One of the most important things for students to grasp is
reading comprehension. One of the main reading strategies for children to learn
how to make connections in text they are reading. This helps them internalize
what they are reading. There are three types of connections students can make:
text-to-text, text-to-world, and text-to-self. Today on the blog, we are going
to show a resource of making connections to self. To do this we will use the
book Diary of A Fly.
Why is Diary of A Fly, by Doreen Cronin, a good book
for helping the students make connections to their lives?
Billie: I think
that this book would be perfect to help kids connect the text to their lives
because it probably mirrors a lot of things they go through. First, the fly is
nervous about the first day of school. Then she has trouble with her
babysitter, hates her school picture, and has to go into time out because she
is mean to her brother and sister (all 327 of them!). Fly then wants to become
a superhero but is afraid she isn’t special enough. Her friends, Worm and
Spider, help her learn that “the world needs all kinds of heroes”. The kids
will be able to relate to all of those situations and hopefully more contained
in the book!
Cami: This book would be great to use for a writing lesson. After reading the book a great activity would be to have the students write journal entries in order to make a connection to the fly in the story.
Do you think that this book will keep your children’s attention? What age do you think will be the most engaged with this book?
Cami: This book is so much fun! I think that most kids would be engaged but I think this book would be great specifically at a 2nd grade level. It’s a really fun book, and I think kids would love it. I liked it and I’m 22. So I’m sure that a 2nd grader would love it as well.
Billie: I definitely agree with Cami, I think that this book is so entertaining and fun! The story is in an interesting format, diary form, the pictures are fun and fly is totally relatable! I think that this book would be best used in most classrooms up to about 3rd grade.
Do you think that the kids could also use this book to make connections to another text or to the world?
Cami: I think that because the book goes through so many different scenarios that it would be relatable to other books they’ve read but more importantly relatable to the real world. Fly talks about “learning to fly” which could be related to pilots training. It also talks about superheroes, which they could easily relate to any other story about superheroes.
Billie: When I picked up this book, my first thought was about Diary of A Wimpy Kid. I think that the children would be able to make a very easy connection between the two texts. They are written in a similar format and have some of the same story line factors.
We found a really great activity that you could use along with this book to help the kids make connections to their own lives with this story. A lot of children are very visual so, if you give them this worksheet they can write down what they are hearing/reading in the story and directly relate it to something in their lives. The worksheet link included below would probably be best for older kids. Younger kids might need to journal about it (in a similar format) but with more prompting from the teacher. One column contains “Words From The Text” and the other column contains “My Personal Connection”. This book would be a perfect start on their way to making personal connections to a story!
Making Connections Worksheet
Cami: This book would be great to use for a writing lesson. After reading the book a great activity would be to have the students write journal entries in order to make a connection to the fly in the story.
Do you think that this book will keep your children’s attention? What age do you think will be the most engaged with this book?
Cami: This book is so much fun! I think that most kids would be engaged but I think this book would be great specifically at a 2nd grade level. It’s a really fun book, and I think kids would love it. I liked it and I’m 22. So I’m sure that a 2nd grader would love it as well.
Billie: I definitely agree with Cami, I think that this book is so entertaining and fun! The story is in an interesting format, diary form, the pictures are fun and fly is totally relatable! I think that this book would be best used in most classrooms up to about 3rd grade.
Do you think that the kids could also use this book to make connections to another text or to the world?
Cami: I think that because the book goes through so many different scenarios that it would be relatable to other books they’ve read but more importantly relatable to the real world. Fly talks about “learning to fly” which could be related to pilots training. It also talks about superheroes, which they could easily relate to any other story about superheroes.
Billie: When I picked up this book, my first thought was about Diary of A Wimpy Kid. I think that the children would be able to make a very easy connection between the two texts. They are written in a similar format and have some of the same story line factors.
We found a really great activity that you could use along with this book to help the kids make connections to their own lives with this story. A lot of children are very visual so, if you give them this worksheet they can write down what they are hearing/reading in the story and directly relate it to something in their lives. The worksheet link included below would probably be best for older kids. Younger kids might need to journal about it (in a similar format) but with more prompting from the teacher. One column contains “Words From The Text” and the other column contains “My Personal Connection”. This book would be a perfect start on their way to making personal connections to a story!
Making Connections Worksheet
I believe that if you some how make a text relate able to the child's life they will be interested. I love that the activity will allow the students to make connections. I love the book and would use it in my classroom!
ReplyDeleteDallas Paulk
This sounds like a great book to use to teach about making connections. If you have siblings - you have gotten in trouble over or with them - Most of us have hated a picture of our self at one time or another - and most of the time it is a school picture - I really dislike my school I.D. picture now! Therefore, I can see many connections to this text and I think children of all ages will also. I like the idea of letting the students write down their connections as they hear them read aloud. Good job! ~Karen
ReplyDelete