Reading Strategy: Make Connections

When you read, some details may remind you of your own experiences. Making connections can give a text more meaning.

Reading Strategy: Make Connections
    How to Make Text-To-Self Connections

  • 1. As you read, notice details that stand out or have meaning for you.

  • 2. At the end of a page or section, think about each connection. How does it help you appreciate or understand the text?

  • 3. Explain the connection in a Text-to-Self Connections Chart.

Strategy in Action

Here’s how one student made text-to-self connections.

Look Into the Text

The morning wind felt like a sharp knife on my legs, like it was carving me. How could it be so cold when the sun was shining?

I remember a sunny day when I felt cold, too!

Would I get used to this and would I ever get to like Connecticut? I doubted it, but here I was, on my first day in an American high school and I had to make the best of it.

This reminds me of when my family moved to California.

I went from class to class trying to be ignored. I was mostly successful, except for algebra.

Text-to-Self Connections Chart

The text says …This reminds me of …The connection helps because …
How could it be so cold when the sun is shining?I stood in mountain snow but the day was very warm.I understand why the character is puzzled by new and different weather.

Practice Together

Reread the passage. Follow the steps in the How-To box to make your own text-to-self connections.