Learning to become a better reader is a fundamental part of the early education process.

Now, AI is making it easier.

Baldwin Academy in La Puente took part in a Microsoft pilot program where students used a new tool called Microsoft Reading Coach.

“We’re always looking for those opportunities on how to best provide an engaging learning experience for our students where we leverage digital technology to help our students accelerate their learning,” said Alfonso Jiménez, Superintendent at Hacienda La Puente Unified School District.

The free tool, which is available on the web, starts by asking students to pick a main character, setting, and reading level.

AI generates a custom story on the fly and then listens to the student read it.

After they’re done, it scores their proficiency instantly, highlighting words they had trouble with. It then builds those words into some additional practice reading.

“It’s just really engaging and that’s really important at this age, any age really,” said fifth-grade teacher Ana Ruiz.

She likes the tool because it’s easy to use and helps her gauge each student’s reading proficiency faster than ever.

“All I have to do is look over their shoulder and I can see where they’re at, who needs the help,” said Ruiz.

I watched as a classful of students opened their laptops, put on headsets and started reading into the tool.

Although each student was using the tool independently, they were all talking at the same time into a headset microphone. The program didn’t seem to have any trouble interpreting their reading over the murmur of the entire class.

Students I talked to liked the program for different reasons.

“It’s very different from any other thing, because you use AI.”

“I usually choose the main character as a cat.”

“It just helps my fluency in talking and reading.”

“It helps you understand words that you might not know how to pronounce.”

“The research on reading is really clear. What’s important is that students read more. It doesn’t matter what they read, it matters how much they read. Students who read more are better readers and better readers do better across all of the curriculum,” said Paige Johnson, VP of Microsoft Education.

Since AI seems to have a mind of its own, I wondered how safe it is for students.

“It has a lot of guardrails and is really built with Microsoft’s promise of responsible AI,” concluded Johnson.

Microsoft Reading Coach is a free tool available to anyone on various platforms and you can even use it at home. You do need a Microsoft Account to access it, signup is free.