Making Connections With Fiction

• 1). Instruct students to take notes while reading a piece of fiction. Students should note plot structure, character development, symbolism and themes. Have them write down their reactions to events and character decisions, underline important lines and make connections between different parts in the text.
  
  
• 2). Assign a set of questions based on the fictional piece students read, and have them answer it. The questions should go beyond what happens in the play and force students to analyze the text in depth.
  
  
• 3). Instruct students to write a personal response to the text in relation to a quote, either from the text or from elsewhere, that relates to a theme or idea in the text. This activity forces students to consider the text in a new light or in light of significant ideas in the text.
  
  
• 4). Discuss the text as a class. A reader's experience of a text is always enhanced by hearing a community of responses to it. Differing perspectives on the text broaden the meaning of the text for the reader and introduce new connections between the text and the outside world.
  
  

Making Connections With Non-Fiction

• 1). Direct students to anticipate the non-fiction text they are to read. Have students consider the title of the reading and try to extrapolate from it what the text will be about. Students write down what they already know about the topic of the text and compare answers or discuss as a class.
  
  
• 2). Instruct students to take notes, while reading, on any new information they learn. Students should write down any misconceptions or false anticipations they had. They can also note questions that the text did not answer. Students should compare answers or discuss as a class to ensure they did not miss any information.
  
  
• 3). Instruct students to write an analysis of the non-fictional piece, connecting it to their own lives, current issues or events, or other texts or concepts studied in class.