ABSTRACT
Given that digital read-aloud videos are becoming increasingly popular among Generation Z students, it is critical to consider issues of diversity and inclusion when selecting such videos for classroom use. This chapter presents the instructional design of the Learning Arts at Home program (LAH, https://learningartsathome.com), framed with the culturally responsive teaching (CRT) approach. LAH is a multilingual arts-integration program that includes read-aloud and book-inspired art-making videos narrated in three languages: English, Spanish, and Arabic. This chapter first describes what CRT is while differentiating it from multicultural education and social justice education. In order to incorporate the CRT approach, the authors used a three-part model that blends quantitative and qualitative measures of text complexity along with reader/viewer and task considerations that were used to assess the complexity of the texts for the read-aloud videos and also incorporated various pedagogical strategies while narrating books chosen specifically to reflect the cultural diversity in the classroom. At the conclusion of the chapter, the authors underscore the need for more diverse bilingual children’s books that represent a large portion of the student population in the United States and provide suggestions for how LAH can be used in K-12 classrooms.
