Making Connections: Text to Self

Teacher Allison Dotts Grade Level 1

I. Content and Standards: CC.1.3.1.J Use words and phrases acquired through
conversations, reading, and being read to, and responding to texts, including words that
signal connections and relationships between the words and phrases.
II. Prerequisites: students will have briefly discussed making connections as a comprehension
strategy during whole-group or guided reading lesson(s)
III. Essential Questions: How can we use text-to-self connections to really understand
characters in our story?
IV. Instructional Objective: After reading a text, students will identify at least one event in the
text, connect it with their own experiences, and explain how it helps them better understand
the text.
V. Instructional Procedures:
Before: Introduce the activity by telling students that they will be practicing making
connections; remind students that this is a strategy good readers (like us!) can use to
understand and remember what were reading.
a. Remind students of the text connections we made in our Guide dog story. Use
chart to explain the meaning of schema (background knowledge you already
have about a topic from your own experiences).
b. Use M aking Connections chart. Remind students that making text-to-self
connections means thinking about how the text reminds you of something
that happened to YOU. Then Read the 3 sentence starters aloud and explain
how they can help make connections to a text that they are reading.
During: Read aloud from A lexander (ask questions during reading to check for
vocabulary/comprehension).
What are some things that happened to Alexander in the story?
We might want to better understand how hes feeling. Refer to sentence starters
chart, and model making a connection with the text.
As we go back to our seats, I want you to think of some connections you can make
with this story. You can do text-to-self or text-to-text if it reminds you of something
youve read before. Hand out Connections worksheet and have students start
working on it.
After: Then, stop and discuss with students that were going to make a chain of
connections. We want to choose our very best connection (go over rubric). Turn and
talk with your partner and decide which of your connections is the best. Talk about
rubric: make sure you include what happened in the story, what it reminds you of
(that happened in your life), and how that helps you understand Alexander better.
Then well write it on a strip and make a long, strong chain! Have students share their
connection with everyone before adding it to the chain.
VI. Materials and Equipment: Anchor charts. Making Connections worksheet. Strips of paper to
make connections (exit ticket).
VII. Assessment/Evaluation: Students will make several connections using the graphic organizer
worksheet. Students will choose their best connection, write it down, and share with the class.
 1 2 3 4

Student does not identify Student identifies an Student identifies an Student identifies an
an event from the text or event in the text and event in the text and event in the text and
cannot connect it with their attempts a connects it to their connects it to their
own experiences and/or connection, but own experiences, but own experiences.
chooses an unrelated event. chooses an unrelated does not explain how Student can explain
Student does not explain event and/or doesnt this connection helps how this connection
how the connection helps explain how it helps them better helps them better
them understand the text. them understand understand the text. understand the text.
better.

VIII. Differentiation: Individualized Activities: Concept of making connections has been

introduced in other lessons (both whole-class and small group); students have worked with
non-fiction texts to make t2s, t2t, and t2w connections. This text was selected with cultural
inclusivity in mind; I chose a text with lots of different scenarios to activate schema (i.e.
familiarity with events, character types, settings). Provided visual cues (words and images) for
concepts and sentence starters. Students work together to scaffold learning, sharing
responses and working out which are the best quality. Teacher models activities during lesson
and circulates to question and clarify. Students below grade-level in literacy will present
observations through drawings and verbal descriptions. ELLs will have visual representation
and word lists.
IX. Technology: If possible, model and record student responses on smartboard; make note of
events from the story if students have trouble choosing.
X. Self-Assessment: Did students get the big idea? Review before next lesson if students need
more support in understanding. Were the graphic organizers and sentence starters helpful for
students? Were students engaged in this lesson?
 Reflection & Analysis
In retrospect I might have broken this lesson into two parts. I also think I could have made
my graphic organizer worksheet a little clearer, because a lot of them had trouble understanding
what I wanted them to do. I also thought it would be helpful to give students some examples of
ways to frame their connections (on the reverse of the worksheet), but I think that may have been
confusing to them. We lost a lot of instructional time this week, so the students were not as
prepared to make their own connections as I had hoped. I had been working on making
connections with about two thirds of the class in my guided reading groups (my CT works with
other students). Most of those students were able to make connections on their own (and they
were able to do so in this lesson); however, the other students needed more support. Additionally,
a group of about 6 students came in partway through the lesson, so my CT supported the students
working independently while I read the story with them.

I think I had more of the students attention during this lesson for more of the time than in my
previous lesson. This lesson was also toward the end of the day, which is always difficult, but I tried
to implement some of the suggestions for reinforcing positive behavior (pointing out students who
are doing the right things) and other management strategies from my first video lesson. In this
lesson I tried counting down to help them transition quickly, and clapping rhythms to help them
refocus and listen for instructions. This is something Im continuing to work on as I teach more
lessons; I find it much easier to do in lessons I have planned myself. I tried to be clearer about the
objectives of this lesson as well; I wrote the essential question up on the board/easel at the
beginning of the lesson, though its out of frame for the first part of the video. I also wrote the
materials on it for the first portion of the lesson, and it was turned around toward the students
desks during the exploration (you can see me erasing that part as I adjust the board when we come
back to the rug).
I think the discussion after the exploration went well. I tried to move the students around
more often this time, and keep each part of the lesson a little shorter. I think this worked well to
refocus them. They tend to be more engaged when theyre sitting on the rug. Weve been working
on providing evidence to support our ideas, both in science as well as in other subject areas. So, I
also asked students to explain what they saw and how it supported their other ideas. I wanted to
model this and clarify responses so that students would be able to write about it in their notebooks.
Many of the students were able to give several observations, and connect what they saw to what
we had learned about matter in another unit. Allowing them to work with materials and explore on
their own allowed them to build their understanding while being engaged with the material.
This lesson was one I adapted from our science curriculum. Though the last several months
we have planned using a variety of resources and materials, we have transitioned back to using the
textbooks and curriculum series provided by the school and district. Im not exactly clear on the
reasons for shifting back, but I do think its a lot harder for the students to stay engaged using some
of these materials. Luckily, this science curriculum is fairly interactive, and allows students
hands-on explorations where they can work independently and in groups. Ive been trying to
modify some of the lessons slightly, but most of them leave room for students to come to their
own understandings with some guidance and support. I sometimes find it more difficult to plan
using prescribed materials and lessons, because I think there is less room for creativity, and it can
be harder to align with teaching and learning styles. I think its important to balance the content
and aims of what is in the textbooks with outside materials and activities; I will definitely be working
on ways to augment the materials with which we have been provided.
I have experienced some communication barriers with my CT, which we have since
discussed. We went over the lesson in advance, since there had been some confusion about lesson
procedures before, and she intervened with a few changes as I taught the lesson. In other lessons
this sometimes has thrown me off, so I have tried to be clearer about my plans and get her
feedback in advance. Ultimately, in this lesson there was not really a major issue.
My CT also suggested that we avoid using the balloons, which she did tell me right before
the lesson. I can imagine that the balloons could have caused some issues, but I also think that by
blowing into the balloons (the science kit provided little hand pumps) students would have been
able to observe air taking up spacewhich was one of the things I wanted them to notice. Maybe I
could have modeled that during the lesson at some point, or figured out a way for just some
students from each group to give it a try. Im still getting a feel for how much freedom I can give
first graders without them getting off-task or goofy, especially with hands-on activities (and
especially at the end of the day). I am still working on classroom management; I have talked to my
university supervisor for some suggestions as well as my CT, and they agree that my main issue has
been consistently reinforcing expectations and on-task behavior. Since this lesson, I have
continued to improve and add on to my repertoire of classroom management strategies. Im trying
to balance the procedures my CT has in place with what I have learned through my coursework at
Drexel, to mesh management and teaching styles in a way that works for everyone. Ive introduced
a few more call-and-responses that I plan to use with the students, and have been using clapping
patterns and countdowns more more, and and am trying to use more positive reinforcement
strategies (they love stickers!). I think I still shushed once or twice in this lesson (I promise the other
shushing is not from me!), but I think thats still an improvement on the last one. I also bought a
copy of the Total Participation Techniques book and have tried to implement some more of these
in this and other lessons. My CT is a little resistant to use Think-Pair-Shares and similar strategies in
whole-group discussion, but I have been able to integrate the use of whiteboards, thumbs
up/thumbs down responses, post-its or notebooks to record questions, and graphic organizers. In
the coming week Im also trying to start using Class Dojo with them, which seems like a great way
to reward students for positive behaviors (and hold them accountable for negative behaviors). I can
also use this app to award students individually, in groups, or as a class, and share with their
families, too!