Making Text Connections During Reading Workshop

First graders have become adept at making text to self connections. They are able to choose a part of a book that they are reading, talk about their connection to that section of the story with their life and then to write about it. This is a reading strategy that causes us as readers to become personally involved with a book. Jamaica's Find by Juanita Havill and JoJo's Flying Side Kick by Brian Pinkney are two recent books that have been used during reading workshop to model this strategy. In Jamaica's Find, students made connections to losing or finding something, riding a bike, swinging and  needing to make a hard decision like the main character in the story- who had to decide whether to keep the stuffed dog she had found or return it. Brian Pinkney's book ( he is the son of Jerry Pinkney the celebrated author and illustrator who we visited during a class trip at the

Perleman Museum) , allowed students to connect to learning something hard, feeling worried or scared and using strategies such as the technique of visualization that JoJo's mom taught her. We all practiced that strategy and we visualized a scene from the book. After the group discussion, students are able to practice making connections while reading their partner books. This is a great technique to use at home as well during a family reading time.