ABSTRACT
When thinking about the integration of the arts into a 21st-century classroom instruction for multilingual learners, digital forms of art must be considered. Literacy practices are part of students’ everyday life as they engage with their peers while fostering their English language development. In addition, students maintain ties to their home cultures and languages. Many times, this occurs as students craft stories using cloud-based technology tools. This chapter looks closely at a group of multilingual third graders who use digital art as a platform for expressing themselves. The research investigated the ways these students used language and digital art to express culture in narrative stories. The findings revealed that students bypassed scripted programs and as an alternative, they engaged with technology as authentic authors of stories that began with the creation of digital art. The artwork inspired the English words that each child fashioned on the subsequent pages. This investigation calls for teachers to insist on flexible approaches to literacy instruction that involve spaces for culture, art, creativity, and the use of digital tools.
