Teachers as Readers:Cultural and linguistic differences

As teachers we need to be responsive to our students' backgrounds, languages, and experiences.  The books, magazines and whatnot that I choose to read independently are ones of interest to me based on my own personal experiences.  For example, my daughter was born with a congenital heart defect and a few books I have read were written by authors who've written about their experiences as a parent with a child with a heart defect.  Many blogs I read are written by parents of children with heart defects.  I could not see myself choosing to read such texts if it weren't for the common fact that we both have children both with similar health issues.  While teaching in Alaska, many of the classrooms I taught in as a substitute teacher included reading books about Alaska (children, culture, state information, weather related, arctic animals, etc.).  Those books were very relevant to those particular children and those books definitely gained a lot of interest.  One year while teaching preschool (and currently with my daughter who I am homeschooling), we completed a project where we invited families (near and far) to write the class a letter or send a postcard telling us a little bit about where they live.  We received many postcards, travel brochures, letters, and other materials and the kids truly enjoyed and looked forward to reading these.  It was relevant to their backgrounds and in some cases their languages.