Teaching with Diverse Picture Books is a website for educators interested in equity and social justice. The website is inspired by

• Culturally Relevant Pedagogy (Ladson-Billings, 1995)

• Culturally Responsive Pedagogy (Gay, 2010; Hammond, 2015)

• Culturally Sustaining Pedagogy (Paris & Alim, Eds., 2017)

• Culturally and Historically Responsive Literacy (Muhammad, 2020)

Following the lesson plan template from Cultivating Genius: An Equity Framework for Culturally and Historically Responsive Literacy (Muhammad, 2020), the sample lessons presented on this website will use diverse picture books to promote identity, skills, intellectual, and criticality development within a holistic approach to literacy. Thus, each sample lesson will include mindfulness activities with the integration of technology, using the culturally and historically responsive literacy (HRL) framework.

For critical digital literacies, Song (2016) suggests considering these five key components:

• Criticality -- analyze, deconstruct, and reconstruct power dynamics, language, knowledge, and power

• Creation -- become familiar with digital tools for producing work

• Collaboration -- work with others online or in person

• Communication -- create work for authentic purposes and audiences

• Civic Participation -- take action in social issues and "design new pathways to social justice" (p. 21).

The learning activities in the sample lessons will aim to align the four layers of the HRL framework with the C's of critical digital literacies.

Tips for Exploring Teaching with Diverse Picture Books

1. Look at the 'front' pages of Pedagogies, Diverse Picture Books, and Resources to see which subpage you are interested in.

2. For Pedagogies, click on the photo of the author to read a brief bio from his/her/their university. Click on the title of the pedagogy to learn more about the theory. In each of the pedagogies subpages, click on the title to read the article, but click on the image to get to the homepage of that website.

3. For Diverse Picture Books, click on How to Select Diverse Picture Books for a list of suggestions or click on the image of the book for the sample lesson.

4. For Resources, the Technology section is a list of websites created by my classmates in a course at OISE.

5. Please send me your comments, concerns, and suggestions under Contact. I look forward to hearing from you.

References:

Gay, G. (2010). Culturally Responsive Teaching: Theory, Research, and Practice. Teachers College Press.

Hammond, Z. (2015). Culturally Responsive Teaching & The Brain: Promoting Authentic Engagement and Rigor Among Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Students. Corwin.

Krajewski, S. (2020). 100 Children's Books About Diversity and Inclusion. The Art of Education University. https://theartofeducation.edu/2020/07/20/july-100-childrens-books-about-diversity-and-inclusion/#disqus_thread

Ladson-Billings, G. (1995a). But That's Just Good Teaching! The Case for Culturally Relevant Pedagogy. Theory Into Practice, 34 (3), 159-165.

Muhammad, M. (2020). Cultivating Genius: An Equity Framework for Culturally and Historically Responsive Literacy. Scholastic.

Paris, D. & Alim, H.S. (Eds.). (2017). Culturally Sustaining Pedagogies: Teaching and Learning for Justice in a Changing World. Teachers College Press.

Song, A. (2016). Operationalizing Critical Digital Literacies: A Holistic Approach to Literacy Education in the Modern Age. Talking Points, 28(1), 17-24. https://www.proquest.com/openview/b4a9faf695950adc0e53cac13bc9100d/1.pdf?pq-origsite=gscholar&cbl=2042215