ELA11, CSS, Cizeron

For this novel study, we will be focusing on Making Connections. We will be looking to identify connections in three groups:

• Text to Self
• Text to World
• Text to Text

Text-to-self connections are highly personal connections that a reader makes between a piece of reading material and the reader's own experiences or life.  An example of a text-to-self connection might be, "This story reminds me of time spent on my grandmother's farm during a vacation when I was young..."

Text-to-text connections occur when readers are reminded of other things they have read, other books by the same author, stories from a similar genre or perhaps on the same topic.  "This character has the same development pattern as the previous novel I read by the same author..."

Text-to-world connections are the larger connections that a reader brings to a situation.  We all have ideas about how the world works that goes far beyond our own personal experiences.  We learn about things through television, movies, magazines, and newspapers.  An example of a text-to-world connection would be when a reader says, "Last night on the news they were talking about similar things to this article or story...."

As you are reading your novel stop and ask yourself some of these leading questions:

Text-to-Self	Text-to-Text	Text-to-World
What does this remind me of in my life? What is this similar to in my life? How is this different from my life? Has something like this ever happened to me? How does this relate to my life? What were my feelings when I read this?	What does this remind me of in another book I've read? How is this text similar to other things I've read? How is this different from other books I've read? Have I read about something like this before?	What does this remind me of in the real world? How is this text similar to things that happen in the read world? How is this different from things that happen in the real world/ How did that part relate to the world around me?