This document provides an overview of oral language development and the importance of narrative skills. It discusses how narratives are the foundation of literacy and expand children's conversational abilities. It introduces the Story Grammar Marker, a hands-on tool that represents the organizational structure of stories. The document notes that narratives offer opportunities to support language use, emotional expression, and social cognition. It emphasizes that we think and learn in narrative form. The document also discusses how discourse skills are important for connecting oral language to literacy and for meeting Common Core State Standards.

1. Presenter:
Maryellen Rooney Moreau, M.Ed., CCC-SLP
Oral Language Development:
The Foundation of Literacy
Woolfolk Conference
OLLU’s Department of
Communication and Learning Disorders

2. Maryellen Rooney Moreau, M.Ed. CCC-SLP,
President & Founder, MindWing Concepts, Inc., Springfield, MA
– Financial: Maryellen has ownership interest in MindWing Concepts,
holds intellectual property rights and patents. Maryellen is employed as
president of MindWing Concepts. In that capacity, She designed Story
Grammar Marker® and Braidy the StoryBraid® along with many other
books and materials. She consults, trains and presents on these topics.
– Nonfinancial: No relevant nonfinancial relationships exist.
Disclosures
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3. 2

4. Beginning
Middle
End
Name:__________________________ Date:____________
Story Graphic Organizer
3

5. Beginning
Middle
End
4

6. Setting
Solution
Name:__________________________ Date:____________
Story Graphic Organizer
Problem
Character
Events
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7. 6

8. PERSONAL NARRATIVES:
Also called AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL EVENT NARRATIVES
are the beginnings of narrative discourse.
• “The Personal Narrative” is often a second grade
English Language Arts State Standard.
• Personal narratives expand children’s conversational abilities
since they are the basis for exchange of information between and
among children.
7

9. What is the
Story
Grammar
Marker®?
A hands on, multisensory
tool that has colorful,
meaningful icons that
represent the organizational
structure of a story. The
tool itself is a complete
episode, the basic unit of a
plot.
Character
Setting
Kick-off
Feeling
Plan
Planned Attempts (Actions)
Direct Consequence
Resolution
The Intersection of Research and Practice8

10. MindWing Concepts, Inc. Instructional Materials
www.mindwingconcepts.com 9

11. Example of the need for
Narrative Intervention
for Social Communication (and Writing).
Page 4.2 in It’s All About the Story
This 5th grade student was diagnosed with Asperger’s
Syndrome. This is his personal narrative in response to a
writing prompt.
PROMPT: Everyone has a day or an experience that they
remember because they were special. Maybe you had a
wonderful birthday party or a special person came to your
home for a visit. Write about a day or experience that was
special to you. Remember to write an exciting beginning and
include details in your writing. 10

12. My radio came on!
“Better get up!”my mother shouted from downstairs.
“They called and said they would be coming 15
minutes early.”
I jumped up, pulled on my sweats and bolted down the
stairs.
I had 45 minutes left and I had a lot to do.
They came in their big SUV.
We had a really good time.
We drove home in the rain and I was really tired after
all that walking.
I kept thinking of that thing. I will tell him about it at
school.
Even though I was mad, I had a great time. 11

13. “Narratives offer opportunities to support
language use, emotional expression and
social cognition in an integrated social and
academic context.”
Carol Westby in Way, et. al. (2007). Understanding alexithymia and language skills in children: implications for assessment and
intervention. LSHSS, 38, 128-139.
12

14. “We dream, remember,
anticipate, hope, despair, love,
hate, believe, doubt, plan,
construct, gossip and learn in
narrative.”
Westby, C. (1985, 1991). Learning to talk, talking to learn:
Oral-literate language differences. In C. Simon (Ed.),
Communication skills and classroom success.
Eau Claire, WI: Thinking Publications, Inc.
13

15. We think in terms of stories. Not only do we
understand the world in terms of stories we’ve
heard, our interpretation of personal problems
and relationships is influenced by stories of
others who have experienced similar situations.
In fact, we understand-and explain-just about
everything in life through stories.”
Schank, R. (1990). Tell me a story: A new look at real and artificial memory. NY: Macmillan.
14

16. A Focus on the
Discourse Level of Language:
It’s About Helping Students Develop
“Communicative Competence”
Referred to as the Oral Literate Continuum (Westby, 1985 in Simon,
Communication skills and classroom success: Therapy methodologies for language learning
disabled students. College Hill , San Diego, pp 182-213
15

17. COLLEGE AND CAREER
CCSS
How does
“narrative” fit
into language
development?
16

18. Without Discourse There is Not an Efficient
Connection between oral language and literacy!
CCSS
COLLEGE AND CAREER
17

19. We help children develop literate
oral language by assisting them
in progressing along the oral
literate continuum (discourse).
CONVERSATION NARRATION EXPOSITION
The Oral-Literate Continuum
The “Here and Now”………………………………….The “There and Then”
18

20. What is literate oral language?
It is the combination of:
Macro-structure
The overall organization of a story or expository text selection
&
Micro-structure
The linguistic complexity of sentences that
make up the macro-structure
Elements of micro-structure connect
the elements of macro-structure.
19

21. “The dynamic synchronicity between language, thoughts and world
experience - which provides the basis for students to tell the events
of their life while also learning to understand other’s experiences -
is best described as using narrative language.
At times lacking in coherence, demonstrating an over focus on
detail, failing to sequence events in a manner that makes sense to
the reader and/or exhibiting a weakness in conveying an emotional
voice, may be some of the elements weak or missing in the narrative
of our students.”
~ Michelle Garcia Winner,
Foreward, It’s All About the Story & Making Connections,
MindWing Concepts (2010)
20

22. Strands of Language
Pragmatics
Phonology
Semantics
Syntax & Morphology
Discourse
Metalinguistics
21

23. PRAGMATICS
Social Uses of Language
22

24. PHONOLOGY
The Sound System
23

25. SEMANTICS
Meaning
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26. SYNTAX and MORPHOLOGY
From Simple to Complex Sentences
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27. DISCOURSE
Spoken and Written Communication
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28. METALINGUISTICS
The Conscious Awareness of Language
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29. Two broad classes of language skills
have been identified as important for
later reading performance (literacy):
Code related skills:
• Phonological Awareness,
• Letter naming,
• Decoding,
• Emergent writing…
Oral language processes:
• The skill sets of vocabulary (receptive and expressive);
• Syntactic knowledge
• Semantic (schema/script) knowledge, and
• Narrative discourse processes (memory, comprehension
and storytelling).
NICHD Early Child Care Research Network (2005). Pathways to Reading: The Role of Oral Language in the Transition to Reading. Developmental Psychology,
41,2. 28

30. We help children develop literate
oral language by assisting them
in progressing along the oral
literate continuum (discourse).
CONVERSATION NARRATION EXPOSITION
The Oral-Literate Continuum
The “Here and Now”………………………………….The “There and Then”
29

31. “Broad Oral Language Skills should be an
integral part of reading instruction
beginning in preschool and throughout
elementary school.”
“If comprehensive language skills directly feed
nascent reading, then interventions and
assessments that focus only on phonemic
awareness and vocabulary development will
prove too narrow to support later academic
achievement…”
Storch, S. & Whitehurst, G. (2002). Oral language and code-related precursors to
reading: Evidence from a longitudinal model. Developmental Psychology, 38, 934-947.
30

32. Narrative retelling is a useful task for
predicting which children may be at
risk for later literacy problems.
Based on the results of this study, narrative macro-structure appears to
play an especially important role in the development of later literacy
skills…Language intervention involving oral narratives may boost
children’s reading comprehension as well as carry over to later written
language skills.
Wellman, et. al. (20011). Narrative ability of children with speech sound disorders and the prediction of later literacy skills. LSHSS,
42, 561-579.
31

33. This 5th grade student is diagnosed with Asperger’s Syndrome.
This is his personal narrative in response to a writing prompt.
PROMPT: Everyone has a day or an experience that they remember because they
were special. Maybe you had a wonderful birthday party or a special person
came to your home for a visit. Write about a day or experience that was special
to you. Remember to write an exciting beginning and include details in your
writing.
My radio came on!
“Better get up!”my mother shouted from downstairs.
“They called and said they would be coming 15 minutes early.”
I jumped up, pulled on my sweats and bolted down the stairs.
I had 45 minutes left and I had a lot to do.
They came in their big SUV.
We had a really good time.
We drove home in the rain and I was really tired after all that
walking.
I kept thinking of that thing. I will tell him about it at school.
Even though I was mad, I had a great time.
Example of the need for Narrative Intervention (and its impact on
writing and communication)…. Page 4.2 in It’s All About the Story
32

34. “How do we know whether a person has comprehended a text? Sadly, more often than not, at
least in school, the answer is that the person can complete short-answer questions about the text
that he or she has read. It was true before the last three decades of research and remains true
today (Pressley et al 1998):
Comprehension gets tested more
than students get taught how
to comprehend!”
Cathy Collins Block, Linda Gambrell & Michael Pressley (Eds.) (2002). Improving Comprehension Instruction: Rethinking research, Theory, and Classroom Practice. San
Francisco: Jossey-Bass
Written Expression and Comprehension:
How literacy progress is monitored and how
achievement is measured in the classroom
33

35. • Internalizing the Structure Of Stories
• Understanding Characters’ Motives
• Identifying Themes
Struggling Comprehenders
have problems:
Improving Comprehension Instruction: Rethinking Research, Theory, And Classroom Practice
Edited By: Cathy Collins Block, Linda B. Gambrell And Michael Pressley
ISBN: 0-87207-458-7
34

36. Deep Comprehension
The reader needs to:
• construct a global meaning that integrates multiple
sentences.
• take perspectives and infer, thus combining the
individual sentence meanings across the text into a
coherent structure.
• to fill in “missing information and build a coherent
mental model that incorporates all the information in
the text.
Deep comprehension requires more than the
mere interpretation of individual sentences.
Kintsch, W. (1998). Comprehension: A paradigm for cognition. Cambridge, MA: Cambridge University Press.
Reading comprehension’s new look: Influences of theory and technology on practice.
Topics in language Disorders, 25, 2.
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38. 37

39. Next 11 slides are from It’s All About the Story (one of the 3 books in MindWing’s Autism Collection)
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50. PLANNED ATTEMPTS
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52. The Narrative
Developmental Sequence:
Where It All Comes Together!
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53. 52

54. Copyright © 2007, MindWing Concepts, Inc. • 1-888-228-9746 • Web: www.mindwingconcepts.com
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55. Copyright © 2007, MindWing Concepts, Inc. • 1-888-228-9746 • Web: www.mindwingconcepts.com
54

56. Lauren, Age 6, Kindergarten (June of 2008)
Using Braidy™ as a manipulative to Scaffold the Stages of Narrative Development
and using Braidy™ for Expository Text (listing)
55

57. 56

58. Narrative Development Correlated to the CCSS for
Reading, Key Idea and Detail #3 Using Clifford’s Pals
Clifford and his pals
At the work site in the cement
pit playing, jumping and
barking.
Clifford, a big, red dog and his
furry pals
At the work site in the cement
pit playing, jumping and
barking.
The work crew starts to pour
cement on Susie, Lenny &
Nero.
Clifford pushes the cement
chute aside.
Clifford, a big, red dog and his
furry pals
At the work site in the cement
pit playing, jumping and
barking.
All of a sudden, Clifford sees
the work crew start to pour
cement on Susie, Lenny &
Nero.
So, Clifford pushes the cement
chute aside.
CCSS Kindergarten
RL.K.3. With prompting and
support, identify characters,
settings, and major events in
a story.
CCSS Grade 1
RL.1.3. Describe characters,
settings, and major events in
a story, using key details.
CCSS Grade 2
RL.2.3. Describe how
characters in a story respond to
major events and challenges.
Narrative Development
Stage 1: Descriptive Sequence
Narrative Development
Stage 2: Action Sequence
Narrative Development
Stage 3: Reactive Sequence
57

59. Clifford, a big, red dog and his furry pals
At the work site in the cement pit playing,
jumping and barking.
All of a sudden, Clifford sees the work
crew start to pour cement on Susie,
Lenny & Nero.
He is worried about his pals, because
they could get hurt.
Clifford knows that his pals will get hurt if
the cement fills the pit,
so decides to save them.
Clifford pushes the cement chute aside.
As a result, Clifford’s pals are safe.
Clifford is relieved.
Clifford, a big, red dog and his furry pals
At the work site in the cement pit playing,
jumping and barking.
All of a sudden, Clifford sees the work
crew start to pour cement on Susie,
Lenny & Nero.
He is worried about his pals, because
they could get hurt.
So, Clifford pushes the cement chute
aside.
Narrative Development
Stage 4: Abbreviated Episode
Narrative Development
Stage 5: Complete Episode
CCSS Grade 3
RL.3.3. Describe characters in a story
(traits, motivations, feelings) and explain
how their actions contribute to the
sequence of events.
CCSS Grade 4
RL.4.3. Describe in depth a character, setting or
event in a story or drama, drawing on specific details
in the text (character’s thoughts, words, actions).
58

60. 59

61. Narrative Development Correlated to the CCSS for
Reading, Key Idea and Detail #3 Using
Chapter 1 of Charlotte’s Web
Fern, her parents, the Piglet
In the kitchen at home and
outside at the hog house, Fern is
arguing with her parents about
killing a runty piglet
(exploration of the setting using
questions and pictures in
important)
Fern, an eight year old, strong
willed, caring girl, her parents, a
thin, sickly Piglet
In the kitchen at home and
outside at the hog house, Fern is
arguing with her parents about
killing a runt pig
Fern shrieks at her mother
Fern struggles with her father to
get the ax away from him
Fern, an eight year old, strong
willed, caring girl, her parents, a thin,
sickly Piglet
In the kitchen at home and outside
at the hog house, Fern talks to her
mother about the new litter of piglets
All of a sudden, Fern notices her
father has an ax and means to kill
the runty Piglet
So, Fern shrieks at her mother and
struggles with her father to get the
ax and argues with him to let the
runty piglet live.CCSS Kindergarten
RL.K.3. With prompting and
support, identify characters,
settings, and major events in
a story.
CCSS Grade 1
RL.1.3. Describe characters,
settings, and major events
in a story, using key details.
CCSS Grade 2
RL.2.3. Describe how
characters in a story respond
to major events and
challenges.
Narrative Development
Stage 1: Descriptive Sequence
Narrative Development
Stage 2: Action Sequence
Narrative Development
Stage 3: Reactive Sequence
60

62. Fern, an eight year old, strong willed, caring girl, her
parents, a thin, sickly Piglet
In the kitchen at home and outside at the hog house, Fern
talks to her mother about the new litter of piglets
All of a sudden, Fern notices her father has an ax and
means to kill the runty Piglet!
Fern is outraged and worried about the piglet.
Fern KNOWS that the runt of litter is not valuable on a
farm, she REALIZES that her father needs to kill the runt,
she REMEMBERS that her father has empathy,
she THINKS it is a case of injustice to kill a runty piglet just
because it is born too small
She intends to prevent her father from killing the piglet and
to convince him to let it live.
First, Charlotte shrieks at her mother
Then, she struggles with her father to get the ax
Finally, she argues with her father to convince him to let the
runty piglet live.
As a result, Charlotte’s father let’s her feed and care for the
runty piglet as if it were a baby and she names it Wilbur.
Fern was relieved that she had saved the piglet, thrilled to
be able to care for him, and triumphant that she had
overcome an injustice.
Fern, an eight year old, strong willed,
caring girl, her parents, a thin, sickly
Piglet
In the kitchen at home and outside at the
hog house, Fern talks to her mother
about the new litter of piglets
All of a sudden, Fern notices her father
has an ax and means to kill the runty
Piglet!
Fern is outraged and worried about the
piglet.
So, Fern shrieks at her mother and
struggles with her father to get the ax
and finally convinces him to let the runty
piglet live.
Narrative Development
Stage 4: Abbreviated Episode
Narrative Development Stage 5: Complete Episode
CCSS Grade 3
RL.3.3. Describe characters in a story (traits,
motivations, feelings) and explain how their
actions contribute to the sequence of events.
CCSS Grade 4
RL.4.3. Describe in depth a character, setting or event in
a story or drama, drawing on specific details in the text
(character’s thoughts, words, actions).
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66. January
Chinese New Year
“In the Year of the Dog, 4645, there lived halfway across the
world from New York, a girl called Sixth Cousin. Otherwise
known as Bandit.
Once winter morning, a letter arrived at the House of Wong
from her father, who had been traveling the four seas. On the
stamp sat an ugly, bald bird. The paper was blue. When
Mother read it, she smiled. But the words made Grandmother
cry and Grandfather angry. No one gave Sixth Cousin even the
smallest hint of why.”
65

67. A letter arrived from
Bandit’s father.
A letter arrived from
Bandit’s father.
A letter arrived from
Bandit’s father.
Mother felt happy
(smiled).
Grandmother felt
sad (cried).
Grandfather felt angry.
On the first page of In the Year of the Boar and Jackie Robinson, there is an initiating event that causes 4 different feelings in 4
different characters. Because of the “mental states” of each character, this “kick off” made each of them feel a certain way. Each
character will have a different plan and different motivation based on these different feelings and mental states. This example makes
it clear to see how important the foundation of narrative development is in perspective-taking when reading novels (and this is just
page 1!!).
A letter arrived from
Bandit’s father.
Bandit felt confused
and concerned.
66

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69. Please Note:
In Rosie’s Walk, Rosie’s perspective of the story
is at Stage 2 – the Action Sequence. The Fox
has a PLAN (to eat Rosie) so he makes many
ATTEMPTS to catch her so that he can eat her.
Therefore, from the Fox’s perspective this is a
STAGE 5, The Complete Episode.
68

70. 69

71. What is literate oral language?
It is the combination of:
Macro-structure
The overall organization of a story or expository text selection
&
Micro-structure
The linguistic complexity of sentences that
make up the macro-structure
Elements of micro-structure connect
the elements of macro-structure.
70

72. Narrative Macro-structure
is…
…the global organizational structure
or “story grammar” of a narrative
(story) – independent
of content.
71

73. Micro-structure: Gluing the Sentences Together
1. Micro-structure, as defined by Justice (2004), is the internal linguistic organization
of the narrative.
2. Micro-structure is commonly referred to as “story sparkle” (Westby). It focuses on
vocabulary and sentence development as well as cohesive ties (see page 39-40 of
SGM® manual.)
3. Micro-structure is the elaboration and cohesion that makes a story (narrative)
meaningful. (SGM® manual page 39-44.)
4. Micro-structure’s literate language features:
• Elaborated noun phrases (ex. The big, scary fish…)
• Verb phrases (tense use & adverb use, ex. The big, scary fish swam slowly.)
• Mental State verbs (the character may: remember, know, think, realize, etc.)
• Linguistic verbs (whispered, yelled, asked, etc.)
• Conjunctions (and, but, so, because, first, then, next, finally, etc.)
72

74. 73
Cohesive Tie Activity
A Differentiated Instruction Activity
Focused on Micro-Structure, Fluency and
the Semantics, Syntax & Morphology Strands of Language
Materials Needed:
1. Old Tie
2. Stick-on letters
3. Conjunction word cards from Our Friend Braidy™ Poster
4. Clothes pin (wooden or plastic)
5. Sentence Strips (optional)
6. 3 volunteers to participate
C
O
H
E
S
I
V
E
#1 #2 #3

75. Large Group Activity:
Analyzing Children’s Literature
at Each Stage of
Narrative Development
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90. The Boston Tea Party
Story Grammar Marker® Style 

91. 90

92. The King was desperate.
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97. Expository or informational text is…
• found in text books such as history, geography, social studies,
science and technology.
• the structure of college lectures, newspapers and weekly
readers.
• particularly important for organizing and comprehending
information in: news articles, textbook chapters, research
papers, advertisements, content area texts, the Internet
• in everyday life; for example: in driving directions, recipes, to-
do lists, current events, decisions to purchase products or
services, work problems, home and property maintenance or
local politics.
96

98. 97
“Using informational text to teach social
studies [and science] is crucial in
developing content area knowledge and
reading comprehension skills in
elementary students.”
Pennington et al. (2014). Reading informational Texts: A Civic Transactional
Perspective. The Reading Teacher, 63(7), 532..

99. Improving Comprehension Instruction: Rethinking Research, Theory, and Classroom Practice
Edited By: Cathy Collins Block, Linda B. Gambrell and Michael Pressley
ISBN: 0-87207-458-7
• Expository texts present additional
comprehension obstacles for
struggling comprehenders…
…Because…
• Expository genres are written to
provide information versus to tell a
story
• The patterns in which authors
organize their ideas and information
differ depending on their purpose and
the specific content area
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109. There is big box supercenter that
wants to build a location in the
city; there are many people for or
against this project.
A big box supercenter in the city will be beneficial to the residents of the city. The
location is zoned for business development, encouraging competition is
tantamount to a thriving economy, residents will have more options and better
prices for common goods, a supercenter will increase the business tax base and
alleviate the tax burden of homeowners, this type of store will offer convenience
of a variety of products under one roof.
The plan is to demonstrate reasons and evidence that show the negative
impact that a big box supercenter would present to the city.
Having a big box supercenter in
the city will be detrimental to the
residents of the city, although
there are people in favor of such
an endeavor.
108

110. Traffic reports show that the road is already congested with a mall
and other shopping centers and is only two lanes. The lot is
adjacent to heavily populated public housing and a quiet residential
neighborhood.
Even though it is zoned
for business, this location
cannot accommodate a
supercenter type of
store.
This supercenter will
destroy small
businesses in the
local economy.
A study of small towns in Iowa showed lost sales for local
businesses amounting to a total dollar loss of $2.46 BILLION
over a 13-year period resulting from a supercenter being built.
The job offerings are
low paying and not
full time with benefits.
Tens of thousands of supercenter employees and their children
are enrolled in Medicaid and are dependent on the government for
healthcare. Due to supercenters ordering from China, the United
States has actually lost an average of about 50,000 good paying
manufacturing jobs PER MONTH since 2001.
Having a big box supercenter in the city will be detrimental to the city due to several
reasons and facts. The area cannot accommodate the traffic, it is too close to a
residential neighborhood, it will destroy local businesses and many of the jobs are low
paying and do not offer full time employment with benefits.
There is big box supercenter that wants to build a location in the city; there are many people
for or against this project. Some resident claim that a big box supercenter in the city will be
detrimental to the residents of the city, although there are also residents in favor of such an
endeavor. 109

111. 110

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Marker® Professional Learning Community
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http://mindwingconcepts.com/contactus.htm
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111

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112

114. How to reach Maryellen:
Call her (toll free): 888.228.9746
Email her: mrmoreau@mindwingconcepts.com
113