Story Grammar Marker - MindWing Concepts

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Table of Contents Letter to Educators .........................................................................................................6 Preface ............................................................................................................................7 Introduction ....................................................................................................................8 Using the Story Grammar Marker® to Explain Its Value. Challenges and Opportunities: The secret and scope of the SGM. Chapter 1 What is Language? ......................................................................................................13 Lessons to build a solid foundation for classroom communication behaviors.

Chapter 2 What is a Story? What is the Story Grammar Marker® and How Does It Work?...............................................................................................25 Making the teacher’s marker and understanding the components of the SGM. Chapter 3 The Narrative Developmental Stages of the SGM....................................................35 Teaching the narrative stages through literature and identification of cohesive ties. Eaboration of macrostructure and microstructure of narratives. A word about narrative structure for students of different cultural backgrounds.

Chapter 4 How Can I Use the Story Grammar Marker® with My School’s Reading Program?

How Can It Be Used to Include All Students Across All Ability Levels?...................51 Lessons to help you differentiate instruction, provide intervention and prepare read-alouds for your students. Tutorial for narrative text analysis.

Chapter 5 How Do I Know Where My Students Are Developmentally?....................................79 Do they have “story sense?” Is it a story? SGM Developmental Checklist and The Cumulative Authentic Assessment Criteria Form to help you assess oral and written narrative abilities in authentic contexts.

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Chapter 6 How Can I Use the SGM with My School’s Writing Program? ................................101 Reproducible Self-Reflective Checklist and Peer Editing Checklist help your students become “meta” by focusing on their developmental stages.

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Table of Contents (continued)

Chapter 7 How Can I Use the SGM Throughout My School’s Curriculum? .............................115 Suggested language-based strategies: the SGM as a scaffold to literate language.

Chapter 8 How Can I Help Parents Better Communicate with Their Children? .....................119 Hints for using SGM language at home: increasing family literacy.

Chapter 9 How Can I Expand My Knowledge of Discourse Skills?..........................................123 An annotated bibliography Chapter 10 How Can I Interest Other Professionals in Discourse Skills Within the Classroom? ...................................................................129 Staff Development Plan designed by public school professionals.

Appendices A: Glossary of SGM Components and Writing Maps ................................................136 B: Goals and Benchmarks for Each Developmental Stage.........................................171 C: Lessons for Using the SGM: Preschool to Grade 6................................................175 D: Children’s Literature Listed By Developmental Stages ...........................................179 E: Transcribed Verbal Retellings...............................................................................189 F: Written Retellings ................................................................................................191 G: Example of An Interaction with The Writing Process..............................................199 H: References..........................................................................................................205 About the SGM’s Creators .........................................................................................208

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Where to Turn for Help ..............................................................................................209

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Preface I was intrigued when Maryellen first told me about the teaching tool she had developed. After talking and reading about the SGM, I discovered its secret: kids love it and use it! What a simple but powerful tool to teach story narratives and comprehension. The SGM’s hands-on, concrete structure makes it a great tool for all students: those who are at-risk, as well as the critical thinkers.

Parents and teachers can open up books — and the world — by introducing this loveable critter to their children. It’s a friendship that will benefit them for the rest of their lives.

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Jim Trelease Author of The Read-Aloud Handbook

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BEFORE YOU BEGIN ®

What is The Story Grammar Marker ?

Character: who?

Setting: where?

Initiating Event: what?

Internal Response: how?

Plans of Action: what?

Attempts/Action: how?

Direct Consequences of Action: what?

Resolution: how?

This icon represents a person, animal, or other being.

The Star was chosen as the icon for the Setting because sailors, when they’re lost at night, look to the Stars to determine their location and direction. The Star is a good center for a semantic map or web.

The shoe was chosen by students themselves, because the Initiating Event is the “kick-off” of the story, just as the “kick-off” is the beginning of a football game.

The Heart represents the Feelings a Character has in response to the Initiating Event.

The Plan is represented by a hand, because a hand may signal “stop!” and make a Plan.

The Rings represent a sequence or list of Actions. When there is a Plan stated or inferred, the Rings represent Attempts to carry out the Plan.

The Direct Consequence of the story is represented by a bow because it “ties” the story together. It is called the “tie-up.”

The Resolution of the story is how the Character feels about the Direct Consequence, and is represented by a Heart. It may include a moral or lesson learned.

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SGM Moreau/Fidrych • Copyright © 1994, 2007. MindWing Concepts, Inc. 1-888-228-9746. www.mindwingconcepts.com

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Using the SGM To Explain Its Value

WHO Is This Manual For? CHARACTERS:

Classroom teachers Resource Room teachers Counselors/Psychologists Speech/language pathologists Reading teachers Chapter I teachers

WHERE Can It Be Used?

SETTINGS:

Real-life situations Classroom: • regular education • learning disabled • hearing-impaired • bilingual and culturally diverse • emotionally handicapped • ADHD

WHY Do You Need It? INITIATING EVENT:

INTERNAL RESPONSE:

PLAN:

Students have trouble comprehending what they read and hear, as well as organizing their thoughts for oral and written expression.

Teachers feel frustrated in not being able to adequately address the needs of their students.

Teachers need to interactively teach and model organizational structure necessary for comprehension and expression of oral and written language.

WHAT Do You Need to Do to Provide Structure For Your Students?

ATTEMPT #1:

ATTEMPT #2:

ATTEMPT #3:

ATTEMPT #4:

DIRECT CONSEQUENCE:

Understand underlying structure of language and how it impacts learning.

Understand the structure of the narrative’s story grammar and the developmental stages.

Understand how to use the SGM with children’s literature as an organizational structure in the classroom.

Use the SGM program to track progress formally and in authentic contexts.

WHAT Is the Result?

You’ve got a tool for classroom success.

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HOW Does the Use of This Tool Affect You? RESOLUTION:

You are energized by the positive effects of the SGM on your students.

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A WORD ABOUT NARRATIVE FOR STUDENTS OF DIFFERENT CULTURAL BACKGROUNDS As teachers, we frequently assume that children come to school with adequate oral language, but often the language of the home and the de-contextualized language of school don’t match. As a result, the child seems disabled when responding to our curriculum. Although story grammar is applicable to all students, teachers of children with different cultural backgrounds should be aware that many of these students come to the classroom fluent in a different narrative style than the standard one discussed here.

You may have noticed that many basal readers and children’s books include stories from cultures other than the dominant Anglo-Saxon tradition. In fact, your administration may already encourage you to increase your students’ awareness of these differences. In the next decade the study of cultures (called ethnography), and the resulting relationship of culture to society in general, will impact nearly every American classroom.

That’s why it’s important for you to understand now that the cultural background of your students will be reflected in their narrative styles.

CULTURAL DIFFERENCES IN NARRATIVE STRUCTURE Mainstream English-speaking Narrate details of what happened on an occasion (Westby, 1991) Hispanic Topic-associative (Michaels, 1981) African American Topic-associative (Michaels, 1981) Hawaiian Talk-stories weave teasing and fantasy into repetitive routines for a number of participants; Interrelationships of nature are essential; due to limited number of vowels and consonants (12) many syllables are repeated (Boggs & Watson-Gegeo, 1977; Nakasato & Hanohano, 1994) Japanese Succinct collections of experiences; often given in sets of three lines (Minami & McCabe, 1990) Native American Nonverbal means of communication such as bead work and dance are highly valued. Verbal interaction between adult and child may be minimal. Visual gaze, rather than language, is used as a means of controlling behavior. (Harris, 1985 & Crago, 1990)

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For example, in many cultures, including the very vibrant oral heritages of Hispanics and AfricanAmericans, narrative is associative rather than topic-centered. In the associative style, many people contribute to the narrative as the speaker weaves the tale. To teachers who are most familiar with topic-centered discourse, a student who uses an associative style may appear to be straying from the topic.

Michaels tells of an African-American girl who shared a story about buying a coat. In using a topiccentered style, the child would have focused on the coat, but the associative style with which she was most familiar took her in many other directions: her cousin got her sister’s coat dirty; the coat was covered in plastic. When the teacher insisted on pulling the youngster back to the topic of the coat, the student lost her place in the story, and then “shut down” and stopped sharing (Michaels, 1991).

SGM Moreau/Fidrych • Copyright © 1994, 2007. MindWing Concepts, Inc. 1-888-228-9746. www.mindwingconcepts.com

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In a study conducted by Champion (in press), results indicate that African-American English-speaking children for the most part produced topic-centered narratives with the use of evaluative comments regarding the characters. Findings also indicate the use of varying intonation patterns throughout the text of the narrative as reported by Michaels 1981. However, Champion also found that in addition to the topic-centered narrative, some children also produced topic-associative narratives similar to those described by Michaels.

In contrast, Native Hawaiian children tell ”talk-stories” that are repetitive because they have been handed down from generation to generation. Their language was originally oral, transcribed by missionaries only as recently as the 1800’s. To this island people, the elements of land, earth and sky are essential, interrelated elements, so that what may seem to the outsider as “fantasy” is rather an essential description of the interrelationships of nature. Due to the limited number of vowels and consonants (a,e,h,i,k,l,m,n,o,p,u,w), many syllables are repeated (Nakasato & Hanohano, Hawaii Department of Special Education, personal communication, January, 1994.)

Researchers have reported that there is often minimal verbal interaction between Native American children and adults and often the judgment as to whether a child has learned language is made on how s/he “understood what they were being asked to do” (Crago, 1990, p. 78.). Harris reports that Navajo mothers interpret “extremely active speech behavior as discourteous...and undisciplined.” (Harris, 1985, p. 45.) This may result in minimal verbal interaction in the school setting, particularly in the testing situation.

As educators, we must be attuned to varied styles and not only teach technical language skills, but support the student in thinking creatively and critically within the context of their own narrative tradition.

Delpit (1986) speaks for many educators when she says that “skills are best taught through meaningful communication, best learned in meaningful contexts.” (page 384) The SGM helps build those skills within the meaningful context of narrative.

As Delpit (1986) notes, “…If minority people are to effect the change which will allow them to truly progress we must insist on ‘skills’ within the context of critical and creative thinking.” (page 384) Many minority children have difficulty mastering the underlying thought processes of a subject or concept because they often come from cultures that value intuitive learning and nonverbal behavior more highly than linear thinking and the use of precise language (Jackson, 1994). The SGM is especially useful, since the teacher can explicitly model the linear thinking process used in a narrative.

Kayser, Montgomery, Perlmutter, Sanford, Simon, & Westby (1993) recommend a collaboration among professionals and scaffolded instruction as a key to successful programs for culturally diverse and limited English-proficient students.

With its emphasis on critical thinking, the SGM provides a stable foundation which so many minority children need to fulfill their potential.

SGM Moreau/Fidrych • Copyright © 1994, 2007. MindWing Concepts, Inc. 1-888-228-9746. www.mindwingconcepts.com

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SELF-REFLECTIVE CHECKLIST

ST U

CT Goal:

អ អ អ អ អ អ អ SG Goal: CT Goal:

I can use feeling words as reactions to the kick off.

I can tell someone what caused my character to feel the way s/he does.

I can find and tell someone the feeling words I used in my story.

I can use the character’s IR as the kick off of an episode.

I can use cohesive ties that show cause/effect (because, therefore, if then).

I will use the critical thinking triangle to tell someone how the character’s response IR to the IE leads to a plan.

I will use planning words.

I will use clear referring words so that my reader will know who or what I’m talking about.

COMPLETE EPISODE I can identify an episode.

I can tell the story from another character’s point of view.

I can tell someone each character’s different response (feelings) to the same IE. I can see that attempts are planned actions.

I can tell someone about the critical thinking triangle in this story.

I can find nouns that my words refer to.

I use cohesive ties to show direct consequences (therefore, as a result, consequently).

I will create an action that is not planned by my character (obstacle) or I will create an attempt that becomes an initiating event.

I will use clear referents.

I will use words to compare (like, as).

I will include cohesive ties to form complex sentences.

SGM Moreau/Fidrych • Copyright © 1994, 2007. MindWing Concepts, Inc. 1-888-228-9746. www.mindwingconcepts.com

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T

SG Goal:

EN D

អ អ អ អ អ

ABBREVIATED EPISODE

ST U EN D

______________________________________________ (READER’S NAME)

T

PEER EDITING CHECKLIST

LEVELS 1-5

_______________________________________________ (ROLE PLAYER’S NAME)

YES

NO

1. Did your partner read the title and show you any pictures?

YES

NO

2. Did your partner ask you to predict what the story will be about?

YES

NO

3. Did your partner read the story aloud?

YES

NO

4. Does the story have at least one main character

YES

NO

5. Does the story have a setting

YES

NO

6. Does the story (or each episode) have an kick-off

YES

NO

7. Does the character express a feeling

YES

NO

8. Can you tell the author what is the character’s plan

YES

NO

9. Are there attempts

YES

NO

?

(where/when)? ?

that leads to a plan? is?

to carry out the plan and solve the problem stated?

10. Is there a direct consequence

resulting from the plan?

11. How does the character feel about the consequence of the plan

?

(Resolution)________________________________________________________

YES

NO

Is there a new plan? ______________________________________________________ 12. What did you like best about the story? ____________________________________

YES

NO

13. Is there an attempt or episode that you would like to know more about?

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________________________________________________________________________ SGM Moreau/Fidrych • Copyright © 1994, 2007. MindWing Concepts, Inc. 1-888-228-9746. www.mindwingconcepts.com

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Appendix D

Appendix D ៓ CHILDREN’S LITERATURE LISTED BY DEVELOPMENTAL STAGES The following books have been grouped by narrative stage, starting with the most simple to the most complex. Note that many books may be used for more than one stage. For instance, if you choose a complete episode to read to your class, then a child who is at the reactive sequence stage would be responsible for retelling the story as a sequence of reactions and would include IE and reactions in the retelling process, whereas a child at the complete episode stage must include an IE, IR, P, A and DC. Just remember to: • •

Include the components appropriate for the child’s developmental stage.

Ask SGM component comprehension questions which are appropriate to your students’ individual levels.

You probably have favorite books which are not included in this list of picture books. You can easily make your own list of more advanced books by following three easy steps: • • •

First, identify the SGM component.

Then use the SGM Developmental Checklist from page 80–81. to determine the most advanced stage for each book.

Finally, apply these steps to identify stages within each chapter.

Remember, books can represent more than one stage, but as long as you can justify the components necessary for a stage, you can’t go wrong!

For assessment purposes, choose books which can easily be retold by students who are functioning at varying ability levels.

Stage #1 DESCRIPTIVE SEQUENCE Kerns, Kimberly & O’Brien. (1993). Baby Bop’s Toys. Allen TX: Barney. (labels person and things) Cater, Elizabeth. (1971). ABC Words, A Coloring Dictionary. Racine WI: Whitman. (can use any coloring book that labels pictures) Marzollo, Jean. (1992). I Spy. New York: Scholastic.

Wilkes, Angela. (1991). My First Word Book . New York: Dorling Kindersley. (categorizes) Scary, Richard. (1980). Richard Scary Best Word Book Ever. New York: Golden. (categorizes)

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Nielson, Claire. (1990). Look and Find Book. New York: Derrydale. (may also be used as an action sequence) SGM Moreau/Fidrych • Copyright © 1994, 2007. MindWing Concepts, Inc. 1-888-228-9746. www.mindwingconcepts.com

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