Good Readers Make Connections

In a previous post, I discussed the importance of making predictions when we read.  Another skill that struggling readers need to learn and practice is making connections.  If a student is not making connections as they read, they are not activating their prior knowledge and therefore they are not getting the richness out of the text that they could be.  

There are different kinds of connections that students should be aware of:

• Text to self- does something in the text remind me of something from my own life?
• Text to text- does something remind me of something that I read in another text?
• Text to world- does something remind me of something that has happened in the world?  For example, maybe something that I saw on the news or something that I learned about in Social Studies or History class?   
• Text to media- does something remind me of something that I watched (in a movie or on TV), read (online) or heard (in a song, on a radio show, etc.)

Here are some basic questions/sentence starters for students who need support in making connections:

• This reminds me of...
• An experience that I have had that is similar to that is...
• This reminds me of the book _______ because...
• How might this book lead me to live my life in a different way?
• This part is like...
• This character is like __________ because...
• This is similar to...
• The differences between _______ and ________ are....
• I also...
• I never...
• This setting reminds me of...
• How does this character compare to my all time favourite character?
• What is something that you have learned this year that comes up in the text?
• I can relate to this character because...

Making connections is important because it can add to the imagery - if you can make a connection of some kind, it is easier to visualize what is happening in the text.  It also helps us to better understand the characters.  Connections can help us to build empathy and to understand motivation.  Making connections can also help the reader to be more engaged in the text because they can place themselves in the text and think more deeply about what is happening.

I would encourage my students to make connections by adding post-it notes to the text to annotate as they read.  After the reading is complete, I might have them pull out one of their post it notes and expand on it.  They can take the original post-it note and place it in their notebook.  From here, they can expand their thinking about this connection by using some of the above questions and sentence starters.

We can also frame a text with a question that helps students to make connections to a text that they are going to read.  If a text seems to complex and daunting, a student might feel as though they have no connection to it.  We need to share the relationship that we have to the text so that they can understand why we read literature.  For example, instead of telling students that you will be studying Romeo and Juliet, tell them that you will be thinking about if we should be loyal to our families, even if it means giving up something that you really want.  Romeo and Juliet is merely a text that you are using to help you to explore that framing question.

Food for Thought... how do you help your students to make connections?