Reading strategies: Text connections

Have you ever read a book and recognised yourself in it? Thought that this reminds me of when…? Maybe you’ve felt that what you’re reading resembles something you’ve read before, or a film you’ve seen? When authors write their stories, they gather their inspiration from life and events around them. And quite a lot in our lives resembles other people’s lives.

We are not that different from each other. So, when you read a text actively, you can make connections between the text you are reading and stuff that you already know about. You are using the reading strategy: Text Connections. Perhaps you think the author has already done all the work, and all you have to do is to read the story from beginning to end? Oh no!

When you read actively, you create at least half of the content yourself, inside your own head. And one of the ways you do that, is through text connections. You can connect the text to different things: To yourself, and your own experiences: text-to-self. To other texts that you have read, or films or TV series that you’ve seen: we call this text-to-text. To other people’s experiences and stuff you know about: text-to-world.

Let’s go through them, one by one, starting with text-to-self. When you are some way into a novel or perhaps a book on history or social science, pause for a moment! Think about what you just read, and ask yourself: Is this situation like my life, or different? If this was happening to me, how would I feel? Is this character like me, or different?

Now you have connected the text to yourself and your experiences. The next text connection is from the text you are reading to other texts you have read, heard, or seen: Text to text. Pause for a moment, and ask yourself: Does this text remind me of any other stories? Are there similar moods or settings in other books or movies? Are there similar themes or ideas in other texts I’ve read?

Now you’ve connected the text you’re reading to some other texts you’ve encountered. Let’s look at the third text connection too: Text to world. As usual, read a section of your book, then pause and ask yourself: What has happened around me, in my family, my school, or my town, that reminds me of what I just read? Do I know of anyone in real life who would think and act like this? What is different in the story, compared to our ordinary world?

Now, you have connected the text to the world around you. Pausing now and then to spot these kinds of text connections, will make you an active reader. It will bring the story to life for you much more, and you can understand better what the writer is saying. You will get more from the text, which will make reading more enjoyable for you. When you make active text connections like this, it can even help you understand more difficult texts.

Text connections help you to better understand the world around you, other people, and yourself.