Research
Click the silhouettes to see what the experts say about making connections.
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"The data suggest that text comprehension is enhanced when readers actively relate the ideas represented in print to their
own knowledge and experience and construct mental representations in memory."
—Report of the National Reading Panel
(National Reading Panel, 2000, p. 14)
—Report of the National Reading Panel
(National Reading Panel, 2000, p. 14)
Making connections occurs when students think about the text in relation to connections they can make to self, to texts, and to others.
—Maureen McLaughlin and Mary Beth Allen, from
Guided Comprehension A Teaching Model for
Grades 3-8
2002, p. 23
Guided Comprehension A Teaching Model for
Grades 3-8
2002, p. 23
As we focus on the strategy of making connections, we can't forget that increasing understanding, not a plethora of tangential or inconsequential connections, is the
goal of activating background knowledge and prior experience to make connections.
When information is read in isolation and not connected to existing knowledge, it is forgotten and deemed unimportant. Calling on existing knowledge and experiences is
crucial if readers are to assimilate new information.
No one would argue the importance of decoding in teaching children to read. But, understanding the message, thinking critically about the content, using imagination,
and making connections is at the heart of what it means to be a reader and why kids learn to love books.
—Denise Johnson, from
Reading Online,
6(8), April 2003
Reading Online,
6(8), April 2003
When children understand how to connect the texts they read to their lives, they begin to make connections between what they read and the larger world. This nudges
them into thinking about bigger, more expansive issues beyond their universe of home, school, and neighborhood.