1.)Gather children into a group. Tell them that you are going to read the story, The Relatives Came, to them. Ask them if they know what the word "relative" means.
2.)Explain that a text-to-self connection is made when something in the story reminds you of something in your life.
3.)Model for the students text-to-self connections. For example after reading the first page, the teacher could say, "Boys and girls, I have made a text-to-self connection in this story. The family in the story is awaiting a visit of their relatives from Virginia. That reminds me of how excited I was when my relatives from out of town came to see me. I used to stand by the window and wait for them to come."
4.)Teacher continues reading the rest of the book, stopping on every page to allow students to tell the class the text-to-self connections they made.
5.)After reading the book, have the students return to their desks, where they have 2 sticky notes and a pencil available.
6.)Tell students that you are going to read the book one more time to them. While reading have students write 2 text-to-self connections that they make from the story (one on each sticky note). Tell students to write on their sticky notes what happened in the story and then to write "It reminds me of when...." (complete the sentence).
7.)Let the students share what they wrote on their sticky notes and post them on chart paper.
8.)Finally, divide the class into two groups. Let members of one group pretend they are the family in the story. Let members of the other group pretend they are the relatives that came to visit. Let the students debate on how they would feel if they were in this situation (making text-to-self connections). For example, a child who is pretending he was in the family might say that he was glad for the relatives to leave so he did not have to share his bedroom or toys anymore. Someone who was on the relative side might say that she enjoyed going to visit the family because she did not have to do the chores she would have had to do at home.
| 
