Good Readers make personal connections with what they are reading.  They develop a deeper understanding of the characters and their actions because they have made a connection to their own lives that enhances the mental images they are creating.  There are three kinds of connections: text-to-self, text-to-text, and text-to world. A text-to-self connection occurs when students are reminded of something that has happened in their own life.  A text-to-text connection reminds them of something they have read in another book or text, and a text-to-world connection happens when they connect with something occurring in the world.  Making connections causes students to build schema, or background knowledge, around which other learning can be organized. 

Double Entry Journal

Two Column Notes in Math

Websites on Making Connections:

Math Literacy: Making Connections

http://www.cbcsd.org/schools/W-W/mathdep/mathlit/mc.html

Guided Comprehension: Making Connections Using a Double Entry Journal Lesson Plan

http://www.readwritethink.org/lessons/lesson_view.asp?id=228

Making Connections

http://forpd.ucf.edu/strategies/stratText.html

Posters for Making Connections

http://www.teachingheart.net/comprehe.html

Reading Strategy: Making Connections

http://www.everett.k12.wa.us/CMS/cmsSites/cmsUserFiles/reading/files/Rdg%20Str-Connections.doc