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Our students struggle with finding interesting and current texts to read. We are trying to incorporate more current and relative topics into our classrooms to help students see themselves through various characters and their obstacles. Students will benefit from these resources because the new books and book club will encourage them to read more and actually enjoy the books they are reading (many students submitted their preferences and that's how my list was created). Next year we are planning on implementing a book club to give students a safe space to read, grow and share their experiences! An important study that has helped shape our understanding of the importance of reading to college readiness was conducted by French sociologists Pierre Bourdieu and Jean-Claude Passeron. These researchers found that the influence of language skills developed through reading, conversation, and family life “never ceases to be felt” across an individual’s life span. And the benefits go much deeper than vocabulary: “Language is not simply an instrument of communication: it also provides, together with a richer or poorer vocabulary, a more or less complex system of categories, so that the capacity to decipher and manipulate complex structures, whether logical or aesthetic,” depends partly on the complexity of the language a student possesses. Some of this is passed down like an inheritance by one’s family, and some is gained through effort, application, and focused attention to reading. Reading, then, can literally help determine the way we are able to think.
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