In 5th grade we have been working hard on developing and expanding our use of reading comprehension strategies to help us understand texts. We have been focusing lately on making meaningful connections.
What does this book/article/paragraph/sentence remind you of?
We have been learning that sometimes we can connect a book to our own personal experiences (a text-to-self connection); sometimes we can connect what we are reading now to something else that we have read before (a text-to-text connection); and at other times we may connect what we are reading to something that we know about the world (a text-to-world connection). All of these types of connections can help us to better understand what we are reading.
However, some connections are better than others at helping us understand a text. Sometimes we might make a connection that is important to us. For example, "The character in this book is called Sophie, and my sister's name is also Sophie." But those connections may not really be helping our understanding of the text (the Sophie character in the book is not at all like your sister Sophie, so there is no useful information to be had from this connection.)
Other times we might make a meaningful connection that truly helps us understand more about what we are reading. "This book is about a boy whose family had to move out of their home because of a terrible flood. I remember last spring when there was a terrible flood in Budapest and my cousin's basement was flooded. I remember how difficult it was for his family." These connections help us to understand the content of the text. You can more easily visualize what is happening, you can relate to the character's feelings, you can figure out unknown vocabulary because you have some background knowledge, etc.
When we are reading, these meaningful connections that help us to understand our reading are the ones we aim to focus on. We want to try to make these types of connections and pay attention to them. We want to use them to help us read and understand texts.