Because it makes my heart happy

Last year, I had the pleasure of learning about Story Grammar Marker and Braidy during the annual NC Speech Conference. I had seen them online previously, but I really wasn't sure about the tool until I actually attended the session. I have used Braidy this year with many of my groups and am really happy with this tool. It's been a slow process, but we are finally learning about kick-offs and plans now. 

 I rarely ever use the hair attachment for Braidy so this is how he always appears to my groups.

I have the symbols up on the wall with some silly song lyrics. The first two songs, the character and setting songs, came from the Braidy manual. I came up with other songs to help them remember the other story elements. We sing the songs for the elements we discuss every session. Some of students really enjoy this and others are not as excited, but I have found that it helps them remember no matter how much they enjoy the singing process.

Here we used Braidy with my Whole Body Listening Group (from the first set of We Thinkers books). I like using Braidy with this set of books for my younger groups because the characters are always the same. The repetition has made them more confident even though the other elements change. I've also found that writing down the elements with a combination of pictures and words helps too. We can refer back to our "notes" at the end of the session to review what we just read.

We also use Braidy with Clifford books (and sometimes half of tv episodes on youtube) for the same reason.

I'm so proud of how far we've gotten since starting in September with my figurines. Hopefully, I will be able to use Braidy next year for some inclusion activities.