CTL Embraces the Entanglement of Literacy and the Arts to Support Student Learning
As educators, we often talk about helping children “make meaning.” But meaning is not made through text alone—meaning is constructed through multiple modalities: movement, image, sound, gesture, story, and
exploration. That’s why the Collaborative for Teaching and Learning’s Artful Reading model embraces what the recent Arts Education Partnership blog post by Alex Chadwell, Entangling Arts and Literacy in Education,l calls the “entanglement” of literacy and the arts. As Chadwell argues, art is “an activity consisting in producing relationships with the world with the help of signs, forms, actions and objects.” This parallels what readers do when they navigate texts. They interpret signs, build connections, and construct understanding.
In other words, literacy is art—and art is a powerful literacy tool.
Integrating the Arts as a Catalyst for Deep Learning
In classrooms where literacy is isolated to decoding and responding, students can become compliant—but not deeply engaged. The arts shift that dynamic entirely. Research makes clear that arts integration enhances motivation, comprehension, and knowledge building (Fisher, & Fray, 2009; See, & Kokotsaki, 2016; Feland & Larson, 2016). Visual arts help students “analyze key elements of the text…synthesize information in a creative way.” Drama increases participation and empathy. Music and movement build phonemic awareness, pacing, and emotional connection to story.
The premise behind Artful Reading highlights that comprehension develops when students encounter high-quality literature and engage in active meaning making. Arts-integrated strategies—gallery walks, dramatization, listening maps, movement explorations—activate background knowledge and deepen concept mastery. These strategies “transform passive reading into an active exploration, strengthening understanding and fostering critical thinking skills.”
This aligns with Chadwell’s assertion that literacy is not merely text consumption, but a multimodal, cultural, and relational process. When we entangle reading with the arts, we honor the reality of how children actually learn.
Embedding Entanglement Into Every Artful Reading Lesson
With two example modules, Action Jackson and Grandfather’s Journey, we will illustrate how art and literacy become inseparable in every Artful Reading module.
Engaging with texts through movement, image, and sensory experience.
In the Action Jackson module, students don’t just read about Jackson Pollock—they move like him, paint like him, listen to music that inspired him, and explore emotions through color, shape, and texture. Lessons, such as Movement Painters, invite students to interpret text through kinesthetic expression, providing them with a physical understanding of Pollock’s process.
Similarly, in Grandfather’s Journey, students explore identity, migration, and belonging through visual mapping, portraiture, and model-making, extending the emotional depth of the text into an artistic exploration that supports inferencing and text-to-self connections.
Learning to “read” images as texts.
The See / Think / Wonder routines and Elements of Art lessons from Action Jackson teach children to analyze paintings using the same strategic thinking they employ when analyzing literary texts. Students identify line, color, shape, space, texture, and value—vocabulary that supports both artistic expression and reading comprehension.
Creating becomes a doorway to understanding.
When students transform torn paper, smudges, or spills into art in A Beautiful Oops! (Action Jackson module), they explore growth mindset, revision, and flexible thinking—qualities essential to reading complex texts. The lesson reinforces that “mistakes…are an opportunity to make something beautiful,” a message that supports risk-taking in reading and writing. Such creative problem-solving mirrors the interpretive processes strong readers use.
Building knowledge through multidisciplinary exploration.
Research supports the importance of background knowledge for comprehension (Foorman et. al., 2016)—and Artful Reading modules are deliberately designed to build that knowledge through art, movement, social-emotional reflection, and hands-on inquiry.
In Grandfather’s Journey, students explore geography, culture, family histories, and emotional landscapes. In Action Jackson, students learn about art history, jazz, and the Abstract Expressionist movement. These multidisciplinary encounters give students the schema they need to understand more deeply—and to participate more fully in academic discourse.
Why CTL Believes the Arts Are Essential to Literacy
CTL’s commitment to arts-integrated literacy is grounded in three principles:
Engagement is not optional—it is foundational.
Arts integration increases motivation, attention, and persistence. Feland and Larson (2016) make the case that creative work sparks a love of learning and makes the reading process more enjoyable. When children are engaged, comprehension grows.
Multiple entry points make learning equitable.
The arts allow students of diverse language backgrounds, learning styles, and abilities to participate meaningfully. Visuals, movement, sound, and tactile experiences open doors for students who may struggle with text alone (See, & Kokotsaki, 2016). This aligns with the AEP blog’s assertion that literacy is culturally situated and varies based on students’ identities and experiences.
The arts cultivate the dispositions strong readers need.
Creativity, curiosity, empathy, observation, flexibility, and critical thinking are cultivated through arts-integrated lessons (Harvey & Goudvis, 2007; Russell & Zembylas, 2007; Nielsen, Samuel, Wilson, & Vedel, 2020). These are the same habits of mind that support inference, analysis, and interpretation. Pollock’s daring experimentation becomes a model for intellectual risk-taking. Grandfather’s journey becomes an invitation to consider perspective, heritage, and a sense of belonging.
Entanglement Is Not an Add-On—It Is a Stance
The AEP blog reminds us:
“Art becomes more than a ‘nice extra’—it becomes central to learning, cognition, and meaning-making.”
At CTL, we agree wholeheartedly. Our Artful Reading Model is founded on the belief that literacy is a lived, embodied, creative, and communal experience. When students dance, draw, question, act, imagine, and create, they are not doing “extra” activities—they are doing the work of becoming readers, thinkers, and makers of meaning.
The Arts do not decorate literacy instruction:
They deepen it.
They expand it.
They entangle with it—beautifully.