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myON is an online, interactive, digital library with over 8,000 books for pre-K to 12th grade students.  Teachers can use myON to assign books, encourage reading, and assess student growth.  Plus, students can find books based on their own personal interests and ability levels, and they have a large collection of Spanish reading materials as well. It’s a great resource, so let’s check it out!

Before we dig into the review, let’s check out an overview video from the myON team to get a better idea of their service and goals.

As you can see, myON is focused on getting kids excited and engaged in reading.  On that note, let’s start by talking about the student experience with myON.  When students first log in, they’ll be ask to take an interests quiz to help determine the type of reading material that they will enjoy the most.

Once they have identified their interests, they’ll take a Lexile placement exam to help determine their reading level. This level can be modified later by the teacher if need be.

After students have completed the Lexile placement exam, they’ll be taken to their home screen where they can search the books that are now recommended for them, browse all the books that myON offers, check out the teacher’s list of books that have been assigned to them, or look at their personal book list.

In addition to seeing their recommended books right away, they’ll also be able to explore the books they’ve already read as well as the most popular books and any new books that have recently been added to the myON library.

When students click on a book to read, they can choose to browse reviews that other students have left.  This is one of my favorite aspects of myON and allows for students to be more collaborative and explore what other students think about the literature.  Teachers also have the ability to approve reviews so that they can ensure the content is appropriate.

While reading through a book, students have the option of having audio narration played as well, so they can follow along if they want to.  Additionally, a large collection of notation and comment tools are available as well as a student journal for taking notes and recording citations.  Teachers can also log in and see the comments and notes that students have made, and leave comments for the students as well.  And, of course, students can also access a dictionary for any words they don’t know.

When students are completed with a book, they’ll be asked to rate it and write their own review so that other students can see what they thought.  Following their rating, the students will take a short quiz to test their understanding of the material.  Finally, every few weeks, the students can take a new benchmark exam to see how their Lexile level has changed and improved over the course of their readings.

On the teacher side of things, as mentioned above, you’ll be able to assign and see exactly what your students are reading, as well as explore any notations they’ve made and leave comments for them as well.  You can also get detailed analytics on the specific time they’ve spent with each book, and see how they’re doing on the post-book quizzes.

Additionally, it’s easy for teachers to differentiate assignments, by grouping students into different ability levels and assigning them literature based on their ability.  This can be incredibly beneficial for teachers and students, especially when dealing with classrooms that have a wide range of reading levels.

Finally, as for pricing, myON generally runs between $5000 - $7000 for an entire school license, but they do offer discounts based on size, and that number can be a lot lower if you’re at a small school. You can contact the myON team for more information on pricing.Overall, myON is an excellent resource not only for helping to differentiate instruction, but for helping students engage in the reading process by offering a great range of genres and styles. They even have a section for graphic novels, which was great to see.  Finally, myON has a lot of exciting updates planned for the next year, which will make their service even more impressive.If you’re looking for a reading solution for your district, I’d definitely recommend considering myON and signing up for a month long free trial to see if they can meet your classroom needs.