Title
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Making Connections: Primary Texts to Themes
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| Description |
This is a brainstorming activity to allow students to make scholarly connections between a primary text and related themes, historical or social connections, and relevant disciplines. This activity works well for research assignments that take a literary, or primary text, analysis approach. |
| Steps |
- Prior to the library session, ask students to select a theme and a text that they’re interested in
- In the library session, show students an example of a completed connections map on a topic/text that relates to a topic or text that they’ve studied in class. Talk through the sections on the map
- Pass out worksheet and ask students to take 10 minutes brainstorming connections between their selected primary text and sub-themes, historical, social, theoretical, and disciplinary connections
- As a class, work through one example from a student’s topic. Ask other students to give feedback
- Ask students to keep the worksheet, so they can add to it during the class. Remind students that research is a complex, iterative, and messy process, so their topics may evolve as they begin reading sources
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| Tags |
pre-assignment; in-class; refining-topic |
| Variations |
This activity could be adapted for works of art, images, ads, artifact, music, etc. |
| Time |
20 minutes |
| Attachments |
 Connections Worksheet;  Connections (Example) |
