Making connections while reading is essential for developing comprehension skills in elementary students. By relating the text to their own experiences, other texts, and the world around them, students can deepen their understanding and enjoyment of reading. Here are some engaging activities to help your students make connections!
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How Do Good Readers Make Connections?
Good readers use connections to enhance comprehension and engagement with a text. Their personal experiences and background knowledge allow them to understand the text at a deeper level. These connections can be categorized into three main types:
Text-to-Self: Good readers relate the content of the text to their own experiences, feelings, and personal knowledge. This helps them to better understand the characters’ motivations, the plot, and the themes.
Text-to-Text: Good readers identify similarities between the current text and other texts they have read. This helps them to see patterns, understand genres, and compare themes, characters, and plots.
Text-to-World: Good readers connect the text to broader world events, issues, or knowledge. This helps them to see the relevance of what they are reading and to understand it within a larger context.
Teachers may want to use these prompts to help students make connections:
What is an Example of Making Connections?
Text-to-Self: Readers may relate to the characters. “I feel like this character when they are nervous about starting a new school because I felt the same way last year.”
Text-to-Text: Readers may notice similar plots. “This character’s conflict reminds me of another book, where the main character also had to overcome a similar challenge.”
Text-to-World: Readers may connect to real-world events or social issues. “This story about environmental conservation reminds me of the news articles I read about climate change and what people are doing to protect the environment.”
Why is Making Connections Important?
When students make connections to their reading, they are engaging with the text on a deeper level. Making connections helps students to:
- Understand characters’ motivations and feelings.
- Predict outcomes and infer meanings.
- Relate to themes and messages in the story.
- Retain information and enjoy reading more.
Whole Group Making Connections Activities
Interactive Read Alouds
Model the reading strategy for students by sharing your own connections as you read. Encourage students to think about how the story relates to their own lives. Introduce the types of connections we can make and explain how these connections help us deepen our understanding of the text. For ideas check out these books for making connections.
TEACHER TIPS for Read Alouds:
- Display a blank Making Connections anchor chart so you can add sticky notes with connections as you read.
- You may want to introduce a hand signal so students can quietly show when they have a connection – since they love to share stories! Typically they make a fist with their thumb and pinky out and motion back & forth towards themselves.
Paired Passages
Share two texts that are closely related. These texts could have similar story elements (character, setting, conflict, themes). You can also use a nonfiction article to provide more information about an aspect of the story (setting, character, event). Lead classroom discussions for students to make connections between the two texts. This could also be done during small group instruction or collaboratively during centers.
- Carson Dellosa offers Paired Passages by grade level (Use the code READINGROUNDUP10 for 10% off!)
- Teacher Created Materials offers Paired Passages: Linking Fact to Fiction books.
- Lakeshore has Fiction & Nonfiction Paired Passages that work well for small groups.
- Remedia Publications offers High-Interest Mini Mysteries that pairs a nonfiction text with each mystery.
Distracting Connections Minilesson
Students love to share stories about themselves or what they know about a topic. But at times, this can become a distraction. We can get so caught up in thinking about our connection that we lose sight of what was actually stated in the text. Be sure to explicitly model how to refocus your thinking to make sure it is helping to enhance your comprehension of the story.
You might want to check out these ideas for Monitoring Comprehension including a free Monitor and Clarify anchor chart.
Common Connections Minilesson
Some of the connections students make may be things that they have in common with a character, such as having the same name. While this connection may be important to the student, it is not important to understanding the text. In Strategies That Work Havey & Goudvis recommend creating a chart labeled: Important to Me – Important to Understanding the Text. Students can record their connections under the appropriate heading. This still values their connection but brings their awareness to connections that are distracting versus ones that enhance comprehension.
Small Group Activities
These making connections activities are ideal for students to do collaboratively during literacy centers or your small group instruction.
Making Connections Graphic Organizer: Students can complete a graphic organizer to practice making connections to reading during small groups or independent reading.
Paired Passages: As previously mentioned, paired texts are ideal to use with small groups. Carson Dellosa’s Guided Reading: Connect books make it easy for you to prepare these lessons. The resource comes with 6 copies of 6 leveled readers featuring high-interest nonfiction texts at different levels along with teacher a discussion guide.
Digital Connections: Create a Padlet with 3 columns labeled: Text-to-Self, Text-to-Text, Text-to-World. Students can add the connections they make as they’re reading. This can be in response to a book shared whole group, during small group instruction, or as part of a book club. Students love being able to like and comment on their friends’ posts!
Independent Reading Practice
Making Connections Bookmark: Students can keep a Reading Bookmark in their book boxes to remind them how to make connections as they read independently.
Reading Response Prompts
Students can practice making connections during independent reading. Provide them with reading response prompts they can write about any text they’re reading. Not only does this provide students with an opportunity for authentic reading and writing practice, but it requires NO PREP for you!
Some making connections reading response prompts you could use:
- Describe a moment in the story that reminds you of an experience you’ve had. How did it make you feel, and why does it remind you of your own experience?
- Compare a (character, setting, theme, conflict or event) in this book to another book you’ve read. How are they alike, and how are they different?
- Explain how an event in the book relates to something happening in the real world. Why do you think this connection is important?
Depending on the writing ability of your students, you may need to provide sentence stems to help them get started with their writing.
Annotating Text
Students can use a symbol to show when they made a connection while reading. They can also use the letters T-T, T-S, T-W to indicate the type of connection. They may also record these connections on sticky notes.
Cross-Curricular Connection Activities
Making connections is not just a reading strategy. Students can make connections between their experiences and knowledge to new learning in other subject areas.
Making Connections in Math
Students can relate math concepts to their daily lives. For example, when learning about fractions, they can think about how they use fractions when dividing a pizza or sharing a candy bar with friends. They can also connect word problems to real-life situations. For example, a problem about calculating the total cost of items in a shopping cart can be linked to their own shopping experiences.
Carson Dellosa has a Math Connections to the Real World resource that links word problems to real-life scenarios. (Use the code READINGROUNDUP10 for 10% off!)
Making Connections in Science
Students can relate scientific concepts to everyday experiences. For example, when studying states of matter, they can think about how ice melts into water when left out of the freezer.
Making Connections in Social Studies
Students can relate historical events to their own family history or cultural background. For example, learning about immigration might connect to their family’s immigration story. They can also relate new social studies learning to current global issues.
Making Connections Resources
You may want to check out my making connections to reading teacher tips and tools or these resources for additional ideas on teaching students to make connections:
- Why Connect: The Game of Smart Reasoning: This speech therapy tool helps students identify and express associations between objects. While it is not directly tied to reading, students practice using background knowledge to connect concepts which is a foundational skill for making connections.
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