Reading strategies: Text connections (SVFL)

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 an author writes their stories, they get their inspiration from life and events around them. And quite a lot in our lives resembles other people's lives.

We aren't that different from each other after all. 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? OOoooooh 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 you 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 to 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, take a pause! Think about what you just read, and try answering these questions: What does this text remind me about in my life? How would I feel if this happened to me? In what ways am I similar to this character?

How are we different? Now you have connected the text to yourself and your experiences. The next text connection is that which goes from the text you are reading to other texts you have read, heard or seen: Text to text. Take a pause in your reading, and answer these questions: What other story does this text remind me of? In what other book or film is there a similar atmosphere or environment?

Which other text that I've read has similar ideas and thoughts? Now you have connected the text you are reading to other texts that you've read. Let's look at the last text connection too: Text to world. As usual, read some way into your book, then take a pause and ask yourself: What has happened around me, in my family, my school or my city, that reminds me of what I just read? What real persons that I know - or know about - would think and react as they do in this story?

How is what's happening in the text different from the world I am used to? Now, you have connected the text to the world around you. To consciously take a break and make connections like these, causes your brain to be more active when you are reading. That awakens parts of the story, and the author might tell you things, that otherwise you would have missed. You will get more from the text, and your reading experience will be widened.

When you make conscious, active text connections like this, you'll notice that you can read texts that otherwise would have been too hard for you to grasp. "Text connections" help you to better understand the world around you, other people, and yourself.