Making Connections: getting close to books!

Today’s class was all about making connections to the books we read. We looked at the three types of connections we can make between books: text-to-self, text-to-text, and text-to-world. We discussed that text-to-self connections include any material that triggers a memory or connection to our personal lives, while a text-to-text connection is when any material reminds us of another book, poem, play, journal, article, newspaper, or any other reading material, and finally a text-to-world connection is when a book we are reading reminds us of an event going on in the world, or a connection to a movie or play or song. We talked about using these three types of connections to better understand and remember what it is we are reading. If we are thinking about how the material we are reading relates to us and our world it can help us make the reading more meaningful and sometimes more interesting.

Three types of connections to reading include text-to-self, text-to-text, and text-to-world.

After discussing the three types of connections, I wanted students to practice making various connections to different types of reading materials. I brought in a variety of materials that I read short excerpts from. I first began with easy books and progressed to harder materials.

We started with a picture story book and ended up at Shakespear!

I wanted students to write what type of connection they had to each excerpt that I read aloud and I wanted them to write about what specifically from the text triggered this connection.  To begin, I modeled what I wanted students to do. I first read a short excerpt from the children’s book Wild Child by Lynn Plourde. The excerpt focused on pumpkins in the fall. I then wrote on the board how this excerpt reminded me of Halloween.

 

Modeling how I wanted students to show their connections.

Students then went to work making their own connections….

Even though students are working hard, they are still having fun!

My students are so sick and tired of hearing this phrase but I love it!

I love to tell my students that to better comprehend what they are reading they need to do more than just read, they need to think about what it is they are reading! And making connections is just one way to help them better understand!