English Language Arts and Reading.4.7.A

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The student is expected to

describe personal connections to a variety of sources, including self-selected texts;

TEKS Talk image

Knowledge and Skills Statement

Response skills: listening, speaking, reading, writing, and thinking using multiple texts. The student responds to an increasingly challenging variety of sources that are read, heard, or viewed.

After reading aloud, have students choose a character with whom they can relate and write about how they relate to the character.

Sentence starters for students:

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

Notes:

  • When using teacher-selected texts, ensure the texts are grade appropriate and relevant to students’ lives.
  • During class discussion, activate prior knowledge to facilitate making connections.
  • Create guiding questions and sentence stems to assist students who need extra support.
     

Further Explanation

This assessment requires students to demonstrate whether they are able to relate to characters in a story. This can be shared orally or in writing.

When students describe personal connections they have made to something read, heard, or viewed, they demonstrate how they have interpreted the explicit and implied ideas expressed. Personal connections are students' reactions to an idea. Personal experience can, and often does, influence these reactions. Students should be encouraged to share their reactions orally or in writing.
connections that a reader makes between a piece of reading material and the reader's own experiences or life

Research

1. 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.

2. Zuckerbrod, N. (2019). The power of stories: Develop social-emotional skills and empathy using fiction, nonfiction, and poetry. Scholastic Teacher, 128(3), 45+. Retrieved from https://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A580773753/PROF?u=tea&sid=PROF&xid=b300f1ba

Summary: The author shows the impact that fiction, non-fiction, and poetry have on students in grades 3 through 6, especially when teachers choose texts that resonate with students. Teacher recommendations are provided, along with stories of how teachers help students make the connection from texts to personal experience and to the experiences of others.