Top 10 Books for Making Connections

Making connections between a text to ones self, world, or another text is an important part of a student's learning process. When a student can make a connection to a text that the teacher has read to a real life experience of their own or a past text the teacher read it is a great thing to see that their knowledge on those topics are expanding! Below is a list of books used to help students make connections in their lives.

1.  
Plaidypus Lost is a book used to teach text to self to students. It is about a little girl who loses her plaidypus that her grandmother made for her because she was not responsible. There are so many great ways to connect this story to a student's real life.

2. 
Ira Sleeps over is a great book for text to self as well. This book is about Ira being excited to spend the night at a friends house but is worried to go without his teddy bear. The students could definitely relate to being worried or having feelings of doubt on doing something.

3. 
Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day is a text to self book as well. This book is about a boy whose day could not get any worse.. or so he thinks. This is a good book for students to relate to because as we all know, bad days do occur!

4. 
My Best Friend Moved Away is a good book to teach text to text connections too. This book is about best friends doing everything together to having your best friend move away. This teaches students that it is hard to say goodbye but that they can make new friends. Number five on the list is a create book to make a text to text connection with.

5. 
Ira Says Goodbye is a text to text book in correlation with book number four. These two books have a lot in common and students should be able to make the connection. Ira and Reggie have to discover what it is like to move away from each other. This is like the above story because it also is having a best friend move away and how hard it can be to handle.

6. 
The Lorax is a text to world connection book. The Lorax is about global concerns. This will help students make connections between the text and the environment.

7. 
The Lost And Found House is a text to text connection book connection with books four and five, It is also about saying goodbye to things. In this case, the boy must tell his home goodbye and start fresh in a new town.

8. 
Nana Upstairs and Nana Downstairs is a text to self connection book. This is a book about a boy who must say goodbye to a family member that he loves dearly. This is a good book to connect feelings to for students of all ages!

9. 
Sheila Rae the Brave is a good text to self book. This book is about a girl who thinks she is not afraid of anything until she tries to walk home alone one day and gets lost. She then finds her self scared.

10. 
Oliver Button Is a Sissy is another text to self connection. This is about a boy who gets teased because he likes to do other things rather than play sports. Students could make a few connections to this text.

All of these books are really great books that could be used to do mini lessons, story mapping, or other great strategies that go along with making connection strategies.