We have been reading various books and leaving tracks of our thinking. Making connections to the text is just one way we can help learners understand what they are reading. They have learned that when readers read, they actively interact with the text that they read; they do not just say words on a page.
One effective way we can do this is by making connections to the text. There are three kinds of connections readers make before, during, or after reading.
Text to self, which could sound like:
- This reminds me of my own life…
- I can relate to this character because…
- If it was me, I would…
Text to text, which could sound like:
- This reminds me of another book I’ve read/movie I’ve watched…
- This is different from the other book because…
- This is the same as the other book because…
Text to world, which could sound like:
- This reminds me of ___ in history…
- This reminds me of ____ going on in the world right now…
- This is similar to ___ that’s happening in the news…
- This is different from ___ that’s happening in the news…
Here are the some of the mentor texts that I used for teaching students how to make connections:
Click on the pictures below for my anchor charts and how I modelled the concept of 'Reading is Thinking' for my students.
Students then tried out using thinking stems to make connections.