Making+Connections

Making connections to the world, to another text, or to themself allows students to relate what is happening in the story to something they are familiar with to better understand it. This skill can be used in many different ways before during and after reading or learning about a specific topic. I showed a video in my class about where electricity comes from, and the students made connections to their own life about using electricity in their home. Making connections allows students to trigger their background knowledge about what they already know about a topic or concept. "They are connecting the new to the known."(MSPR pg. 5) This helps the students to comprehend what they are reading throughout a particular text.

It is important to ask the students some questions and do a think-aloud about what the students will be reading. Brief the students on the concepts they will be learning about and what they know about the topics. For example, doing a frayer model about the ocean allowed students to think about going to the ocean and remembering what it was like compared to going to a lake, pond, or river. We were able to talk about the mammals that lived in the ocean that some of the students had seen, what the water smelled like or tasted like, and observations that the students had about the water coming in and going out. The students made connections between the ocean and themselves.