Reading Strategy: Make Connections

As you read, make connections to your life, to other texts, and to the world. Think about how the links add to your understanding of what you read.

Reading Strategy Make Connections
    How to Make Connections

  • 1. Identify As you read, stop occasionally and think about what you can link to the text.

  • 2. Evaluate Does the connection help you understand the events? If so, write it down. Tell what you connect to and why you make the connection.

  • 3. Label Tell what kind of connection it is: T-S (text to self), T-T (text to text), or T-W (text to world). Tell how it helps you better understand the text you are reading.

Strategy in Action

Here’s how one student made connections while reading this journal.

Look Into the Text

Monday, August 29, 2005

Last Days in St. Bernard Parish

I lived in a place called St. Bernard Parish, Louisiana, a town just southeast of New Orleans. I say that I lived there, because I don’t anymore. I don’t live anywhere.

Friday night we heard that a hurricane in the Gulf of Mexico might be coming our way. Not a big deal, I thought.

I saw some hurricanes on TV. They destroyed a lot of homes. Maybe this hurricane destroyed the writer’s home. Illustration of sticky note with printing on it

Practice Together

Now make a connection of your own as you read the journal entry above. Follow the steps in the How-To box.