I chose this idea because I wanted to bring hands-on learning to literacy and give students a new way to connect with stories. Coding and reading actually have a lot in common for elementary students. Both require understanding sequence and cause and effect. Stories have a beginning, middle, and end, and an algorithm has a set order of steps that must make sense. When students build a story path for their robot, they’re practicing the same thinking they use when retelling a story. 

By combining robotics and storytelling, students were forced to think deeply about the story and reflect on what they read. They sequenced events, retold key details, and demonstrated comprehension in a fun, hands-on way.

After students were familiar with how the robot worked, we put our robots aside and read a grade-level-appropriate story. We focused on key details and the story sequence. Students were then asked to summarize the story and plan a story path using the robots. Students used our MakerSpace materials to engineer creative pieces.

We then designed algorithmic paths to represent parts of the story. Students programmed their robots to move through the beginning, middle, and end of the story. The students loved dressing up the robots to match the theme and turning our robotic mats into story scenes.

In small groups, the students used the robots to retell the events. As they tested their code, I noticed students needed to reference the story in order to check for details. The students were able to monitor their own comprehension and saw the need to read closely. They quickly learned the need to get the sequence correct because their robot depended on it.

I was surprised by how easily students connected literacy and coding. They immediately saw how the story sequencing and coding fit together. Because the robot became the character, students were forced to think about story structure in a new, concrete way. I knew that robots would increase engagement, but what amazed me was the depth of comprehension the students achieved. They were visualizing and problem-solving all at the same time.

Like most teachers, my biggest challenge is always time. When lessons include a robot, engagement is high and students don’t want to stop. 

In addition to a lack of time, managing all the materials with so many classes takes planning. Over the years, I have been able to create a system to organize the chaos in my classroom. Seeing the student engagement and enthusiasm always makes it worth the effort.

If I could do this again, I would plan additional time for students to collaborate, reflect, and review each other’s work. I only managed to record a few of their stories this time. The kids learned so much from watching one another test and debug their code. Next time, I plan to record all of the stories and celebrate our success with a video watch day.

I would also like to take this project a step further and have the older students write their own original stories for younger students to code and act out.

The response has been great. Student engagement was high, even with hesitant readers. One of my favorite moments was when a student realized her robot got “lost” because she had skipped a part of the story. I saw the panic in her face, and she ran back to the book, reread the page, and fixed both her story and her code. It’s rewarding to see reading, problem-solving, and perseverance all come together.

The integration of robotics and reading was so successful that I have extended the project to include all robots in our classroom. We have many different robots to choose from, and students are able to choose a grade level appropriate robot to work with.

This project has opened the door for new ways to combine STEM and literacy at our school. I plan to continue using the Indi Robots throughout the year during reading groups and to feature them at our Spring Specials Showcase, where families can experience our story coding projects in action. I have also integrated additional robots that we already had in our classroom like Dash, Dot, Blue-Bot, and Bolt. The students are able to choose the robot they believe will best help them tell their story.

In the future, I hope to collaborate with classroom teachers to design reading and coding units that align with the stories students are already studying.

I am grateful for IDEA’s mini-grant program. Because of their generosity, our Farmingdale students are not just reading stories. They are living them, coding them, and creating them in ways that bring learning and reading to life.