Practice Making Connections
Making Connections (also called Schema) is a reading strategy which promotes comprehension. The ability to make connections is assessed on the DRA (Developmental Reading Assessment).
When we "Make Connections" we connect what we are reading to our own life, to another book or piece of writing, or to our world.
Connections are basically the way we connect new information to something we already know. There are three types of connections and we know that comprehension improves when connections are made. Often, students make the connections in their mind but they are unaware of them and are unable to articulate them. As a parent you can share the connections that are going on in your mind as you read with your child (think out loud for them).
Text to Self: This is connecting something in the book to something about yourself. These are the easiest connections to make for students.
Example: You read the story of Goldilocks and the Three Bears. A connection might be that sometimes when I make oatmeal in the morning it is too hot to eat and I have to add milk to cool it down. Even though this isn't the focus of the story it is a text to self connection.
Example: In The Kissing Hand, Chester the young raccoon is scared to leave his mom to attend school. A child might say, I felt just like Chester on my first day of school. This connection shows that the child understood how the character felt from their own experience.
Text to Text: This is connecting something in one book (or text) to another book (or text). Students get better at this with practice and as their knowledge of books grows. A text to text connection could be a connection you make because of similar characters, a similar plot, similar art work, or anything else that makes you connect the text you are reading to another text you have already read. It does not need to be a book. It can be a newspaper article or a poem that reminds you of a book.
Example: A child reads If you Give a Mouse a Cookie and it reminds them of If You Give a Moose a Muffin. This would be a text to text connection. They might make this connection because the the illustrator is the same and so both books have similar illustrations or they might recognize that the plots are the same (they are both circle stories).
Example: You are reading a book and it has a lot of rhyming words in it. A child might say that this book reminds them of The Cat in the Hat.
Text to World: This is usually taking something in the book and connecting it to a world event or something in real life (not a personal connection). It is usually the hardest connection for kids to make.
Example: A child is reading a book about an earthquake and you have seen a news story about a recent earthquake so they can relate what they know from the news and hearing about it to what they are reading.
