When students connect to text, they build deeper meaning both with the text, and with what they connect it to. By teaching how to make Text-to-Text, Text-to-Self, and Text-to-World Connections we empower our students to take the messages and meanings of the text beyond the cover, linking it to meaningful experiences. Through connecting, students develop empathetic relationships both to the content in the text, and those around them in their lives.

English Course Pack: Unit One – Literacy Skills

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1.11 – Connecting: Slide Deck

Step One: Introduce Connecting

Prior to revealing the definition on Slide Four, ask students what type of connections exist. Some might not know any, while others might start to figure it out when prompted with “Text-to-…”

Take a moment to allow students to copy down the definition, and the three main connection types:

• Text to Self (Yourself)
• Text to World (Society and Pop Culture)
• Text to Text (Another Text

Once, complete, you can move on to looking more specifically at each type.

Step Two: Delving Deeper into each Connection Type

Slides five, six, and seven, each present students with an opportunity to better understand the three connection types. By including prompting questions, they will be able to gain a better understanding of how to begin making each connection, while also understanding what the differences between each type are.

Students can be presenting with a source text (an image, or a short story, or a paragraph, or even a simple sentence) and discuss responses to the prompts during these slides.

Once all three slides have been shown, students can debrief the three types of connections, highlighting the similarities and differences between them to ensure there is a class-wide understanding of the concept.

Step Three: There’s always a Video

Slide nine’s video presents a one minute overview of connection, while also highlighting some successful strategies that can be used for demonstrating student learning.

Step Four: Putting it Into Practice with Super Heroics

Focusing on the Venn diagram on Slide ten, students can suggest what similarities and differences they feel exist between Batman and Iron Man, before writing a short connection of their own.

You may wish to provide the paragraph outline on slide twelve, if you think that will help students best demonstrate their understanding. Once they have written their piece, you should provide time for them to share their responses in small groups, before asking each group to nominate one student to share their response with the class.

Alternatively, you can have each group write a combined response on chart paper, and hang them around the room, allowing for a gallery walk, and future anchor charts.

The Impact

Connecting is one of the most important literacy skills. Through this class, students will gain a full understanding of the three main connection types, become familiar with the language so they can recognize and use it in a classroom setting, and become proficient in writing short connection paragraphs that fully explain and explore their ideas.

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English – Unit One: Literacy Skills

English Course Packs: Full Units

Unit One: Literacy Skills
Unit Two: Poetry
Unit Three: Literature Circles
Unit Four: Creative Writing & Choose Our Way Tales (In Progress)
Unit Five: Essay Writing (In Progress)
Unit Six: Culminating Tasks (In Progress)

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