When teaching students the importance of understanding their reading, lessons on making connections must take place. As an adult reader, we constantly connect what we are reading to real-life events and topics. These connections are what allow our brains to store the newly read information for immediate and future use. How do we get young readers to do they same thing?
First off, as parents and educators we need to make sure that these readers are exposed to rich text, meaningful stories, and all around interesting topics. I have found that
Hameray Publishing offers a wide range of books that cover these three needs. My students and I love that their books contain real photographs and cover interesting topics.
Second, we need a variety of books to support the strategy of making connections. By reading nonfiction text and comparing it to the author's message/moral of the story in fables, young readers are able to grow their reading minds. The connections that they are able to make between nonfiction and fiction helps to build the bridge to successful comprehension. I feel that too often young readers focus only on text-to-self connections and the text-to-world connections fall to the wayside. It is these text-to-world connections that strengthen our language skills and understanding of the world.
The
Fables and Nonfiction sets, from Hameray Publishing, are an incredible resource to use when teaching students about text-to-world, as well as text-to-text connections. My kiddos not only love the nonfiction component, but they thoroughly enjoy discussing the moral of each fable.
What is your favorite resource for teaching connections?
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