--- title: Textual connections --- # Textual connections Fiction --- ## Textual connections   By working with text connections, students are allowed to reflect on the content of the text and relate it to their own lives and the world around them. This promotes both their understanding and their analytical skills while making reading more relevant and engaging. **Shared reading and introduction to text connections** Read a short text aloud to the students, preferably a fiction book or a short chapter that is adapted for the age group. After reading, introduce text connections. Explain to students that it is about thinking about what they have read and relating it to other books, things they have experienced themselves, or what they see in the world around them. Ask some basic questions for them to reflect on and answer. Do this together in the classroom so that students gain a deeper understanding. **Questions to use for text connections:** *Have you experienced anything similar?* Have students think about whether they have experienced anything similar to what is happening in the text. This will help them connect the text to their own lives. *What would you have done if you were…?* This helps students think critically and relate to the characters’ decisions and actions. By putting themselves in the characters’ shoes, they gain a deeper understanding of the text. *Have you read any other text that is similar to this one? Which one?* Encourage students to think of other books they have read or seen on TV or film, and compare plots, characters or themes. *Is there anything from the plot of the text that reminds you of your world? What?* Have students think about how the text reflects the world around them, such as society, culture, or current events. *What are the similarities and differences between the world the book depicts and the world you live in?* Discuss with students how the characters live and compare it to their own lives. This helps them develop their Ability to reflect on different lifestyles and perspectives.   **Work in pairs or groups** After the group discussion, students can work in pairs or groups to make their text connections. Give students time to share their thoughts and compare their answers with each other. They can use the questions to help them answer the text connections either orally or by writing down their reflections in a reading log.   **Follow-up and reflection** Gather the whole class and ask students to share their answers to the different questions. This can be done by reading their texts aloud, discussing different interpretations of the text, and reflecting on how the text connects to their own lives and the world around them. For younger students, it can be helpful to have pictures or simpler examples that relate to the text to make the connections clearer and more concrete.   ### Suggestions! Use pictures and drawings when discussing text connections. Have students draw or point to something in the story that reminds them of their lives. For younger students, you can read the text together and make the text connections immediately after reading to strengthen understanding and keep interest up.     ![20240215_skole_gruppe_klasserom_iStock-1423602678-scaled (1)](https://teaching.lexplore.com/hs-fs/hubfs/20240215_skole_gruppe_klasserom_iStock-1423602678-scaled%20(1).jpg?width=250&height=159&name=20240215_skole_gruppe_klasserom_iStock-1423602678-scaled%20(1).jpg)   --- Back to Lesson plans and exercises