Integrating educational robotics for teaching early literacy skills to students at risk for reading failure

Teaching all students effectively and supporting at-risk students' academic needs is challenging. Utilizing a multi-tiered systems of support approach ensures that all learners receive adequate support to maximize their learning. In this chapter, the authors describe the importance of a systems-based approach to teaching critical early literacy skills to 21st-century students and delineate the essential features for effective reading instruction. Then, the authors propose using educational robotics to teach basic early literacy skills (e.g., phonemic awareness, alphabetic principle) to promote at-risk learners' active engagement and active responding through the systems-wide approach.