English Language Arts and Reading.5.6.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 things from the real world to build a framework for understanding the text. Students demonstrate comprehension of a text when they recognize connections and can draw comparisons between them.

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.
connections that a reader makes between a piece of reading material and the reader's own experiences or life
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. Liang, L. A., & Galda, L. (2009). Responding and comprehending: Reading with delight and understanding. The Reading Teacher, 63(4), 330–333. doi:10.1598/RT.63.4.9

Summary: Using DeCamillo's Because of Winn-Dixie as their focal text, the authors describe the use of predicting and visualization exercises in the classroom. Students are asked to reflect on a personal situation in which they were been new and consider how that felt and what happened. This reflection serves as a springboard for students to make predictions about what will happen in the story's narrative structure. The visualization exercise focuses on getting children to visualize images from poetry and then illustrate those images. Although the article is targeted for primary grades, it can be scaffolded for older students. For example, students could illustrate a poem through digital art or photography.

2. Barbe-Clevett, T., Hanley, N., & Sullivan, P. (2002). Improving reading comprehension through metacognitive reflection. (Master theses, Saint Xavier University).  Retrieved from \\https://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED471067

Summary: This research reveals a plan for increasing 6th grade students' reflection and comprehension skills. The reflective process is developed through four interrelated activities taught in a specific, scaffolded sequence. Post-intervention data shows an increase in reading skills along with an increased emotional involvement in reading.

3. Barth, A. E., & Elleman, A. (2017). Evaluating the impact of a multistrategy inference intervention for middle-grade struggling readers. Language, Speech, & Hearing Services in Schools, 48(1), 31+. Retrieved from https://www.gale.com/

Summary: This study examines the effectiveness of multiple inference intervention strategies that were designed to increase inference-making and reading comprehension for struggling readers. The study focused on using text clues, activating and integrating prior knowledge, understanding character and author's purpose, and responding to inference questions. Details and lesson examples are included.