| 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. The Lighthouse Family: The Storm 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 The Storm. Include a connection for text to text, text to world, and text to self.
Encourage students to share their text connections in small groups or as a whole class. Open dialogue helps students see diverse perspectives and deepens comprehension.
Demonstrate aloud how you connect the story to another book, your own experiences, and real-world events. Think aloud so students understand your reasoning process.
Offer prompts like “This reminds me of…” or “I felt like…” to help students get started. Scaffold their thinking so all students can participate confidently.
Teach students to listen and ask follow-up questions about a peer’s connection. Active listening builds empathy and collaborative learning.
Ask the class how making connections helped them understand The Lighthouse Family: The Storm better. Reflection reinforces the value of this reading strategy.
Text-to-text connections relate a part of a story to another book or story, text-to-self connections link story events to the reader’s own life, and text-to-world connections tie the story to real-world events or issues. These strategies help students deepen understanding and engagement while reading.
Teachers can encourage students to identify moments in the story that remind them of other books, personal experiences, or world events. Using activities like storyboards and guided discussions can help students practice text-to-text, text-to-self, and text-to-world connections effectively.
An example is relating Pandora’s love for lighthouse keeping to the reader’s own experience, such as having met a lighthouse keeper or visiting a lighthouse, helping students see themselves in the story.
Making connections helps students better understand, remember, and engage with what they read. It builds critical thinking and personalizes the reading experience, making learning more meaningful and fun.
Have students create a storyboard showing one text-to-text, one text-to-self, and one text-to-world connection from 'The Storm.' They can add illustrations and short descriptions to explain each connection.