Ep 42: Making Connections was automatically transcribed by Sonix with the latest audio-to-text algorithms. This transcript may contain errors. Sonix is the best audio automated transcription service in 2020. Our automated transcription algorithms works with many of the popular audio file formats.
Hey, teachers, if you have a classroom and a commute, you're in the right place. I'm your host, Rachael, and I want to ride along with you each week on your ride into school. This podcast is the place for busy teachers who want actionable tips, simple strategies, and just want to enjoy their job more. Let's go.
Well, hello and welcome to another episode of The Classroom Commute Podcast, thank you for joining me. I am Rachael your host, and I'm super glad that you're tuning in today because today is our first episode in a series on Reading Comprehension Strategies. Well, actually, last week was our first episode where we covered the foundation for how to approach Reading Comprehension Strategy instruction. If you miss that episode, make sure you head back and listen to it first. It's Episode 41, then come on back and listen to this episode where we are going to cover how to teach Making Connections in the elementary classroom. Now, as I mentioned in last week's episode, I do think that the best way to do reading comprehension strategy instruction in your classroom is to give all of the reading strategies up front to your students and then go back and isolate individual strategies that would help benefit your students or what they're struggling with. You're going to give them all the tools in the toolbox, but then they're going to be able to pick out the ones that they want to use at any particular moment in their reading. In today's episode and in the episodes moving forward, as we tackle each reading strategy separately, we're going to talk about how to take that deep dive into any one particular reading strategy. You should still be using all seven reading comprehension strategies integrated together in your read aloud and in your whole class instruction. Again, those reading comprehension strategies include making connections, visualizing making predictions, asking questions, making inferences, determining importance, inferring and synthesizing.
Today we're going to tackle Making Connections. Let's dive right in. Teachers know that reading doesn't just consist of reading the words on a page and comprehension doesn't just magically happen. Although as adult readers we use these reading strategies without much effort, young readers need to be explicitly taught what the strategies are and how to use them. Over time, readers will learn to weave in and out of these strategies to fully comprehend the text that they're reading. At the upper elementary level, students have likely been introduced to all seven strategies at one point or another, and they probably have been shown and modeled for how to use the strategies. You're going to continue to do that but there is going to be times when you're going to need to isolate each strategy throughout the school year. Of course, once a strategy is taught, it will still need to be reviewed, written, and continuously practiced. Many teachers would agree that Making Connections is one of the easiest strategies for students to master, simply because students are likely already doing it without much effort. In this episode, I'm going to walk you through some of the basics of what you need to know about the strategy and how to effectively teach it to your students.
Let's just lay the groundwork for what you need to know about Making Connections as a reading strategy. Making Connections is a critical reading strategy that helps students make meaning of what they're reading. When they make connections to the text that they're reading, it's going to help them make sense of what they're reading, help them retain the information better, and help them engage more with the text itself. We know that Making Connections means students can make connections from the text to themselves, from the text to another text, and the text to the world around them. Let's just give a little bit of background about each kind of connection first, just so that we're all on the same page.
When students make text to self connections, they're connecting what they read to personal experiences or knowledge. What we don't think about often as teachers is that our students bring with them a wide range of experiences, and those students with a wider range of experiences will often be able to bring with them more insightful and complex connections. Students with more limited experiences may struggle to make connections, or they might create vague or general connections. It's important to remember that when you're thinking about your students, keep in mind what their background is, where they come from, and what experiences they might bring with them.
Text to text connections are made when students can connect what they're reading to another book that they have already read or even listened to before. They might make connections to show how the books share the same author, have similar characters, events, or settings. Maybe the books are in the same genre or share the same topic. A solid text to text connection occurs when a student is able to apply what they learned or read from one text to another text. An example of this might be, I read a book about spiders that explain that spiders have venom. In this book I'm learning about the top ten dangerous spiders of the world. They make that connection about some spiders being dangerous and they're connecting it to the book that they're currently reading about the ten top dangerous spiders of the world. Again, it's important to remember that students that are exposed to a wide range of books are going to bring with them more connections than those students who maybe don't do a lot of reading at home or struggle with reading in general.
Then finally, text to world connections are when students make connections to what they are reading to real events, whether that's in the past, the present, social issues, or other people and happenings going on around the world. Students learn about the world from what they hear on TV, movies, magazines, and newspapers. Effective text to world connections happen when students can use what they learned through these mediums to enhance their learning of the text of what they're reading. All of these connections are most meaningful and effective when students are able to make deep, complex and insightful connections to the text rather than general, vague or superficial connections. It's important to note that at the beginning they probably will be general, vague and superficial, that's OK. We're working with them to establish what the reading strategy is, and then we're going to help them dive deeper to really use that strategy to enhance their comprehension.
Now that we've laid the groundwork for some important things to keep in mind about Making Connections, let's talk about how to begin modeling the strategy for your students. Although many students will find Making Connections an easier strategy to master than others, it doesn't always come naturally to all students, especially those with limited experiences. Therefore, you really need to spend time modeling the use of each type of connection through read aloud texts and written responses. Typically, the easiest connection for students to make is that text to self connections. Start by using a read aloud text that you're confident that most, if not all your students will be able to have some sort of connection with. You're going to model your own connections and then invite others to share theirs, discuss the differences between deep connections and surface connections. I like to compare this to the ocean. When we're on the surface, we're just at the very top of the water, there isn't really much to sea. But the deeper we go, we start to see new fish, coral reefs, and interesting water life that you won't see at the top. Similar to that, when we make surface level connections, they're not really complex or interesting. The deeper we go into our connection, the more interesting it gets and the more we're going to understand the text. Here's an example. Let's say you're reading a story where the main character has a cat, and when the character goes away for summer camp, she really misses the cat. That's what the whole story is about. A students surface level connection might be, I have a cat like the main character. Whereas a deep connection would sound something like this, 'I connected with the main character when she said she missed her cat when she was away at summer camp. I felt the same way when I went to visit my grandma in Florida and we had to leave the cat with our neighbor.' That's a much deeper connection because not only is the student realizing that the character and her have a cat in common, but she's also connecting to the character's feelings about the cat. That makes for a much deeper connection and it's going to help that student really understand how that character is feeling. Here are some prompts that you can provide for your students to help them start making those connections. You might even make an anchor chart with these prompts on them so that students always have them in front of them. These prompts might include: What does this remind me of in my life?, How is this similar to my life?, How is it different to my life?, Has something like this ever happened to me before?, How does this relate to my life?, What were my feelings when I read this?, How are my feelings similar or different to the characters?.
Text to text connections are the second type of connection that most teachers choose to teach. Choose two texts that you know students will be able to easily identify similar topics, characters, or events with. You also want to model how to make connections between books that are from different genres. It doesn't always have to be a fiction to a fiction connection. It could be a nonfiction book and a fiction poem or anything along those same lines. Again, you might want to provide students with prompts to help get their minds thinking prompts. Like, what other books have I read on this same topic?, How is this text similar to other things that I have read?, What does this remind me of in another book I read before?
Then finally, the most challenging connection that students make is that text to world connection. Again, a student's exposure to the world and the topics of current events is going to vary greatly between student to student so keep that in mind. When you model text to world connections, choose books that have characters or are about topics that all students are going to be able to make a text to world connection to. For example, in the book, "Where Does Garbage Go?", I will link to that book in the show notes, is an easy book for students to connect to a world issue. You can discuss the importance of earth conservation, discuss concerns about water pollution, etc.. To help you with book selection, I'm going to make a list of several books to use for each of the different types of connections. You can find links to all of those books over at the show notes at classroomnook.com/podcast/42.
Of course, now you need to take it to the next level and actually have students practice this strategy. Students are going to need lots and lots of time to practice this strategy in your guided reading group and in their independent reading as well. When they're first practicing the strategy on their own, it helps for students to have a visual reminder of the strategy that they're practicing with. In my classroom, I would always provide students with a bookmark for each reading comprehension strategy when we were teaching it in isolation. For the making connections bookmark, it had a list of the three types of connections that students can be making. Then while they're reading, they have this right in front of them to remind them of the different types of connections that they should be making. Lucky for you, if you want to grab this bookmark, you can do it for free over in the Members Resource Library. If you just head to the show notes, you will see a link there for the Members Resource Library. If you're not already a member, you can sign up for free and grab the bookmark. Along the same lines, you can create a poster or even a bulletin board where you're continuously adding a strategy up on the bulletin board for students to refer to. All of these visual minders are great to help keep the strategy top of mind while students are reading. If you need some anchor chart or poster inspiration, I actually have a post all about 10 Anchor Charts for Teaching Students About Making Connections, I will link to that blog post in the show notes so that you can get a little anchor chart inspiration for when you're creating your own.
Finally, my personal way to have students practice Making Connections or any reading strategy, for that matter, is by using a LINKtivity Digital Learning Guide. If you've been with me for a while, you know that my go to method for teaching new content to students is LINKtivity videos. I have created one for every single reading strategy. I've got the Making Connections one as well as the other six. I also have an entire bundle if you want to grab all seven Reading Comprehension Strategy activities and get it for a little bit of a discount. I will link to that bundle as well as the individual Making Connections LINKtivity over in the show notes. I love the setup of this LINKtivity because there's a short little video that students watch that once again models how to use the strategy and then they see the reading strategy and action by reading a story alongside their virtual reading buddy who models for them, how to make connections in the story. Then they have three additional reading passages where they can practice the strategy on their own. It's just a really fun and interactive way for students to practice and learn how to make connections while they're reading. If you want to check out that resource, you can do so in the show notes.
Of course, the final component of your Reading Comprehension Strategy Instruction is the assessment piece. Assessment is so important to effectively teaching making connections because it lets you know if they got it or not. Your assessments and observations will inform your instruction. Be sure to keep running notes of your students use or lack of use of the Making Connections strategy in both your individual conferences as well as in your reading groups. Keep track of how deep and meaningful their connections are. Are they authentic and complex? Or are they forced and surface level and even superficial? In the Making Connections activity resource it includes an observation sheet, along with a Making Connections rubric written in kid friendly form that will help you break down what you're looking for in each type of connection. Clear guidelines on what makes a great connection will help students to improve their connections over time. I'm always a fan of providing students with rubrics in kid friendly form because it gives them clear guidelines on what makes a good connection, and it helps them to see where they are now and what they need to do to make progress.
All right. I think that is a good place to stop for today. Make sure you head over to the show notes and grab that free bookmark to provide to your students. If you want to check out the LINKtivity all on Making Connections or the Reading Strategy Bundle, I will link to those resources in the show notes as well. I hope you have a great rest of your day and I will connect again with you next week. Bye for now.
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