Think aloud. Text-to-self connections

Day 1

What is schema?
Thinking about what you already know- using background knowledge- stuff that is already inside your head, like places you have been, things you have done, books you have read--> All the experiences you have had that make up who you are and what you know and believe to be true

Many ways readers use schema, today we are going to talk about using schema to make connectoins from our reading, or the text, to ourselves-- text-to-self connection. When you make connections when you read, it's kind of like having a conversation in going on in your head.

Read The Relatives Came by Cynthia Rylant, and tell the students you'll stop and think out loud to show you how I use my schema, or what I already know to make connections from my life to the story. I'm going to let you know what is going on insdie my head while I'm reading the story out loud to you.

Model

"What did you notice?"

Day 2- 6

Model text-to-self connections
Julie Brinkloe's Fireflies
Gloria Houston's My GreatAunt Arizona

Share your connections and allow children to start to share theirs.

Koala Lou  by Mem Fox
The Snowy Day  by Ezra Jack Keats
Chrysanthemum by Kevin Henkes

Start to script and chart their responses and allow them to put their name by it.

Start to explain how some connections help us better understand the text than others before irrelevent responses get to be the norm.

Day 7

Difference between connections that help us with our reading and the ones that don't.
Do a read aloud and you'll write down connections in a notebook, and after school you'll put them on chart paper, and we'll work with them tomorrow. Tomorrow We'll figure out which ones help us the most.

Read Hazal's Amazing Mother by Rosemary Wells

Day 8

Ask the class how we are going to mark the ones that were helpful, and the responses that did not help us make connectins?

Examine the charted responses. If a child thinks a response should be helpful ask them to explain their thinking.


"What can we learn from all the thinking we just did?"

Day 9

Before reading aloud Ira Sleeps Over by Bernard Waber, tell the kids to keep their connections inside their heads.
Once the story is over they will get into groups, share their connections, and decide on which one helped them make the most connection. They'll use butcher paper on the floor to draw and/or write that connection.


informally assess- Are children makking real connections to the story? Do they understand how these connections help them? What kind of language do they use when they talk to each other in small groups?

30ish minutes later have the students form a circle on the carpet and put the butcher paper in the middle the one on top explains their connections.



Reading with Meaning, Debbie Miller