Give For Good Louisville - CTL - Collaborative for Teaching and Learning

Our Goal:

Our goal is to bring 50 Artful Reading modules to classrooms in and around Louisville, KY. This would bring arts-inspired literacy experiences to approximately 1,250 students!

Do you have a student in mind that would thrive in a classroom that integrates theater, dance, music, and visual arts into it’s literacy instruction?
Help us bring Artful Reading to their classroom!

Give a Gift Here!

Why Artful Reading?

Students get to engage with a variety of texts through arts-based experiences designed to develop the skills of communication, creative expression, fine and gross motor, and social-emotional response. CTL builds on brain-based research to design instruction to improve learning.

In addition to providing opportunities for core arts experiences, the materials immerse students and teachers in learning in, through and about the arts, using music, dance, theater, and visual arts to: connect to high-quality texts, set schema for student learning, and provide opportunities for students to create and demonstrate their learning.

The Research behind Arts Integration (1)

Sponsor a Specific Teacher

If you’d like, you can sponsor a specific teacher from the list below, or any rockstar teacher of your choice.

When you make your gift, please note that you’re supporting a specific teacher by including their name in the notes. Thank you!

Natalie Schmitt

STEAM Lab Special Area Teacher

Jefferson Co. Public Schools

Brittany Brown

Kindergarten Teacher

Jefferson Co. Public Schools

Kelly Livingston

4th Grade Teacher

Jefferson Co. Public Schools

Johanna Parr

Kindergarten Teacher

Jefferson Co. Public Schools

“As a STEAM lab special area teacher I am constantly looking for creative ways to incorporate my STEAM components with the needs my students have in their homeroom classroom. As a certified literacy specialist, I know first hand the value of reading as a foundation for all content areas. These Artful Reading modules will help me provide creative and engaging lessons for students while strengthening the literacy skills they desperately need to be successful, lifelong learners. These units will give me fantastic resources at my fingertips to seamlessly integrate the skills their homeroom teachers are working to foster. These units will make collaboration so much easier and effective!”

– Natalie Schmitt

“I am so excited to have the opportunity to try Artful Reading in my kindergarten classroom. Artful Reading is the program I never knew I needed to give my students more meaningful, hands on learning experiences. The age appropriate activities will help my young learners connect literacy to art, music, dance and most importantly each other! I look forward to this experience as a teacher for my students and myself!”

– Brittany Brown

“Artful Reading is an amazing way for students to make genuine connections with the texts they are reading. Literacy is not just about calling out words on a page, but connecting in meaningful ways with those words. Artful Reading can help my students engage with texts while integrating the creative practices of the arts to foster a love of reading.”

– Kelly Livingston

“Artful Reading is an incredible opportunity for my students to use their creativity while learning in a therapeutic and exciting way!”

– Johanna Parr

Artful Reading Pre-K

CTL’s Artful Reading Pre-K is an early childhood literacy program that seamlessly ties Kentucky’s Early Childhood Standards with National Core Arts Standards to promote an age-appropriate approach to reading, writing, speaking, and listening. In addition, the modules are designed with Early Childhood Environment Rating Scale® (ECERS) in mind and foster whole group, small group, and individualized work. Whole-group lessons extend into centers for a centers-based approach to learning that promotes initiative, curiosity and exploration.

The centers include opportunities for continued learning with a focus on:

Dramatic Play
Music
Health and Wellness
Science
Blocks
Visual Arts
Sensory
Reading
Writing

All of my students LOVE Artful Reading and they look forward to our Artful Reading time. They have been very focused and engaged during every activity. I think a big reason they love it is because the activities are so creative and different from other things we do in the room and it is very hands-on.

Rebecca Hollis

Pre-K Teacher

Pre-K Modules:

Explore All Pre-K Modules

Artful Reading elementary

CTL’s Artful Reading Elementary is a K-8 classroom, grade-level, or school-wide literacy program that integrates the arts into literacy instruction, while meeting both National English Language Arts Standards and Core Arts Anchor Standards. AR promotes a thoughtful approach to reading, writing, speaking, and listening by utilizing high-interest and varied texts, arts materials, and lesson plans. The materials are built around a structure for before, during, and after reading that addresses key literacy developmental skills using arts-based strategies and contexts to deeply engage students in learning.

Students engage with texts through artful experiences focused on developing the skills of visualization, prediction, inferencing, analysis, questioning, creating, and synthesis.

With each Artful Reading module, a teacher receives the following:

High quality children’s book that serves as the core text
Supplementary texts (informational & literary)
Unique arts materials for a class of approximately 25 students
An easy-to-follow instructional guidebook of lesson plans

Artful Reading has reinvigorated my classroom! By implementing the lesson ideas and teaching strategies, students are more engaged than ever before, and there is a sense of empowerment that is evident in their work. I look forward to the Artful Reading lesson just as much as the students.

Angie Watts

2nd Grade Teacher