Stories Like Me: Building Students’ Literacy Skills and Cultural Identity Through Digital Storytelling

The “Stories Like Me” program was a free, five-week summer literacy initiative that integrated embedded foundational skills instruction, digital storytelling, and culturally sustaining pedagogy to support early literacy development and identity formation among children aged 5–11 in an urban, under-resourced community. This qualitative case study explores how embedded foundational skills practices informed by structured literacy research, culturally relevant pedagogy, and digital tools intersect to foster student confidence, narrative development, and engagement. Through weekly thematic sessions incorporating foundational literacy skills and multimodal projects using Canva, Google Earth, GarageBand, and CapCut, students engaged in creative expression while affirming their cultural identities. Findings revealed five key themes: embedded foundational skills scaffolds, identity-building through names and places, digital tools as creative enablers, vulnerability and voice, and peer affirmation as catalysts for inclusive learning. The study emphasizes the importance of embedding foundational literacy skills within identity-centered instruction and offers implications for educators designing culturally responsive, digitally integrated literacy experiences.