Reading Strategy: Make Connections

The text you read becomes more meaningful if you link it to your own life, to things you have read or seen, or to the world around you.

Reading Strategy Make Connections
    How to Make Connections

  • Use sticky notes to track connections. Tell how the connections help you understand the text better.

  • 1. Text to Self If a fact or an idea reminds you of something from your own life, write T-S next to it. Explain the connection.

  • 2. Text to Text If a fact or an idea reminds you of something you read or saw, write T-T next to it. Explain the connection.

  • 3. Text to World If a fact or an idea relates to a problem or an issue in the world, write T-W next to it. Explain the connection.

Strategy in Action

Here’s how one student made connections.

Look Into the Text

A Dangerous Job

Joanne Green walks by a glowing river. This river has no water, however. Instead, it is made of hot liquid rock, or lava.

The lava river is extremely hot, and so are the rocks surrounding it. “If you aren’t careful,” she says, “you’ll melt your boots on the hot rock. Or worse!”

“ The text says the river is made of hot liquid rock.”

In a movie, I saw some factory workers who poured hot melted metal. It looked dangerous!
Illustration of a sticky note with a handwritten note about details of a movie

Practice Together

Reread the passage above, and make a connection of your own. Follow the steps in the How-To box. Put your sticky note next to the text.