Subica Hussain
Master of Arts in Teaching
Active Readers Make Connections
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Good readers make sure they understand everything they read. The strategy they use is "Making Connections." Making connections helps young readers think about what they know. As readers think about what they know, it helps them understand the text better. There are three types of connections:
Text-to-Text: To help young readers make text to text connection, have them make a chart with some of the major events that took place throughout the books they have read so far. When making such connections, students should focus on comparing characters’ personalities and actions, events, and themes between the books.
Another way to make the text-to-text connection is by comparing the book they are reading with television shows, movies, and other media outlets.
Text-to-Self: Teachers should help young readers engage with the text by making personal connections. The connections made between the events that take place in the book, and how those events are similar to the readers' lives. Readers should, also, try to focus on the major event that takes place in the text instead of an event that might occur once throughout the text.
Text-to-World: To have young readers make a world connection have them compare events that take place in the text they are reading to a world event that is currently taking place or may have taken place. World connections are similar to self-connections with the exception of the events that are in comparison. Self-connection consists of events that have happened to the reader, while world connections involve events that have happened around the world and not to the reader.
Common Core Reading Standard involving the application of comprehension strategy "Making Connections."
RL.5.3: Compare and contrast two or more characters, settings, or events in a story or drama, drawing on specific details in the text (e.g., how characters interact).
RL.5.9: Compare and contrast stories in the same genre (e.g., mysteries and adventure stories) on their approaches to similar themes and topics.
RI.5.5: Compare and contrast the overall structure (e.g., chronology, comparison, cause/effect, problem/solution) of events, ideas, concepts, or information in two or more texts.
Work Cited:
Activating Background Knowledge- A Step to Improving Reading Comprehension - Make Take & Teach. (2014). Retrieved June 23, 2016, from http://blog.maketaketeach.com/activating-background-knowledge-a-step-to-improving-reading-comprehension/
Thegototeacher. (n.d.). Retrieved June 23, 2016, from https://thegototeacher.wordpress.com/tag/text-to-text/