Reading: Making Connections to Text

It is important to make connections to the text that we read because it helps us be more engaged in our reading. Better readers are active readers, and it is important for us to get used to being active readers that connect to the the text we read.

When we relate to the text, the text seems more interesting because there is something about a situation or a character that reminds us of something in our own lives.

It ia also easier to remember what you read when you make connections to the text because you could think of your life and the character’s life and would be able to recall details easily.

Basically, reasons why connecting to text helps readers:

--It helps readers understand how characters feel and the motivation behind their actions.
--It helps readers have a clearer picture in their head as they read thus making the reader more engaged.
--It keeps the reader from becoming bored while reading.
--It sets a purpose for reading and keeps the reader focused.
--Readers can see how other readers connected to the reading.
--It forces readers to become actively involved.
--It helps readers remember what they have read and ask questions about the text.

There are three ways that we connect to text:

Text-to-self connections are highly personal connections that a reader makes between a piece of reading material and the reader’s own experiences or life. An example of a text-to-self connection might be, "This story reminds me of a vacation we took to my grandfather’s farm."

Text-to-world connections are the larger connections that a reader brings to a reading situation. We all have ideas about how the world works that goes far beyond our own personal experiences. We learn about things through television, movies, magazines, and newspapers.

Sometimes when reading, readers are reminded of other things that they have read, other books by the same author, stories from a similar genre, or perhaps on the same topic. These types of connections are text-to-text connections. Readers gain insight during reading by thinking about how the information they are reading connects to other familiar text. “This character has the same problem that I read about in a story last year,” would be an example of a text-to-text connection.