June 25 9 am-12:45 pm: The Social Academic Connection: Story Grammar Marker and the use of STORYBRAID to teach critical thinking

Preconference Workshop Day

Click for the presentation: pdf_button (color 60 pages) or pdf_button (bw 30 pages)

9 am - 12:45 pm with break - click for the preconference day's schedule: pdf_button

Maryellen Rooney Moreau, M.Ed., CCC-SLP

This evidence-based program dovetails beautifully with teaching core concepts related to the ILAUGH model of Social Thinking. Approx. 3.5 hour presentation. Learning Outcomes/Participants will be able to:

  • Learn how the Story Grammar Marker® and Braidy the StoryBraid™ help children develop the skills necessary for success in school, on high stakes tests and in life.
  • List and define the components and Stages of Development of a Narrative Episode (story macrostructure).
  • Generate “Wh” questions for use in Read Alouds & Think Alouds to scaffold storytelling and listening comprehension.
  • Identify and connect the narrative components that refer to critical thinking: kick offs, feelings and plans.
  • Assist children in expanding use of cohesive ties for the formulation of sentences within the episode.
  • Recognize “story sparkle” (story microstructure).
  • Analyze children’s literature for narrative structure.
Presenter

Maryellen began her professional career in the Hartford Connecticut Public Schools where she designed and taught the first language disabilities class in the city (one of the few in the nation at that time). She joined the faculty at American International College in Springfield, Massachusetts where, over the course of 25 years, she developed and taught courses in Speech and Language Development at the undergraduate and graduate levels. Also during her time at the College, she spear-headed the speech/language pathology and public school outreach components at the college's Curtis Blake Center for Child Development where she served as a diagnostician. Concurrently, she served as Coordinator of the Curriculum Intervention and Professional Development at the Curtis Blake Day School, a placement for students diagnosed with Dyslexia and language learning disabilities.

In 1991, she created the Story Grammar Marker®. Maryellen first field-tested the tool at the Curtis Blake Day School and local public schools. Since that time, the response to the Story Grammar Marker® has been very positive. Story Grammar Maker, in fact, has received a patent.

She is president of MindWing Concepts. She has a B. A. in Communication Disorders from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst and her M. Ed. in Communication Disorders from Pennsylvania State University.