Tuesday, March 18, 2025
Since 2023, the Franklin Square School District has been piloting a new AI program in its three elementary schools— Washington Street, John Street and Polk Street— to help students learn to read by utilizing voice-detecting technology.
The Amira AI software is designed to assist both students and teachers in identifying problems in a child’s reading skills. The app, which can be downloaded to students’ iPads, provides literature for them to read aloud, ranging from fiction to non-fiction books.
The program “listens” to them as they read their selections aloud, which generally takes about 10 minutes. It detects mistakes in students’ pronunciation of words, reading fluency and comprehension, and corrects them as they go.
District Superintendent Jared Bloom said he was introduced to Amira at a conference in September 2023, and decided to pilot it in third-grade classrooms that fall.
Last September, Bloom expanded the program to students in kindergarten through third grade. The program, he said, gives them a helpful reading buddy, and has gotten a lot of positive feedback from students and teachers.
He decided to launch the program to ensure that all students are growing as fast as they can, Bloom continued, but in a way that is fun and exciting. “We’re trying to be as innovative as possible to help support our teachers,” he said.
Kaitlin Panza, a second-grade teacher at Washington Street, said the program was a hit with her students. It’s easy to learn, she said, and quickly responds to students’ individual needs. With a press of a button, they are on their way to becoming better readers without the need for her constant supervision.
Rich Watson, chief revenue officer of Amira Learning, which is headquartered in San Francisco, said that the program was developed using over 30 years of research from Carnegie Mellon University. The company gathered information from the university’s study of voice technology, and launched the program in 2018.
Today, Watson said, over 4 million students worldwide use the program, which is available in both English and Spanish. About 1,000 of those students are in Franklin Square.
Amira is intended to be an observational program, Watson explained, which helps identify young readers’ problem areas based on the Scarborough Reading Rope model. Created by a psychologist and literacy expert, Hollis Scarborough, in 2001, the model helps teachers and parents understand the essential language skills children need to learn in order to read.
As students read aloud, Watson said, the program gathers hundreds of measurement points, and then generates personalized feedback with verbal responses, just as a teacher would.
“It creates an amazing and incredible authentic experience for a child,” he said.
Matthew Serrao, a third-grader at Washington Street, said his class started using the program in October, and that it only took one class period for them to learn how to use it. His class uses it during “independent” time, after they’ve finished other work.
The stories they read are about 16 pages long, Matthew said, and it takes him about 10 minutes to finish one. As he reads, the program stops him if he pronounces a word incorrectly. Then, he said, it repeats the word and prompts him to try saying it again.
The program has been very helpful for him, Matthew said, because it teaches him new words every time he uses it. He enjoys the challenges it presents as well, because it will ask him questions that test his reading comprehension.
And, he said, the program has been stopping him less frequently lately, which means his reading is improving.
Matthew’s favorite part of the program is that it tracks his progress and gives him badges as he reaches milestones — usually the number of words or books he reads. As of now, he has read 20 books in the program.
Panza said that Amira is a fun way for students to learn reading skills in a way that doesn’t make them feel bad for making mistakes. And because they can choose what they want to read, they feel in control of their own learning.
“It’s helping them build their confidence,” Panza said. “There’s no pressure on the kid. They’re not even realizing it’s targeting a weakness, and that’s the nice part.”
Bloom stressed that the program doesn’t replace teaching, but rather provides a tool for teachers and schools to guide their instruction and curriculum. The schools, he added, are also constantly listening to feedback from students, teachers and parents to gauge the effectiveness of the program.
As of now, Bloom said, the district plans to continue the program until the end of the school year, and then evaluate whether or not to extend it next year.
The program, Panza said, is a good supplement to her instruction, and she enjoys the fact that students can learn on their own while she works with others. If the district does keep the program, she said, she would love to explore the many reports it generates, so she knows exactly what her students need and can plan her lessons accordingly.
