Great Readers Make Connections

Last week we used our schema to connect to text in different ways. The most obvious connections to our children are usually the text to self connections. These occur when something they read from a text reminds them of something from their own life. The next type of connection that will occur naturally is usually a text to text connection. A text to text connection occurs when they are reading from a text and they read something that reminds them of something that happened in another text. Finally, we have text to world connections. Text to world connections happen when we think of what we're reading and a text and think of where we've seen this in the real world; or more importantly, what we're learning about the real world.
Readers don't just make these connections and leave them hanging; they take these connections and learn to understand characters, text, and the world in a more meaningful way.
The kids needed to connect in a way that would be deep; as opposed to flat. They need to say that "I am making a T2S Connection because I have a pesky little sibling that gets into trouble and drives me crazy; so I know how the character is feeling".
A flat connection would be "I'm making a connection because I have a dog, too". Having a dog like someone else isn't important; the experiences and feelings that come with the pet are what help us as thinkers.

The following visual helps to explain that their connections need to bring them back to the text. We need to understand how the character is thinking, feeling, and how the character may respond/react to problems.

When readers make T2T Connections, it is important that they pull out specific parts to relate from the texts they are connecting. There are many ways to connect to text and it is a strategy that we will talk about year round.

 

My first step in teaching the comprehension strategies is providing a teacher model via think aloud. I read a text and I model the strategy by sharing my thinking voice. Comprehension Strategies need to be explicitly taught because not all children know that they have this thinking power; especially when we are teaching them to read words.

 

It is a pleasure to have such an imaginative and enthusiastic bunch of children this year. They are ready to take on challenges and they are so much fun to be around. Thank you for all you do!