Activity Overview
| 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. |
Asking students to make connections to the text is one way to encourage active reading and improve reading comprehension. Text connections can also spark meaningful discussions about a novel and its themes and can act as precursors to some essays. For this activity, have students use three storyboard frames to connect The Adventures of Tom Sawyer to themselves, another text (or film), and the world around them. Ask them to explain the connection in the text box below each frame.
Example The Adventures of Tom Sawyer Text Connections
TEXT TO SELF
I felt like Tom did at Muff Potter’s trial when I told on one of the older kids in my neighborhood. I knew that he had egged the Browns’ mailbox, but I was afraid he would find out if I told them. I did it anyway, and Mr. Brown made him clean it up!
TEXT TO TEXT
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer is similar to the movie Ferris Bueller’s Day Off. Tom and Ferris both skip school in favor of adventure. Their adventurous spirits get them into trouble but also make them likable and, in the end, bring them success and social approval.
TEXT TO WORLD
Tom Sawyer has a lot to do with social expectations. Our world today still has many rules for what makes a person “good” or “bad”. Tom and Huck seem “bad” because they disobey their elders, skip school, and play tricks on people; however, their hearts are in the right place. Many children today are punished or labeled “bad” simply because they have a lot of energy, even though they may be very kind-hearted people.
Template and Class Instructions
(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 The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. Include a connection for text to text, text to world, and text to self.
- Click "Start Assignment".
- Create an image for each connection using scenes, characters, items, and text boxes.
- Write a description of how the text relates to another text, the world, and you.
Lesson Plan Reference
- [ELA-Literacy/RL/8/2] Determine a theme or central idea of a text and analyze its development over the course of the text, including its relationship to the characters, setting, and plot; provide an objective summary of the text
- [ELA-Literacy/RL/8/9] Analyze how a modern work of fiction draws on themes, patterns of events, or character types from myths, traditional stories, or religious works such as the Bible, including describing how the material is rendered new
- [ELA-Literacy/RL/9-10/2] Determine a theme or central idea of a text and analyze in detail its development over the course of the text, including how it emerges and is shaped and refined by specific details; provide an objective summary of the text
- [ELA-Literacy/RL/9-10/9] Analyze how an author draws on and transforms source material in a specific work (e.g., how Shakespeare treats a theme or topic from Ovid or the Bible or how a later author draws on a play by Shakespeare)
Rubric
(You can also create your own on Quick Rubric.)
| Proficient | Emerging | Beginning | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Text Connections | Student made and labeled all three text connections correctly. | Student made and labeled two text connections correctly. | Student made and labeled one text connection correctly. |
| Examples of Connections | All examples of connections support understanding of text. | Most examples of connections support understanding of text. | Most examples of connections do not support understanding of text or are difficult to understand. |
| Illustration of Examples | Ideas are well organized. Images clearly show the connections student made with the text. | Ideas are organized. Most images help to show the connections student made with the text. | Ideas are not well organized. Images are difficult to understand. |
More Storyboard That Activities
Adventures of Tom Sawyer, The
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