Making Connections: Text-to-Text, Text-to-Self, Text-to-World in the Classroom

Making connections is one of the core comprehension strategies in Australian literacy education. There are three types:

• Text-to-self: How does this text connect to my own experience? "This character's fear of failing reminds me of how I felt before my Year 5 camp."
• Text-to-text: How does this connect to another text I've read? "This book's theme of belonging is similar to what we read in 'The Arrival' last term."
• Text-to-world: How does this connect to the wider world? "This story about water shortage connects to the drought crisis in outback Queensland."

All three develop comprehension by activating prior knowledge and building new schema. But they're not equal — deeper connections are more analytical and less personal.

Don't just tell students to "make connections" — show them how. Model your own thinking during a read-aloud: "I just read that sentence and I immediately thought of... That's a text-to-self connection because..." Think-alouds make invisible reading processes visible. Students who can see how a skilled reader thinks are better placed to replicate it.

Use sentence frames: "This reminds me of __ because __." "This connects to __ in that __." "This makes me think of __ in the real world, specifically __." The second clause (the 'because' or 'specifically') is what separates shallow connections ("I also went on a holiday") from deep ones ("both the character and I felt that sense of not belonging when you're surrounded by unfamiliar customs").

Text-to-self connections are often the easiest and shallowest. Text-to-world connections are harder but more valuable for critical thinking. Use these prompts to push deeper:

• "What global issues does this text illuminate?"
• "How does this connect to something happening in Australia today?"
• "What systems or structures in the world does this text challenge or support?"

For senior students, text-to-world connections are the foundation of the analytical essays they'll write in VCE, HSC, and other senior assessments. Building this habit in Years 7-9 pays dividends when the stakes are higher.