SLJ Reviews myON Reader: Capstone’s personalized student reading platform
RSSComputer-based ebook readers get a bad rap in some circles. And it’s not just a matter of “You’ll pry this paper book out of my cold, lifeless hands” traditionalism. Truth is, reading ebooks on a computer is often a clumsy affair, beset by poor interfaces and limited access. Capstone’s myON Reader advances the usability of this rapidly expanding technology in a number of ways. With 2011 shaping up to be the year when ebooks hit it big, this is one arena where we’ll see a lot of action in the near future.
myOn Reader
www.myon.com
Grades MyON is a PreK–8 product.
Cost Pricing starts at $6,500 per school for an annual subscription, with volume discounts (by school and by multiple years). Visit http://bit.ly/ftymzI to find a sales representative in your area.
The Big Picture Capstone’s myON Reader is a personalized web-based reading environment for students in PreK–eighth grade. Students can access the site to read, review, and take comprehension quizzes on digital books from the myON library, which contains over 1,000 titles all published by Capstone imprints (Capstone Press, Compass Point, Heinemann-Raintree, Picture Window, and Stone Arch). The library of fiction and nonfiction titles is slated to grow by approximately 100 new books each month, exceeding 2,000 by the end of 2011. There aren’t many publishers that can pull off a useful in-house ebook library, but Mankato, MN-based Capstone has the variety of topics and quantity of titles to make a pretty good go of it.
There’s a little something for everyone here. Titles cover a broad range of categories, from animals and math to “Scary and Gross” on the nonfiction side, with mysteries, thrillers, and humor in fiction. Nonfiction picture books and easy readers are especially well represented, making myON more appealing to lower grade levels. Reluctant readers will enjoy the large selection of graphic novels. There are also Spanish titles available.
Beside the student component, there’s a separate teacher administration element with management options and student reports.
Look and Feel Creating a customized reading experience is a big selling point for MyON, and that process begins at the initial log in. First up is a user-friendly interest inventory, where students describe their level of enthusiasm for a variety of topics by clicking on face icons ranging from grinning to tongue sticking out. Students then take a 35-question “Lexile placement exam,” which asks multiple-choice questions based on excerpts of text in order to generate a student reading level. These two assessments result in a personalized selection of books. These recommendations are nice, as there is little additional age range guidance to be found. Every so often students are presented with Lexile benchmark tests (unrelated to content from the books they read) to reassess reading progress.
Interests and reading level determined, students move on to the library itself. Books are presented in a grid format, with cropped images of book covers and title underneath. Readers can toggle between category and browse view, both presenting customized titles based on interest and reading level. Categories can be broad—science, language arts—or more specific for high interest topics such as sports & vehicles.
The user interface is clean-looking and smooth, with a layout that’s appropriate for most kids. Large buttons toward the top of the browser window let students select recommended titles (chosen based on reading level and interest), “All Books” (which is the default setting), “Teacher’s List” books (which serves as a virtual on-reserve shelf) and “My List,” a virtual to-be-read shelf.
Handy tabs underneath the library window allow readers to view books they’ve read, recent class reads, top-rated books, most-read titles, and new books. Students will put these options to use, especially to see which books are popular among classmates.
There’s also a prominent search bar for students to look for specific books or topics. As I began to enter a topic, I was pleased to see a list of possible titles automatically pop up underneath, similar to Google’s now familiar Instant feature. I did encounter the occasional snag, however. For example, a search for “tiger” brought up titles on the big cats, but “tigers” resulted in a “No Books Found” message. While headed in the right direction, a search algorithm that includes more related hits would be nice.
The teacher interface is similar in appearance to the student view, with plenty of white space, clear buttons, and text.
How It Works The reading assessment element is based on the Lexile Framework for Reading by MetaMetrics. Books are assigned a numerical Lexile measure based on text difficulty (a combination of sentence length and vocabulary). MyON uses assessments to determine a student’s Lexile range, and recommends books in this range. If your school uses the Lexile system, this will mesh well, if not (or another book-leveling system is used), some reading level conversion may be required.
Selecting a book opens a small window with summary, average student star rating, and student reviews. Along the bottom, students may choose to read the book, find similar titles, or add the book to “My List” which saves books on a shelf for future reading.
When students choose a book, they’re taken to a sharp-looking ereader screen. Options (volume, contents, dictionary, full-screen toggle) and reading controls (page- turn arrows, play/pause narration) are laid out horizontally at the bottom of the page.
Selecting the play button begins the narration, available for every book. It’s appealing, featuring both male and female performers. Happy titles, such as the counting book 3, 2, 1 Go!, are given suitably sunny readings, while spookier fare has ominous narration to match. Music and sound effects also make for engaging listening.
Small touches that enhance the reading process include a helpful word and sentence-highlighting feature that follows the narration, allowing students to follow along closely. Many graphic novels will automatically increase the size of the word bubbles as they are read—a nice consideration. When students leave a book and return to it later, the story picks up on the same page they ended on, a handy feature for use in schools, where activities can change at the drop of a hat. When the Dictionary icon at the bottom of the screen is clicked, up pops a list of vocabulary words on that page, eliminating a step for students. The Contents button provides easy access to author/illustrator information.
While many books appeared bright and crisp in the ereader view, the quality wasn’t the same for every title. Rendering on some books was disappointing, with noticeably pixilated text and images, especially evident when in full-screen mode (Air: Outside, Inside, and All Around, Ali Baba and the 40 Thieves).
I found myself wanting a couple of additional features. The ability to change the narration speed would be very useful for students. If you want narration, you’re locked into a single pace. If that’s too slow, advanced readers may need to click the pause button and continue narration-free. If the pace is too brisk, struggling readers may have to replay pages. I’d also like to see some sort of progress indicator. Page numbers are shown, but it’s unclear how many pages a book has in total. In print books, students always know how much they’ve read and how much of the story is left, facilitating a sense of accomplishment. Hopefully this will be addressed in future incarnations of the product.
After finishing a book, students can rate it with a standard star bar and write a review that (after it’s electronically sent for teacher approval) their classmates can read.
Another major (and sometimes controversial) feature comes in the form of optional five-question comprehension quizzes. Those familiar with Accelerated Reader or Scholastic Reading Counts will know what to expect. The questions are often at the knowledge level and at times, awkwardly worded for younger kids. While the quiz tells the student the number of their correct and incorrect answers, it doesn’t specify which questions they missed, which may result in frustration. Teachers or schools can opt out and simply turn the quizzes off.
For Students, Teachers, and Librarians Teachers with a soft spot for data will be impressed with the array of options available to help track student reading progress. After logging in, teachers arrive at their “dashboard,” with controls for just about every aspect of the student reading environment. There are sections labeled Classes, Groups, Reports, Book Sets, and Library Management. Clicking “Library” in the top navigation bar allows the teacher to view things as a student would.
“Classes” is a basic list of students, with whole-class data on books read, time spent reading, average Lexile level, and any student reviews awaiting teacher approval. Clicking on a student name reveals individual information including titles of books read and performance on assessments. This is also where teachers can add and delete student accounts.
“Groups” allows teachers the ability to group students based on whatever criteria they choose. The teacher can assign specific book sets to groups. The Reports section offers six useful methods for looking at student data, each briefly described so teachers will know what they are about to see.
“Reports” run the gamut from a straightforward compilation of data (Book Quiz Activity reports the number of classroom quizzes taken and the average score) to more complex information. One “wow” moment may come for teachers as they view “Lexile Growth Trajectory,” which predicts reading level growth.
“Book Sets” within the teacher dashboard groups similar titles (back to school, crafts and hobbies, going green, etc.) and allows teachers to create their own sets. Clicking on the set “Friendship K–3,” for example, lists 16 titles, their Lexile levels, student star rating, and brief summaries. And assigning the set to a group of students is simple.
In addition to student data reports, teachers can use the “Books Read Standards Correlation” feature to analyze the curriculum connections students are making as they read. Teachers can select their state standards, subject area, and grade level to view a list of benchmarks. Teachers can also find books that hit specific state benchmarks using the “Title Standards Correlation,” which I see as the more useful of the two features.
MyON brings some logistical benefits for librarians. All myON books are simultaneously readable, resolving the problem of multiple students vying for the same book (a situation that can get downright heated around research project time). Also, book loss, damages, and consistent wear and tear that lead to reordering are alleviated.
Kids can also chart their progress through a “My Lexile Growth Chart,” accessible when they click “Account” in the navigation toolbar. Seeing their progress over time gives students a boost, and, for some reluctant readers, motivation to keep reading.
The ability for students with Internet access to use the site at home is a nice perk. I envision students using the myON nonfiction titles for research. Interested parents may also enjoy the opportunity to read with their child at home, providing a large virtual library and allowing them an opportunity to see what books their child reads for enjoyment.
On a whole, school-level administrators could compare and contrast reading progress among grade levels. If myON was installed on a district-wide level, the ability to compare multiple schools could be valuable for informing literacy-related curriculum decisions.
Assessment It certainly ain’t clumsy. In fact, there are a number of things to like about the myON reader. The design is appealing, the selection is pretty good, and the bells and whistles are there for teachers in terms of options and data analysis. While it does many things right, flaws in the reading experience indicate there’s still room for improvement. Overall, a promising foray into the ereader world.
| Author Information |
| Elementary school librarian Travis Jonker (scopenotes@gmail.com) works for Wayland Union Schools in Michigan and blogs at “100 Scope Notes” (100scopenotes.com). |
