Centering Students' Voices in Language Learning: A Teacher's Use of Digital Storytelling With Newcomer Students

• In Event: Using Technology to Build Inclusive and Democratic Pedagogies

Abstract

This explorative case-study examines one California teacher’s use of a digital storytelling curriculum to increase the English language and literacy of her Newcomer students in an urban school district. Utilizing teacher and student interviews, participatory observation, and document collection, and drawing on Latina/o Critical Race Theory (Delgado Bernal, 2002) and culturally relevant pedagogy (Ladson-Billings, 1995), the findings point to the teachers’ centering of students’ identities and experiences to develop their language skills across different literacy modalities, as well as their sense of self and community building among each other. The findings also point to the challenges of using an English storytelling method in capturing the complexity of Newcomer students’ lives and diversity.

Author

• Leticia Rojas, Pasadena City College