Making real-world connections is one way to facilitate learning that is meaningful to students and prepares them for their professional lives outside of school. When teachers move beyond textbook or curricular examples and connect content learned in the classroom to real-life people, places, and events, students are able to see a greater relevance to their learning. Real-World Connections are used to help students see that learning is not confined to the school, allows them to apply knowledge and skills in real-world situations, and personalizes learning to increase and sustain student engagement.

• Determine the objective for the lesson and research what the most relevant real-world connection(s) would be to make the objective resonate with students.
• Plan the lesson, incorporating the real-world connection, and gather all the necessary resources needed.
• Present the connection(s) to students, or support students to discover the connection(s), during the course of the lesson.
• Encourage students to share out and incorporate their experiences and/or prior knowledge into the learning.
• Act as a facilitator and help make connections between shared ideas, interests, and experiences from the student.