Lesson 4: MAKING CONNECTIONS

Making connection is a strategy utilized by teachers in order to enhance comprehension of

learners in their reading task. According to Correia, Bleicher, 2008, the importance of making
connections to increase reading comprehension has become ubiquitous in literacy classrooms.
They also quoted the statement of Fountas & Pinnell, 2001; Keene & Zimmermann, 1997 in their
study that reading comprehension suggests that prior knowledge is a strong predictor of how will
the reader understand the text and make meaning, or generate new knowledge and understanding

Learning Competencies

In this lesson, you are expected to:

 explain importance of making connections strategy in achieving reading comprehension,
 complete given tasks emphasizing making connections strategy, and
 develop understanding of the making connection as a strategy.

Presentation of Content (https://www.classroomnook.com/blog/making-connections)

Making connections is a critical reading comprehension strategy that helps students make
meaning of what they are reading. When students make connections to the texts that they are
reading, it helps them to make sense of what they read, retain the information better, and engage
more with the text itself.

Students can make connections between:

 the text and themselves
 the text and another text
 the text and the world around them

TEXT-TO-SELF CONNECTIONS:

These are connections where students connect what they are reading to personal
experiences or knowledge. Students with a wide range of experiences will often be able to make
more insightful and complex connections. Students with more limited experiences may struggle
to make connections or create vague, general connections.

 Example of Text to Self: “This story reminds me of a vacation that I took to the ocean, just like
the main character.”
TEXT-TO-TEXT CONNECTIONS

These connections are made when a student can connect what they are reading to other
books that they have read or listened to before. They may make connections that show how the
books share the same author, have similar characters, events, or settings, are the same genre, or
are on the same topic. A solid text to text connection occurs when a student is able to apply what
they’ve read from one text to another text.

 Example of Text to Text: “I read another book about spiders that explained that spiders
have venom and in this book, I am learning about the top 10 dangerous spiders of the
world.”

TEXT-TO-WORLD CONNECTIONS

These are connections where students connect what they are reading to real events (past of
present), social issues, other people, and happenings going on in 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 have learned through these mediums to
enhance their understanding of the text that they are reading.
 Example of Text to World: “I saw on the news about how water pollution was affecting
marine animals, and in this book I am learning about why pollution can make a marine
animal sick.

In using the making connection strategy, readers get to connect the text to themselves, another
etxt they have already read and to the world. When readers have prior knowledge and they connect
this prior knowledge to what they are reading, it facilitates comprehension. It simplifies meaning
making in reading.

This is further explained by Correia, Bleicher, 2008:

 When readers engage with an unfamiliar text, they rely on their prior knowledge (e.g.,
personal experiences, conceptual understanding, other texts) to make sense or meaning of
the text. According to Keene and Zimmermann (1997), readers make three types of
connections before, during, or after reading:
(a) text-to-self connections;
(b) text-to text connections; and
(c) text-to-world connections.
 For example, if a student is reading about sedimentary rocks in a science textbook, she is
more likely to understand what she is reading if she is a rock collector (text-to-self
connection).
 If she relates what she is reading in the textbook to other books she has read about rocks,
her understanding and comprehension will also improve (text-to-text connection).
 Furthermore, her understanding can be deepened by connecting what she reads in the
textbook to world events or other phenomena she may not have been personally involved
 in, but has knowledge of, such as the Mount St. Helen’s erup tion (text-to-world
connection)

Try this!

Think of a story you have read and use the make connection strategy in making meaning parallel
to this sample below.

Credit to Deb Hanson