Website: www.myONNEWS.com

myON has expanded their literacy ecosystem to include myON NEWS, which publishes five original articles designed for students every weekday, 52 weeks a year. All articles are available at three personalized reading levels, in English and Spanish, and are approved by education experts and child psychologists.

What does it help with?

Reading, comprehension, literacy, writing, and project-based learning. myON NEWS engages K–8 students to help them become informed global citizens and to further connect to digital fiction and nonfiction books—a first-of-its-kind feature for classrooms.

Is this core/supplemental/special needs/extra-curricular/professional development or what?

myON and myON NEWS has been implemented as an independent reading solution as well as for ELL, special education, before and after school programs, and summer reading programs. myON NEWS can be used to support the same literacy initiatives. myON NEWS provides daily articles that address global features, sports, arts and more. Students will get the opportunity to read current events from all subject matters and learn about their world on a daily basis.

myON NEWS is collaborative and student-centered, not news centered. 

What lesson time does it use?  

Educators can use myON NEWS for whole-class instruction during lessons, during independent reading time, in a flipped classroom, or as part of a blended learning model. By adding myON NEWS, teachers create unique literacy experiences by putting digital articles in the hands of children to read whenever and wherever they want and provide an opportunity to dive deeper into any subject area when they have access to myON.

What is the pricing model? 

myON is sold as an annual license, with prices ranging from $2,995 for a school to $1,440 for grade levels or small schools. myON NEWS can be purchased separately or can be bundled to include myON and additional third-party pricing.

There are additional costs for professional development that is customized for implementation, and for additional third-party publishers.

Are there services around it?

myON and myON NEWS provides support for teachers through the myON customer portal as well as personalized professional development sessions delivered in person or virtually.  Based on implementation and the number of schools and educators, the services group develops a program based on the needs of the school to ensure that the districts’ goals are met.

What makes it unique?

myON NEWS is unique for students, teachers, administrators, and families as it personalizes the reading experience for students at three levels, in English and Spanish, and transforms the student into a global leaner. The voices of students are included in stories, with a perspective on what’s happening in the world around them, making daily news just for kids. Stories are validated to ensure readability through reviews from child psychologists. myON NEWS is about empowerment, engagement, and citizenship—not making news a vehicle to spread fear and anxiety.

The data behind myON NEWS can illustrate an immediate picture of the district’s usage by building, class, grade, and student. Meanwhile, families are able to experience reading in a new way—together and online—that helps all students and families engage in reading and connect with schools to support individual student goals.

How is it designed for user interface, user experience?  What instructional design principles are at work here?

myON NEWS is easy to navigate and works under the same user interface as myON. myON NEWS creates articles about world news specifically for kids. Its team of experts manually levels the texts using the Lexile Framework for Reading. Additional supports include audio narration (by real people!), high-quality photos and videos, facts and calls to action, and interactive maps showing where the stories take place. The addition of myON NEWS to the Literacy Ecosystem™ creates the first literacy solution to combine the power of published books with up-to-the-minute daily news articles.

Teacher review:

"Students are blasted with a variety of media throughout their day, and it's vital that educators help them curate the good from the bad, or a more timely comparison may be the real from the fake! It's all around us: whether it's lesson plans on spotting fake news or a blog post celebrating how one group of 5^th-graders can't stop spotting fake news, it's a new reality for our young readers. myON and its robust personalized literacy platform has taken notice and developed a fabulous add-on to their offerings called myON NEWS. Teachers will love myON NEWS to encourage exploration of news and current events while skipping the attention-grabbing fake headlines that have become all too common.”

—Billy Spicer, a 5^th-grade teacher at Lake Zurich Community Unit School District 95 in suburban Chicago.