ALDINE, Texas — Aldine ISD went back to school this week and the district is introducing a new interactive artificial intelligence program to help students this year called Amira.
Ermel Elementary is one of 34 elementary schools in Aldine ISD that have students using Amira for the first time this school year. Amira is an AI program that listens to students as they read.
“It will capture whether or not they are making a mistake, whether or not they pronounced a word right or whether or not they are reading something incorrectly,” said Dr. Faviola Cantu, the chief academic officer for the district.
Dr. Cantu said Amira uses the AI system to generate a lesson that caters to a student’s need. “It provides personalized support specifically for each individual student,” said Cantu.
Fourth-grader Nya Brown said the program rewards her when her reading accuracy is practically perfect
“I like that you get badges whenever you read, um, good,” Nya said.
“How excited do you get when you get a badge for reading well?" KHOU 11's Ugochi Iloka asked Nya.
"I get really excited because it makes me feel like I’ve accomplished something,” Nya replied.
Nya said there’s no need to feel nervous using Amira.
“Whenever you are reading in front of a teacher, you don’t want to mess up. With Amira, you can mess up, and don’t feel bad for yourself,” she said.
The program also provides immediate data recovery for teachers in real-time.
“I’m actually able to go back and listen to the recordings so I can see any mistakes that were made or any words that are tripping them up,” said fourth-grade teacher Kendra McMichael.
This helps McMichael pull students to either work with her one-on-one or in small groups. McMichael thinks of Amira as an in-class tutor with a ton of personality.
“She dances, she celebrates small victories with them. It’s basically their own little cheerleader,” McMichael said.
Students look forward to connecting with Amira daily.
“They develop these friendships with her and they all literally like seeing Amira and when she pops up on the computer, I watch their faces and they all smile," McMichael said. "For the higher-level readers, it pushes them. It gives them words they are not familiar with and have never even heard of most of them."
Aldine ISD is a bi-literacy district that offers dual language instruction, so Amira is available in English and Spanish.
“They’ll just be enjoying Amira and her encouragement as they read and she might give them gentle props to try that again or let them know hey they did a wonderful job in both languages,” said Dr. Cantu.
Dr. Cantu said the goal is to have their 23,000 K-5 students read on grade level or higher.
Parents can help their children reach this goal by having them use Amira at home too.
“We want to reassure parents, that we have tested this. We’ve tried it. We know that it’s going to provide the type of support their child needs to continue their reading journey,” said Dr. Cantu.