Making Reading Connections Through Engaging Comics

Making reading connections is an essential comprehension strategy that helps students engage more deeply with texts and improve their understanding. When students learn to make text-to-self, text-to-text and text-to-world connections, they become active readers who can relate new information to their existing knowledge and experiences.

This resource pack includes three engaging comics created by our talented in-house designers. Each comic has a set of three accompanying worksheets that guide students in making reading connections by analyzing the characters and their experiences.

The comics featured in this resource are:

1. Angry Outbursts – This comic explores healthy calming strategies students can implement when they feel angry. 
2. Find Your Sport – This comic explores the different types of games, sports and activities that can help children stay active and engaged with others.
3. True Friends – This comic explores the characteristics of true friends and how to make good choices in friendships.

This resource downloads in a variety of file formats for your convenience:

• Comics PDF – Color
• Comics PDF – Black and White
• Worksheets PDF – Black and White
• Worksheets Google Slides – Black and White

Please select your preferred files from the dropdown menu when downloading.

Making Connections in Reading Through Fun and Relatable Comics

Making connections in reading becomes more accessible and engaging when students work with texts that are visual, relatable and age appropriate. Comics are an excellent choice for teaching comprehension strategies because they combine words and images to support understanding and encourage active participation.

Some of the benefits of using this resource to help your students make meaningful reading connections include:

• Engaging visuals that help students interpret meaning and identify key events.
• Relatable characters and situations make text-to-self connections easier.
• Clear story structures that support text-to-text comparisons with familiar books.
• Relevant themes and issues that encourage meaningful text-to-world connections.
• Reduced reading load that allows focus on comprehension rather than decoding.

Download This Making Connections Worksheet Pack Today!

If you’re looking for an engaging and low-prep way to teach comprehension skills, this making connections worksheet pack is ready to use in your classroom. Simply download, print and begin exploring text-to-self, text-to-text and text-to-world connections with your students.

Use the Download button above to access your preferred version of the resource. (Note: You will be prompted to make a copy of the Google Slides worksheet file on your personal drive before accessing it.)

Looking to save paper and ink? Project the comics onto your interactive whiteboard to save time and printing.

This resource was created by Tanya Bailey, a teacher in South Carolina and a Teach Starter collaborator.

More Resources for Teaching Text Connections

Teach Starter has a variety of resources to support your teaching of the making text connections reading comprehension strategy. Click below to browse some suggestions from our team.

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Making Connections Reading Comprehension Passages

Teach the making connections reading comprehension strategy with this set of five engaging short stories and differentiated graphic organizers that help students build meaningful text-to-self, text-to-text and text-to-world connections.

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Making Connections to Text Teaching Slides

Teach the reading comprehension skill of making connections to text with this ready-to-use, age-appropriate teaching presentation for 3rd and 4th grade students.

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Making Text Connections Graphic Organizer

A graphic organizer to use with students when making connections with a piece of text.