Making Connections to Text

It is essential for students to make connections to text as they read. For some students this comes naturally, however, for most students this skill has to be learned and reinforced by making written responses to texts. Recently, I have had the students in my class focus on making text to self connections and writing down the observations they have made.  

In order to teach students this skill I start by reading aloud various books which students can easily make a text to self connection to. I do this in conjunction with an author's study on Kevin Henkes. The books I use for this purpose include "Julius, Baby of the World," "Wemberly Worried" (both by Kevin Henkes), "My Rotten Red-Headed Older Brother by Patricia Polacco," and "When the Relatives Came" by Cynthia Rylant. I feel that these texts are kid-friendly and that children can easily make a connection to one of these texts.

During the first few sessions, I model how to make connections. These are referred to as “wow” moments. I define a “wow” moment as when you can instantly connect to a character or event in the story. I use various think-alouds so that students can see how I am thinking when I make these connections. Students love to hear personal connections the teacher made to the text, and, in turn, they should be able to come up with a few of their own. I usually hand out post-it notes for students to jot down their “wow” moments during the read aloud.

During these read-alouds I also begin to model how to use a T-chart to organize these connections. Once the students choose a specific “seed” idea for their text to self writing piece, I model on the overhead how to fill out a “details web” by using a personal connection that I made to the book. It is during this time that I start to introduce the concept of “juicy” words. I feel like a lot of children need to “juice” up their writing. We brainstorm a list of beautiful, descriptive words that students can refer to during the writing process. I make a VERY big deal out of any instance in which a student uses a “juicy” word by reading the example aloud or putting it on the overhead.

After the students fill out their own web, I model how to use the web to create organized paragraphs. Once students have worked on thei4 writing, they buddy edit and conference with me to make sure their writing is “juicy” and organized. I try to conference with each one of the students so that they can read their writing piece to me, and discuss ways to improve their work.

After going over the rules of publishing during a mini-lesson, students begin to publish their pieces. Then we always share our writing pieces during our Author’s Chair. I was so impressed with some of my second graders' writing that I wanted to share some examples.

“I remember there was lots of hugging, it felt like the wind pushing you back and forth from person to person.”  

“The teacher’s name was Ms. A. She made me feel exquisite.” 

“When I caught a scorpion, it was heart-stopping”

 “When we got to Florida, there were exquisite palm trees.”

 “When we left I felt glum. When I went back to my own world, I felt exquisite.”

What follows are more lessons to help students make connections to text.

Making Connections to Text:

Relatives

Students make text to self connections to the text "When the Relatives Came" by Cynthia Rylant.

Our Names Are Perfect Just the Way They Are

Students read "Chrysanthemum"by Kevin Henkes and discuss how they can connect to the character. Students create name poems.

Superfudge: Making Text to Self Connections

This lesson is geared towards students in third through fifth grades. Students read the novel "Superfudge" by Judy Blume and write about their text to self connections.