Why Is It Important To Connect With The Text?

Connecting with the text is an important comprehension strategy. Students make connections to text by thinking about the experiences they have had. These experiences can be connected to personal experience. For example, if a child has previously visited the Grand Canyon with their family, and then a text being read in class refers to the Grand Canyon, the child can make a Text-to-Self connection. Text-to-Text is another type of connection that a child might make. This type of connection comes from a connection to something the child has read or was read to them. A third type of connection is Text-to-World. As the name would suggest, this type of connection is made when a child makes a connection to something that is occurring or has …show more content…
If students have limited personal experiences, or limited experience with hearing or reading other texts or are not exposed to world events, how can a child make these connections. Even if students have experiences that connect them to text, they may not recognize it. In these cases, it is important for the teacher to model connections that they might have to text. Hopefully this will lead to other students sharing personal experiences that can help their classmates make connections as well. Requesting that students bring an item from home that is important to them, and then requiring that the child explain their connection to the item can be a great start in this process. Another idea that might facilitate connections is to have students read in a small group out loud taking turns. After reading a page or two, each child must share to least one connection exemplifying Text-to-Self, Text-to-Text or Text-to World. In a group of four children, there is likely going to be at least one connection that can be made. Often after one child verbalizes a connection, other students may follow. Providing sentence frames in a poster form or as a bookmark that can be kept at each child’s desk is a great way to help students start a