A powerpoint dealing with reading skills.

1. Making Connections
Applying The Art of War precepts: a
reading strategy.
Bertolino--Reading Strategies Mosaic 852 1

2. Connections—What are they?
• A connection is a bond.
• A connection suggests a relationship between
two or more items.
• A connection creates meaning.
• A connection shows that a particular concept
is applicable to daily life.
• A connection is a deeper sense of
comprehension and understanding.
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3. According to Reading Specialists…
• Students who make connections while reading are better able to understand the
text they are reading.
• It is important for students to draw on their prior knowledge and experiences to
connect with the text.
• Students are thinking when they are connecting.
• This makes them more engaged in the reading experience.
• Prior knowledge is what the reader brings to the text—it is what he or she already
knows about the topic or information surrounding the topic. Some of that
knowledge is formal; it comes from education. It can also come from experience.
• Experience is life. Experience takes into account what we have already done—if we
are reading a book about smallpox, we may not have experience with that deadly
disease, but we do understand what it feels like to be ill.
• None of us are empty bowls when we begin to read. We already have a stake in
the reading experience, but we often have to wake up to what we already know.
Once that happens, the reading experience ceases to be passive. It isn’t something
that is done to us—we are participating in the experience.
Bertolino--Reading Strategies Mosaic 852 3

4. We Need Connections in Reading
• If something doesn’t make sense, the reader
will not learn.
• If something bears no relationship to everyday
life, the reader will not retain what he/she has
read.
• If something seems pointless and
worthless, we will not make the effort except
under duress.
Bertolino--Reading Strategies Mosaic 852 4

5. How to Make Connections in Reading
Text to Self
• Students connect with the text via their own personal experiences or life. They
relate to the literature by a specific experience in their life.
• Students have been creating life experiences since birth, therefore it is easy for
them to activate prior knowledge.
• "The text says...this reminds me of..." is a wonderful prompt for a text to self
connection. Students simply fill in the blanks.
• "If that happened to me...I would.." is another text to self prompt for students.
This prompt makes a student think if he would do something similar or
different than the character.
• Text to self connections are made frequently without the student knowing she
is making a connection. Readers naturally will begin a dialogue based on a
story that relates to their family and experiences.
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6. Another Form of Connection
• Text to Text
• Students connect to the text in relation to another text. Students make
connections from a previous book they have read.
• "This book reminds me of (another book) because..." is a good text to text
prompt. This prompt makes the student think of another book that has a
similar element to the book she is reading. This connection requires more
thinking as students have less prior knowledge.
The Mosaic sequence courses ask students to make connections between
texts. In Mosaic 1, students are asked to connect Freud to Kafka or
Shakespeare. In Mosaic 2, students are asked to connect The Art of War to
The Iliad. These connections help to build relationships within the course
readings.
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7. A Third Form of Connection
• Text to World
• Students connect to the text in relation to the world. They no longer
connect with only personal information or experiences. Media such as
television, Internet, or movies, is a great way to introduce text to world.
• "This reminds me of the real world because..." is a good prompt for
helping students to make connections with the world. Students need a
great deal of modeling because often they will make a text to self
connection thinking it is a text to world connection. The key difference is
text to self is only about the student while text to world is about everyone
outside his small community.
• Making connections is one strategy to improve reading comprehension. It
is important for students to understand the concept of activating prior
knowledge if they are to succeed in this strategy. Making connections is
wonderful as it makes the reader active in the reading process.
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8. Bertolino--Reading Strategies Mosaic 852 8

9. Work Cited
• http://debbiedespirt.suite101.com/making-
connections-and-reading-a129868
• And me, of course…
Bertolino--Reading Strategies Mosaic 852 9