Building Bridges Into Texts: A Literacy Unbound Experience

Literature comes alive through this multimodal experience that turns reading into a dynamic, embodied journey.

KELSEY HAMMOND
​​Senior Professional Development Coach
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“Look around the room.” Eyes flicker, landing on other people, the windows, the rough, textured carpet. “When I clap my hands, move to fill any empty space.” A pause. Then -- clap. Bodies shift, some quickly, some hesitantly, creating a new arrangement of movement and presence. Another clap. “Now, as you move again, acknowledge the people you pass — but silently. Just recognize their presence in this space today.”

This time, heads lift. Eyes meet. Silent smiles and nods ripple across the room.

“Wonderful. We are about to embark on a journey — all the way to Antigua.”

And just like that, the room transforms. Our steps are no longer random; they map our imagined journey from New York City to the Caribbean. As we move, we start to see — the sandy beaches and blue waters of St. John’s, the bright green okra sprouting from the soil, the fire ants crawling over each other in tangled urgency. We begin to hear — the strong, tinny beats of Benna music, the harmonies of the South Leeward Mission Choir. We taste — the heat of Pepper Pot, the sweetness of Doukona laced with cinnamon.

Then, we read. Jamaica Kincaid’s Girl.

And suddenly, everything we encountered before is there again, but this time in the text. The mother's sharp, rhythmic voice delivers a long, unbroken string of instructions to her daughter, telling her how to behave, how to cook, how to be seen and unseen. The foods we tasted — okra, doukona — become part of the lessons. The music we heard — Benna — appears as something the girl is warned against singing in Sunday school. Through these details, the world we stepped into before reading is now intertwined within the story itself, making the text feel immediate and lived-in rather than distant and unfamiliar.

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Literacy as an embodied experience

At CPET, we see literacy not as a static skill but as an active and immersive process. Before students ever touch a text, they bring with them a range of lived experiences, cultural knowledge, and sensory understandings. When we expand how students enter a text — through movement, sound, image, and sensory engagement — we create deeper access points for interpretation, discussion, and meaning-making.

This kind of work is at the heart of Literacy Unbound, where teachers and students step beyond traditional reading strategies to engage with literature in dynamic, multimodal ways. By using the body, the voice, and the imagination, we make content knowledge an experience, not just a prerequisite for comprehension.

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Making texts accessible: reading comprehension & engagement

The benefits of this approach extend beyond engagement — they also support comprehension. A study published in Reading Psychology found that incorporating movement, sound, and visual elements into reading instruction significantly improved students' critical reading skills and positively influenced their perceptions of reading activities. 

In Literacy Unbound, students don’t just read literature; they step inside it. They take on perspectives, inhabit settings, and wrestle with the emotions and stakes of a text. This deep engagement leads to:

Improved comprehension: By layering sensory experiences with reading, students develop a richer, more nuanced understanding of texts. They move beyond surface-level analysis to deeper interpretation.

Increased engagement: When reading feels like an active process, students — especially those who may struggle with traditional approaches — find new ways to connect with literature. Movement and creative expression provide entry points for diverse learners.

Stronger critical thinking: By embodying and experimenting with a text, students explore ambiguity, tension, and multiple perspectives, building analytical skills that carry over into discussion and writing.

For teachers and leaders, the question is often: How do we make texts accessible while maintaining rigor and improving reading comprehension? Literacy Unbound offers an answer — not by simplifying literature, but by expanding the ways we approach it.

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Join the Literacy Unbound Institute

Each summer, the Literacy Unbound Institute brings together educators and high school students as players, co-creating a shared world of storytelling and inquiry. Through an immersive, inquiry-driven process, participants explore how literature can be activated through performance, soundscapes, movement, and visual storytelling — blurring the lines between reading, interpretation, and creation.

From July 7-11, 2025, at Teachers College, Columbia University, teachers and students will work side by side, experimenting with multimodal approaches to literature and discovering new ways to expand literacy engagement.

• ​Literacy Unbound 2025 Institute dates: July 7, 2025 - July 11, 2025
• Location: Teachers College, Columbia University
• Link to apply by March 28

Spots are limited, and decisions will be sent out in early April.

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Bring Literacy Unbound to your school

For educators looking to extend this work beyond the summer, CPET offers additional opportunities to bring Literacy Unbound into classrooms through tailored professional development and coaching. Whether it’s a one-time workshop or a fully immersive classroom project, we work with schools to integrate multimodal literacy strategies that engage students in deep, creative exploration of texts.

Because when literacy is unbound, it is no longer something to be unlocked. It is something to be lived.