lessons

Pearson, Dole, Roeler, and Duffy say, “Reading is a process of actively constructing of meaning and connecting prior knowledge with new information.”

Strategies That Work, Chapter 6 Making Connections: A Bridge from the New to the Known

“When we begin strategy instruction with children, stories close to their own lives and experiences are helpful for introducing new ways of thinking about reading. Readers naturally make connections between books and their own lives. Once they have heard a wealth of stories and narratives, they begin to connect themes, characters, and issues from one book to another. When children understand how to connect the texts they read to their lives, they begin to make connections between what they read and the larger world. This nudges them into thinking about bigger, more expansive issues beyond their universe of home, school, and neighborhood Strategies That Work.”

Encouraging the students to fill in a chart helps them to summarize the story in the first column and respond to a memory, some prior knowledge, or a past experience in the second column.

What the Story is about…

What it reminds me of…

The turtle swims in the water.

The turtle eats insects.

I once saw a turtle swimming in a pond at my grandma’s house.

We fed the turtle at school flakes the teacher bought at the store in Kindergarten.

After several books, the teacher should introduce the idea of coding the responses.

Just making a connection won’t due. Make sure your students are not so busy trying to make a connection that they create one (in other words, lie). Also, the purpose for coding the text is to monitor comprehension, think about meaning, and enhance understanding.

Remember to ask your students, “How does that connection help you understand?”

Activating and Building Schema

Readers can make connections while reading, synthesizing new information, deepening existing understandings, broadening beliefs and informing misconceptions.

Activating and Building Schema

This is a paraphrasing from Debbie Miller’s book, Reading With Meaning, pages 54-57.

Think Alouds are a wonderful way to show our students how to build schema, but we must be genuine. We must be deliberate. Our think alouds must be genuine, with precise language, with thoughtful responses.

We require proper planning. What do I want students to understand about this strategy? Of all the places in the text where I could authentically think out loud, which two or three would best illustrate my point? Mark those places before your lesson, and think about what you will say and how you will say it. Only model the point you are trying to make, don’t model another thinking strategy during this read aloud. Be aware of your focus and keep it.

Authenticity matters. The teacher’s connections, questions, inferences, must be genuine. That’s why book selection is key. The book won’t be perfect for your lesson unless you can connect with it and put your personal stamp on it in some way.

Use precise language. Be precise when you share your thinking. Say what you need to say as clearly and concisely as you can, then move on. Use real language and standard terminology. Define the strategy. Decide how you’ll format your responses to the reading.

As we teach the students to think through the text we encourage the students to respond using this terminology:

Teachers should encourage the students to explain why they are thinking about that connection. “What were the words in the story that made you think about….”

It is important for teachers to become aware of what’s going on inside their heads as they read, to learn how to articulate their thinking for themselves and others, and think aloud about their connections and mental images. As children’s thinking grows, the students construct meaning, the ability to reflect on what they read, and opportunities to share their insight.

Literary Elements	What we know about the element
Genre	Nonfiction, fiction, poetry, and so on vary. With exposure, readers become familiar with the special characteristics and conventions of each genre.
Format	Readers learn the differences among picture books, novels, nonfiction trade books, etc. They rely on these differences to better understand what is read.
Form	Readers learn to distinguish among essays, editorials, manuals, feature articles, and so on. This awareness heightens their understanding when they different forms.
Author	Readers learn that certain authors carry similar themes, issues and topics throughout their writing. Readers come to expect that.
Text Structure	Readers recognize the differences between narrative and expository text and other structures, and learn the characteristics of each to better comprehend.
Cue Words	Readers learn to identify cue words that alert them about what’s to come. For example, but suggests a coming change, in other words is followed by a definition, and most important means exactly that.
Writing Style	Readers notice the various writing styles of different authors, develop an appreciation of them, and begin to make connections between them.
Literary Features	Readers learn to search for themes, identify problems, and recognize settings when they read. They develop background knowledge to the features of text.

Thinking about which connections help us comprehend the text

Then lead a discussion, “What can we learn from all this great thinking we just did?”

When reflecting on the student’s ability to make connections the teacher needs to think about:

Invite students to draw or sketch a picture that shows everything they know about the subject they are going to explore. Ask them to let their drawings carry their entire background knowledge. Provide a short time for sketching.

Once everyone has their schema represented in their drawing, have the students turn to a neighbor and tell the neighbor about their drawings and all about the topic. The students can look for differences between their drawings. The students can also discuss how they know what they know. The students can now add one or two word labels to their drawings, which capture major concepts from their background knowledge.

Collect the drawings and use the information they contain to develop the unit of study. These initial drawings can also be used as a basis of comparison after the unit of study is completed and compare it to a post drawing.

Source: Talking Drawings: A Strategy for Assisting Learners by Suzanne McConnell, Journal of Reading, Dec.92-Jan. 93.