Reading Strategy Spotlight

• Predicting

• Make Connections

• Analyzing

Making Connections

Learning Goal: I can make meaningful text to self, text to text, and text to society connections

Make ConnectionsPeople regularly make connections:

For example:

For some, school is like a prison

Lady Gaga reminds me of Madonna

A tornado sounds like a freight train

A crackling fire reminds me of happy childhood memories

Making connections helps you to understand the world around

Select one of the images on the next slide and make a connectionDoes the image: (select one or more)• relate to one your interests?• remind you of a time from the past?• connect to a movie or book?• remind you of something or someone?• connect to world events?Write 3 – 5 sentences about your connection and be prepared to share your thoughts with the class.

Images

Images

Making Connections to an Opinion Piece

Key Questions

“What do I know that will help me understand the author’s opinion?”

“How does what I know help me form my own opinion on this topic?”

Three different kinds of connections

1. Text to Self (T-S)Connect to an experience you have had.2. Text to Text (T-T)Connect to another text – visual, written, or spoken.3. Text to World (T-W)Connect to an event or issue in the world.

To improve understanding by making connections

1. Look for ways to connect new ideas to your background knowledge, other texts, and events in the world.2. Focus on making connections to the most important information in a text, not tounimportant details.

PracticeIdentity” by Julio Naboa.Let them be as flowers,always watered, fed, guarded, admired,but harnessed to a pot of dirt.

I'd rather be a tall, ugly weed,clinging on cliffs, like an eaglewind-wavering above high, jagged rocks.To have broken through the surface of stone, to live, to feel exposed to the madnessof the vast, eternal sky.

To be swayed by the breezes of an ancient sea,carrying my soul, my seed, beyond the mountains of timeor into the abyss of the bizarre

I'd rather be unseen, and ifthen shunned by everyone,than to be a pleasant-smelling flower,growing in clusters in the fertile valleys,where they're praised, handled, and pluckedby greedy, human hands.

I'd rather smell of musty, green stenchthan of sweet, fragrant lilac.If I could stand alone, strong and free,I'd rather be a tall, ugly weed.

Making Connections: Reading Task

Select ONE of the poems provided and complete the note-taking chart

Aim to make between 4 – 5 connections and record them in your chart.

Text to Self Sample(based on my reading notes)

After reading the poem “Identity” I can make several text-to-self connections. I agree with the poet’s idea that it is quite rewarding to “stand alone, strong and free” because there was a time in my life when I really wanted to be a “weed”. After finishing 17 years of school, I was tired of being like everyone else and desired to be a person who was totally free and “clinging on cliffs, like an eagle”. Rather than applying to Teacher’s College like other graduates, I decided to go to school in Amboise, France. When school was over, I travelled throughout Europe, by myself, meeting other students along the way. It turned out to be one of the best experiences of my life because I answered to no one and was able to enjoy life to its fullest. One line from the poem that I think reflects the value of my trip is when the speaker says, “To have broken through the surface of stone, to live, to feel the madness of the vast, eternal sky” because it means that if you take risks in your life, it allows you to grow; this is exactly how I felt after traveling to Europe. Clearly, this is a poem that connected with me.

Text to Text(based on my reading notes)

After reading the poem “Identity” it reminded me of the novel Jake, Reinvented by Gordon Korman. It is because this novel is also about the value of being independent. In the book the main character, Jake, really wants to be a “flower” so that he can date the love of his life, Didi. Later, his good friend Rick discovers that the people who are the flowers or “accepted people” are selfish and use each other to fulfill their own needs. Jake is forced to leave after confessing to a crime he did not commit. In the end, Rick realizes that being a weed isn’t such a bad thing after all – at least he has his dignity. Therefore, I was able to make text-to-text connections

Text to World(based on my reading notes)

After reading the poem “Identity”, I began to realize that most people in the world really are both “flowers” and “weeds”. Because flowers are “guarded, fed, and watered” people like that kind of security. It is the protection that parents and friends provide for people so that they feel comfortable in life. On the other hand, these same people probably also have the desire to be “weeds” because growing into independence is a natural stage of growth. Many people, once they have the skills to survive on their own, need to break free to establish their own identify. In some way it is the same as moving out the house after finishing school or going off to post- secondary education. As a result, text-to-world connections can be made.

What are the elements of making a meaningful written connection to a text? Success criteria:

• Uses a clear topic sentence that makes the connection between the text and self, another text or media, and/or the world

• Uses direct references to words/ ideas/ phrases from the original text

• Ideas are developed and meaningful• Ideas are organized and focused on the connection• Sentence structure is correct and varied• Ideas are expressed with correct punctuation, grammar, capitalization, and spelling