Making Connections: An Explanation

Last week and this week, we have focused on making connections in reading. This allows for students to connect what they are reading to real life. In turn, it helps build better readers. There are three types of connections that have been our focus: text to self, text to text, and text to others and the world. Here is a quick breakdown of what each connection really tells you. Each connection finishes the phrases "This reminds me of..." and "This made me think of..."

Text to self: Students read and are able to connect the story to something about themselves. For example, last week we read "The Relatives Came," a great story about family. Many students were able to make the connection to themselves that "This story reminds me of the trip I took to see my family that lives far away."

Text to text: Students read and are able to connect the story to another story they have read. For example, in a story we read today, the little boy likes to pretend he is a mountain climber. In the story "Amazing Grace," Grace loves to pretend that she is all sorts of different things.

Text to others and the world: Students read and are able to connect the story to someone else or to something they know about the world around us. In our current IB unit, we have learned a lot about people who have made a difference through their choices and contributions. Many students connected that Rosa Parks was arrested for doing something she felt was right (refusing to sit at the back of the bus) in much the same way that Susan B. Anthony was also arrested for something she felt was right (voting although women did not yet have the right to vote). They also make many connections to people they know, such as family and friends. For example, a book we read talks about how the little boy wasn't old enough to play with "the big kids." Many students made the connection that they have been left out of playing by older friends and siblings.

That, in a nutshell, is how students make connections to their learning. When students make connections, the learning becomes real and much more important. As you read with your student at home, don't be afraid to point out what they story reminds YOU of or to ask your student to tell you what they story has made them think about.

While surfing one day...

I came across a few great websites! One is through www.dictionary.com, and is a vocabulary game called Word Dynamo. The other is the math game Kakooma on www.gregtangmath.com, a brand-new math website by children's book author Greg Tang. Both are great ways to enrich your student's learning at home, and both are great fun (but you don't have to take my word for it...try them yourself!) for students of all ages. I think I am hooked on both games. :) Enrichment at home is often a tricky thing! The internet is full of great resources, but at the same time they are sometimes hard to find in a sea of not-so-great resources. I hope that these two will help!

The past is present again: Part 1

We have finished our first IB unit, and we are now well into our second. Our theme is Where We are in Place and Place, and our central idea is that the past impacts the present. We are working our way through the 20th century as we "Drive Through the Decades." We are focusing on events, people, entertainment and inventions. It is a lot, but the idea is not for students to be able to recall everything we cover, but to instead understand how all of those things have shaped who we are today. For example, we learned about the Wright Brothers first flight and how they changed transportation forever (as did Henry Ford with cars). We also studied how ragtime music was the first American music and that it led to several other styles of music, including jazz, which we are talking about this week. There are endless possibilities with this unit, and we will make as many connections as we can!

Also, we are working to have a few art focus lessons throughout this unit. We have been given the awesome opportunity to have an extra art class during this unit with Ms. Freeman who also teaches the UA Partnership art class. She is doing an OUTSTANDING job of connecting art to the current decade (this week, 1920's-1930's). She will stay with us through this unit and we will have an art show later to "show off" what we have learned! Also, we are fortunate to have a parent (and probably more than one) with a background in visual art. Coming up, he is going to help us experience being a painter through the eyes of Jackson Pollack. Not only is this an opportunity to have big fun and get messy, but it is also a great connection to modern art.

Whew. That is really only scratching the surface of what is going on in The Beehive. Stay tuned for Part 2. :)