| Text Connections | |
|---|---|
| Text to Text | Connection that reminds you of something in another book or story |
| Text to Self | Connection that reminds you of something in your life. |
| Text to World | Connection that reminds you of something happening in the world. |
Making connections is a very important skill to acquire and perfect. Cowgirl Kate and Cocoa is a great story for students to connect to on many different levels. In this activity, students will be making text to text, text to self, and text to world connections. Students should choose which connection they want to make first and work to write a narrative for that. Once all three connections have been made, students can work on their illustrations.
TEXT TO TEXT
TEXT TO SELF
TEXT TO WORLD
(These instructions are completely customizable. After clicking "Copy Activity", update the instructions on the Edit Tab of the assignment.)
Student Instructions
Create a storyboard that shows connections you have made with Cowgirl Kate and Cocoa. Include a connection for text to text, text to world, and text to self.
Start your lesson by gathering students for a brief, engaging discussion about their favorite stories, real-life experiences, and things happening in the world. This helps activate background knowledge and makes it easier for students to form meaningful connections with Cowgirl Kate and Cocoa.
Read a short excerpt from Cowgirl Kate and Cocoa and think out loud as you make a text to text, text to self, or text to world connection. Show students your thought process so they can see how connections are made. This makes the strategy concrete and relatable.
Offer sentence starters like “This reminds me of…”, “I have felt…”, or “In the news, I saw…”. These scaffolds help all learners express their connections confidently and stay focused on the task.
Ask students to share their connections in pairs or small groups. This promotes discussion, builds confidence, and allows them to hear multiple perspectives before illustrating or writing independently.
Show completed examples of storyboards or T-Charts with clear text connections. Visuals provide concrete expectations and inspire creativity while guiding students’ own work.
Text-to-text connections relate a story to another book or story. Text-to-self connections link the story to your own life. Text-to-world connections compare the story to real-world events or issues. Making these connections helps students understand and relate to stories more deeply.
Students can make connections to Cowgirl Kate and Cocoa by identifying moments in the story that remind them of other books, their own experiences, or things happening in the world. They can then create a storyboard or write a narrative explaining each connection.
A simple activity is to have students create a T-chart or storyboard. On one side, they list scenes from Cowgirl Kate and Cocoa; on the other side, they write their text-to-text, text-to-self, or text-to-world connections, and add illustrations to show their thinking.
Making connections helps young readers comprehend stories more deeply, relate new information to what they already know, and build critical thinking skills. It encourages engagement and personal investment in reading.
Examples include relating Kate’s responsibility to caring for a pet (text-to-self), comparing another Cowgirl Kate book (text-to-text), or connecting Cocoa’s herding role to real animals that herd in the world (text-to-world).