New Reading Log Tonight

You may have noticed that your child has a new reading log in his/her Take Home Folder.  After students read their book each evening, they should write the title neatly and with correct capitalization.  Then, students need to write a complete sentence (with a capital at the beginning and end punctuation) that explains their connection to the story.  

While reading, engaged readers make connections in different ways.  We have been working on making connections between a story and our personal experiences (text to self connection), making connections between a story and another story (text to text), and even making larger connections between a story and events in the “real world” (text to world). 

If your child is having difficulty making a connection, here are questions you can ask that will get him/her thinking!

Focusing on text-to-self connections:

o    What does this story remind you of?

o    Can you relate to the characters in the story?

o    Does anything in this story remind you of anything in your own life?

Focusing on text-to-text connections:

o    What does this remind you of in another book you have read?

o    How is this text similar to other things you have read?

o    How is this text different from other things you have read?

Focusing on text-to-world connections:

o    What does this remind you of in the real world?

o    How are events in this story similar to things that happen in the real world?

o    How are events in this story different from things that happen in the real world?

(Questions from: http://www.readwritethink.org/professional-development/strategy-guides/making-connections-30659.html)

Connections can also be made to nonfiction texts.  For example, readers might build on their prior knowledge of a nonfiction topic and add new information to their prior understanding of the topic. They might also make connections between personal experiences relating to the topic.