Connection Web
About this printout
Students use this printout to expand on connections they have made to a text and use those details to write essays or create projects about the text.
Teaching with this printout
After students have learned about and made connections to a text they are reading or have previously read, create a transparency of this printout (or reproduce it on chart paper) to provide a model for the students to expand on their connection. (If you find it necessary, you may wish to remind students of the three types of connections: Text-to-Self Connection, Text-to-Text Connection, and Text-to-World Connection.)
- In the central oval, write the connection from the text that you would like to focus on.
- In the rectangles, write supporting details that help connect the particular connection to yourself (text-to-self), another text (text-to-text), or the world (text-to-world).
Distribute copies of this printout to each student and ask students to think about the connection that they would like to examine further. Remind students to write their connection from the text in the middle, and list four supporting details that illustrate that connection in the outlying rectangles.
After adding supporting details from the text to support their connection, students can use this printout to assist them with writing an essay or creating a project about their connection to the text.
More ideas to try
- Ask students to reflect and respond to the following prompt: Explain specifically how this particular connection helped you better understand what you were reading. You may wish to write this statement on the board or chart paper for students to see while writing their answers.
- Have students use the Essay Map interactive to write an essay about their connection to the text, using this printout to help with supporting details. Or, if you prefer, students can use a different student interactive to create a project about their connection to the text.