Strategies for Helping Readers
Connect Text to Experience
Relating reading to actual or vicariously acquired experiences. This strategy is enhanced when students activate prior knowledge before, during, and after reading.
When Can It Be Used?
Before, during, and after reading.
What You Can Do to Support This Strategy:
Help students relate to a reading assignment by asking them questions such as these. They will help them recall what they have already experiences or read about a topic or idea.
- Does this sound familiar?
- What does this remind you of?
- Have you ever met a character like that?
- Have you ever been in a situation like this?
- What have you already read about this?
- Have you seen a television program/film about this topic?
- Would this happen in the real world?
Find Out More
Cris Tovani writes about making text-to-self, text-to-text, and text-to-world connections to help readers. She offers tips and printable PDFs to help organize a lesson.
Guided Comprehension: Making Connections Using a Double-Entry Journal is ReadWriteThink's guided lesson plan about linking text to self, text to text, and text to world.
Next Strategy: Monitoring comprehension