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Connect

Children will deepen their comprehension by accessing their prior knowledge before reading a selection. While reading, they will learn to make connections from the text to themselves, the text to other texts and movies, and the text to world. By recognizing what is unknown in the text and thinking about what is known from codifying personal experiences (schema), other texts and knowledge of the world, the reader will build confidence in using connections to get meaning from what was originally unknown. By explaining how these connections help them understand the text, comprehension will improve. When setting up a proficient reader classroom, we study how to use connections to deepen comprehension the second month of school but build our understanding all year.

"Many students ignored what they knew and dove right into new material without considering their background knowledge...They didn't know that the information in their heads is a powerful resource when reading difficult text."

Cris Tovani, I Read It But I Don't Get It

Getting Started: The Most Misunderstood Comprehension Strategy

Often, teachers say to me, "Oh, connections. My kids got that." But, do they really? Do kids understand how to use their background knowledge to figure out confusing parts of texts? Do they even RECOGNIZE when the reading stops making sense? Do they stop and do something about their confusion? ...Or, do the teachers mean that their students can name text-to-text, text-to-self, and text-to-world connections?

Connections are the most misunderstood strategy that way. It's as if teachers and students check connections off their lists. Too soon, I think. Making connections effectively is a truly rich undertaking that helps readers unlock the mysteries of author's purpose, theme, main ideas, and plot.

Consider this checklist instead, all that needs to be taught and modeled during a connections unit. If your students are like mine, they haven't seen nor named these behaviors. When launching a unit on connections with students unfamiliar with the strategy, I find I need at least 4 weeks of sustained study during the literacy block.

• Use your background knowledge (schema) before you begin to read.
  By thinking about the author's name, illustrator's name, and title and by reading the cover and summary of the book, readers get into a text much more quickly. That's because, if done right, readers file the information in the correct cabinet of the brain. Then they can go about adding more and more information to the right file. Without taking the time to access schema, the brain gets confused. Think parking cars at Wal-Mart at Christmas time without lines painted on the lot. You can do it eventually, but why try?

  Instead, go easy on yourself. Thinking about what you know about a topic only takes a minute and prepares the brain to be receptive. At the very least, look for topic, genre, author: I'm reading a poem. It's about elephants. I know this author! He rhymes and is funny. Ahhh. I can relax and enjoy reading.

• Visualize to connect.
  Make pictures in your head of what you're reading. If the movie stops, the reader is confused. Readers take steps to get unconfused right away. At that point, they may stop and think, take some notes, reread, look up a word, or talk to someone. Bottom line? They do something!

• Use your personal experience to help you understand what you don't know.
  The most frequent problem readers experience is tripping over words they don't know. Then, they think and connect the new word to a familiar rhyming pattern, beginning sound, or part within a word to figure out how to pronounce the word. Those ARE connections...using what you know to figure out what you don't know.

  But, readers can also come across words they can read (as in...pronounce) but are used in a new way or the meaning is unfamiliar. For example, "My teacher wants me to write a good 'lead' for my paper." Aha! This problem is not as easy. Still, brains search for connections to make sense of the words.

  The reader might think, "I've heard the word 'leader' meaning important person. I've heard of being in the 'lead' in a race...being first. I've played 'follow the leader'... the person at the head of the line. So, what's a lead in a story? The first line? The words at the front of the paper? Important words?" So, readers make a snap decision about whether to figure out what's confusing and if so, how best to do that.

Besides the minilessons mentioned so far, during this unit I also teach students to...

• Overview novels to ask, "What am I reading to find out?" Each time they pick up the novel, ask, "What have I already read? What am I reading to find out?" A handy tool for thinking in this way is a double entry journal with the headings, Notice/Wonder. (See lesson, below.)
• Stop when the reading doesn't make sense. Take steps to get unconfused.
• Search for connections. Connections can be made to other texts and movies, to our lives, and to our experiences in the world. Old information may help us figure out new puzzles.
• Use sophisticated connections to unlock meaning. (See "Sophisticated Connections" below.)
• Share connections and think out loud about how they help readers.
• Code connections. (See coding page on this site).
• Question the author.
• Read more and more selections about the same topic, to build background knowledge from which to access connections. In other words... read more!
• Look for multiple levels of meaning...literary elements like metaphors. (Effective metaphors ARE connections that help readers understand difficult concepts.)
• Use exit sheets to record thinking at the end of each lesson. The exit sheet is reflection for them, an assessment for me. (See exit sheets in index.)
• Interpret test language that assesses how students use connections.

You can see from my extensive list that I don't want children to just jump in and ignore their connections. I also don't care if my students can name the types of connections readers make.

I do want readers to use their memorable, personal experiences to bring meaning to the words on the page. Through discussion, I hope they'll discover that words have varied meanings. I want them to Stop and Think about what they're reading and eventually synthesize the information some way into their lives. I'd like them to know where to find and how to make helpful connections. And... that's why I need lots of time which I continue to take all year.

Sample Lesson: Calling on the Known to Understand the Unknown

Materials

• book for teacher to use as a model
• 3 sticky notes per student
• how-to-argue safely rules (below)
• self-selected book by each child

Unknown Known Figure out unknown

1. Choose a book to think aloud your connections. Show students how you use what you know about the world to figure out what you don't know about your reading.
2. Give students 3 sticky notes. Ask them to read their choice book paying particular attention to ideas that don't make sense as they read. Tell them to try and use what they know to figure out the confusing parts. Mark up to 3 places in their books with sticky notes to share with discussion groups.
3. Bring students back together. Ask 3-4 students to sit in the middle of the class in a circle. Gather the rest of your students in a circle around them.
4. Review the how to argue safely rules you establish for strategy circle discussions.
5. Ask the small group to share the observations about connections marked with sticky notes with one another as the whole class watches. Facilitate the conversation so that the students see how to share, how to include everyone, and how to compliment their fellow readers.
6. Break the whole class into small discussion groups. Let each group spend time sharing what they learned about trying to make connections. The sticky notes mark the places the students share. They explain why they placed the sticky notes where they did.
7. Discuss what the students learned. Ask, "How can you use making connections in your reading life?"
8. Ask students to record what they learned and how they can apply the learning in their daybooks.
9. In the days to come, continue the investigation of connections. Introduce text to text connections, text to self connections and text to world connections. It's not important that students can name the connections. Naming the connections may give some children a better idea of what can help them figure out the unknown. A more important goal is to teach students to share connections AND explain how the connections helped them with their comprehension. "When you come to something you don't understand, stop. Think of something that is related that can help you understand," I tell my students. "For example, if you come across the word 'memorabilia,' stop. Does thinking about 'memory' help you figure out "memorabilia?"

Sample Lesson II: Notice-Wonder Double-Entry Journals

Materials

• small reading group
• book for each child
• T-chart on chart paper, headings for 2-columns: notice/wonder (see chart, right)
• daybooks or paper for students and teacher

Objective

Before reading the book, or before reading a chapter, ask students to notice details and then wonder aloud their questions. (This is a form of picture walk that encourages children use their connections to set a purpose for reading.)

The Lesson: Connections Lead to Questions

1. Give students time to notice everything about a book they can. They might mention the illustration, the author, a Caldecott medal, the summary on the back, a picture of a character, the titles of the chapters, etc. Students will notice what they "connect" with. I am always surprised by the variety. (If the students are just starting a book, they overview the whole book. If they are reading a new chapter, they scan their notes from previous reading, the charts that are posted, and the new chapter.)

2. As the students begin to notice details, record them in the left column on the chart paper. Many teachers record the contributing student's initials as well, (1) to recognize the child for the work and (2) to come back to the child when more information is gathered.

3. Ask the children to wonder about their noticings. For example, when reading the book Hatchet, the student may notice the hatchet on the front cover. The teacher writes "hatchet" on the left side of the chart. The student wonders aloud, what is a hatchet or maybe, I wonder if the boy will use the hatchet to save himself. The teacher records the child's question on the right side of the chart.

4. Continue writing wonderings and noticings for 5-6 minutes. As the students become more sophisticated with the strategy, lead them to make connections with and then ask questions about the author, author's purpose, the plot, the genre, the setting, what they hope to gain by reading the book, etc.

   Fill in background information that you know your children will need in order to understand the book. Some questions come up that I answer right away. When my students wondered what a depression was, I told them about my grandparents' experience with losing their farm during the depression. I knew that question would not be answered in the book but that understanding the word would be critical to comprehending the story. Some questions are too complex to ask children to look up so I just tell them. Other questions are fun to look up on the spot. When my students asked what a Cessna was, we went to the computer and pulled up a photo of the plane.

   Noticings and wonderings surprise me, as well. When we were reading about Einstein, one boy asked why Einstein's father grew up to be an angry man. When we looked at the text, it said, "Einstein's father grew angry at him." I explained the difference between the meanings of grow that confused him, (1) to get older and (2) to increase. I drew a picture on the board to use as a visual as I spoke - one of a stick-figure boy next to a sticky-figure bigger boy, and the other of a ball getting bigger and bigger. When I finished explaining, another child said, "Thank you. That confused me, too." I never would have thought that understanding the word "grew" would be a vocabulary lesson. This anecdote illustrates why I like activities that encourage students to share what they're thinking.

5. Ask the children to look over the list and tell you what they're reading to find out. Children are more eager to read to find the answers to their questions after this pre-reading exercise. I find that noticing-wondering focuses the children on using evidence more than predicting what will happen in the book.

Reading Time

Give students time to read. Ask them to sticky note answers to questions they posted on the notice-wonder chart. They will also want to mark new noticings which probably will turn into more wonderings to bring to closure time.

This is a great time for the teacher to read one-on-one with a student or work with another group. Be sure to take anecdotal notes and record what happened during reading time in your daybook!

Closure

Keep the charts posted throughout the reading of the book. Use the charts at closure time or introduction time to find out what questions were answered during the reading. Create new questions.

Assessment

Ask student to write in their daybooks: What question(s) are you reading to find the answers to now? This question may be simple but in order to answer it, the reader must have a literal understanding of the text. By reading the question(s), the teacher will find out whether the child is comprehending the text or not. The teacher will know how sophisticated the child's understanding of the text is as well.

Use other double entry journals to focus attention on other proficient reader strategies.

Copyright © 2004 Karen Haag. All rights reserved.

One Example: Sophisticated connection or just any connection?

As we begin our study of connections with students, it's apparent that students love making connections. But, are the connections helping to improve comprehension? Instead of turning reading class into Show and Tell, we need to model the difference between a meaningful connection and just a connection.

In my conversation with 4th graders the other day, I had the opportunity to challenge their initial responses and they came through with some pretty sophisticated thought. I've found that reading historical fiction works well when studying how to activate our prior knowledge effectively, so we were reading Buttons for General Washington. It's a book about a 14 year-old boy who delivered messages to George Washington sewn into his buttons by his mother. As I read aloud, I stopped often to allow the students to turn to their partners to discuss several sentences that I thought may not make sense to them with their limited knowledge of pre-revolutionary war days.

The book said that Daniel, the American spy child, had to carry his papers with him when he walked around the town. As a matter of fact, everyone had to carry papers on them. "What kind of papers would a colonist have to carry with him and why?" I asked. No one had a clue!

I said, "Let's use what we know to figure out what we don't know. Let's use the war we know about...in Iraq. If you are an American soldier, what kind of pass would you have on you and why?" It was very clear, even to these 9-year olds, that in a war we need a way to identify who is who. Another child offered that countries require travelers carry passports for identification for the same reasons. We tried to figure out the connection between Iraq, our passports, and the passes used during the Revolutionary War. This idea came easily; all listed some sort of identifying features - hair color, eye color, height, weight - so that the traveler could be recognized and tracked.

I pointed out that when readers get confused, they can think about a situation similar to today. By thinking about what we know that relates to our question, we can often figure out what we don't know. That strategy is making use of connections. Using connections in this way is far different than the child who raises her hand to say, "I have a connection." Reading Recovery teachers explain it as going from the "unknown" in the text... into the "known" in our minds... to apply what we retrieve to figure out the "unknown."

That understanding will not happen without modeling. Teachers have to show how to use connections effectively and name the strategy for what it is. Then students need lots of practice watching their brains work while reading. In addition, students need time to talk about connections with their peers. Finally, we need to coach them on how to improve their use of the strategy by asking, "Could you share how that connection helped you understand your reading?"

Teachers might also consider using double entry journals to slow students down so they can examine their thinking. On the left side is some form of note-taking. But on the right side, is some form of note-making: making sense of the text by thinking. These kinds of responses, while time-consuming, can help students comprehend more deeply. Plus, the journal provides the springboard for partner- or group-discussion. By preparing, students know what to discuss when they come together. In addition, the writing provides an assessment window to view how the child's brain is working. If necessary, teachers can grade examples that show the students' best thinking. (See assessment.)

Just starting out...

While I don't assess whether students can name what kind of connections they're making, I do think that using the terms can help students see where to make connections:

Double Entry Journal Possibilities

Students divide their daybook page in 2 parts. They write their connection on the left side and how the connection helped their understanding on the right. Or, they quote text and code it on the left and explain how the connection helped on the right. Choose from the variety of connection double-entry possibilities from the list below:

Teach Children How to Argue Safely

Not all children know how to engage in conversation about books and strategies. We need to teach them some strategies for discussing with one another. Their body language and words will influence the success of the discussion groups. Explain to children that educators and scientists have studied communication. They have some ideas to share with us about how to disagree with one another without hurting each other's feelings. We need to change our language to help us communicate our ideas without shutting down communication from others in our group. For example, instead of saying, "I agree with you but..." try saying "I agree with you and I would like to add..." What a difference it is to hear and. It's much more affirming. Here are some ideas to get started. What other discoveries can we add to these lists?