English Language Arts and Reading.4.6.E

The student is expected to

make connections to personal experiences, ideas in other texts, and society;

comprehension TEKS talk image

Knowledge and Skills Statement

Comprehension skills: listening, speaking, reading, writing, and thinking using multiple texts. The student uses metacognitive skills to both develop and deepen comprehension of increasingly complex texts.

While reading aloud, prompt students to share the connections they make with the text. Connections should include text to self, text to text, and text to world.

Sentence starters for students:

  • My connection is . . .
  • This story reminds me of . . .because . . .
  • I had the same feelings as . . .
  • This story is similar to . . .
     

Further Explanation

This SE focuses on making connections between text and relevant personal experiences, other texts, or knowledge of the real world to build a framework for understanding the text. Student responses should reflect logical connections and should not be nonsensical.

Students make connections between what they are reading and relevant personal experiences, other texts they have read, or things from the real world they are knowledgeable about to build a framework for understanding the text they are reading. Using this background knowledge gives students a starting place for constructing meaning from the text. Students demonstrate comprehension of a text when they recognize these connections and can draw comparisons between them.
a community of people living in a particular country or region and having common traditions, laws, and interests; a distinguishable section or part of a community of people

Research

1. Weih, T. G. (2014). Student-described engagement with text: Insights are discovered from fourth graders. Internal Electronic Journal of Elementary Education. 6(3), 395–414. Retrieved from https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ1053588.pdf

Summary: The author posits that for a variety of factors affecting reading instruction, students are at risk of reading for skills instruction alone, so they may begin to see reading as a chore and may develop a lifelong aversion to reading. The author conducts an interview of four questions that elicit students' response to reading and concludes that there is increased opportunity for students and teachers to engage in a more authentic and less-scripted approach to reading through self-selected texts.

2. Carrison, C., & Ernst-Slavis, G. (2005). From silence to a whisper to active participation: Using literature circles with ELL students. Reading Horizons, 46(2), Retrieved from https://scholarworks.wmich.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1137&context=reading_horizons

Summary: The article promotes the use of literature circles to support literacy, especially for English learners. Literature circles allow student to interact through sharing ideas, opinions, and personal responses to literature. Students become active participants and learn to manage their literature circle activities, negotiating the structure of their timelines. The study participants were a fourth-grade class in which 5 of the 24 students had varying levels of language acquisition. The use of literature circles led to decreased anxiety about reading and participation and increased reading accuracy and comprehension.