sheets of paper! We recently completed a series of lessons in a classroom on a consultation basis. From our perspective, strategies such as SGM^® benefit not only our students with specific needs, but also the entire classroom and teacher. For this series, we were seeking to integrate social-cognitive, language and executive function strategies for a particular student, but met an initial “Kick-Off.” Our principal raised concerns about devoting the time needed for 6 lessons and the potential impact of taking that time away from ELA instruction. This was easy to respond to, because:

• Narrative language has many social impacts as well as listening and reading comprehension, and, of course, involves the story-based language of responding orally in class and producing writing...

This year, one of our website goals is to provide lessons using novels, chapters from chapter books, short stories and, yes, picture books for clinicians and teachers who work with middle and high school students who are in need of discourse level language development services. On our yearly visit to each of the boroughs of New York City in December, 2015, many participants asked for such “higher level” examples.

It is important to note that picture books are key to development of narrative thought, social communication and inference building through the recognition of literary elements such as feelings, plans, mental states of characters through the coupling of illustrations and text. Often the clues to these vital elements are not visible when illustrations are not available...

The Little House by Virginia Lee Burton was first published in 1942 but remains a favorite of many. It tells the story of a Little House — from the house’s perspective — that is located in the country, is lived in, and surrounded by beauty.

As the Little House sees the distant lights of the city, she wonders what it would be like to live in the city, and as time goes on, she finds the city growing until she is surrounded by it and no one lives in her anymore...

Happy New Year!

The Story Grammar Marker^® is twenty-five years old this year, created in 1991. 2016 will be a year of celebrations that highlight our methodology as well as tools for instruction and intervention. To kick off the year, please use this new “SGM^® New Year’s Resolution Worksheet” (click here to download and print) with your students...

As we know, the Story Grammar Marker^®’s design reflects the research connecting language and literacy. The icons represent the components of narrative discourse, an underpinning of literacy. Teaching the SGM^® icons and their meanings will provide students with a scaffold to organize their thoughts in a meaningful way to communicate orally and in writing. Continuing with our setting ideas, today we offer one to reinforce the Star icon which represents the Setting, the where and when a story takes place. For those of you new to using SGM^®, the Star was chosen as the icon for the Setting because sailors...

This month we will discuss the acclaimed Zones of Regulation^® program and dovetailing with narrative instruction through Story Grammar Marker^®. All students must develop self-regulation skills for living and learning, an area defined by author Leah Kuypers as “the best state of alertness of both the body and emotions for the specific situation” (Kuypers, 2011). However, students with language-learning disorders and autism spectrum and related disorders can exhibit more significant struggles with managing their mind and body given their communication needs, as well as other factors such as sensory processing...