How to Create Assignments (Faculty and Administrators) – myON

Follow the steps below to create assignments for your students. Assignments can include books and recorded reading, oral responses, writing, news articles, graphic organizers, or custom activities.

If multiple teachers work with a class, how do they use assignments?

Only the teacher who assigns an assignment to students can view their progress on the assignment. To coordinate assignments, do the following:

Have only one teacher assign the assignment to the students; if both teachers assign the assignment, students will see the assignment twice and will be asked to complete it for each teacher, creating confusion or duplicate work.
The teacher who assigns the assignment can monitor student progress on the assignment and share the information with the other teacher outside of myON (by voice, email, or screen sharing in a meeting).
If the school is recording the data in a separate gradebook program, the teacher who assigned the assignment can enter the data into the gradebook as needed.

Select Assignments at the top of the page.
In the top left, under the Assignments heading, select Create New Assignment.
To enter a name for the new assignment, select the pencil icon next to the words "Create New Assignment." Then, enter a new title and select Save.
Next, select the books that you want to include in the assignment. To start, enter a word to search for under Search for Books; then, select Find Books.

A window will open that lists books that match your search. In this window, you can check the boxes after "Limit search to" to decide whether you want matching results for the title, series, author, description, or publisher. You can also select the filter icons to filter the results by fiction vs. nonfiction, Lexile® level, ATOS book level, guided reading level, grade level, language, or book type (by length or audio availability). After making your choices, select Find Books in the window. In the results, check the books that you would like to include in the assignment. When you're done, select Add.

You will go back to the assignment page, and the books that you added will be listed. If there are more than 5 books, the list will be split; use the Next and Previous links under the books to see other parts of the list.

Note: Your district settings or building settings may limit when students can read books above their grade level, and your administrator may have set minimum grade levels for individual books. If the books that you're adding to the assignment are above students' grade levels, make sure students can access those books. Your administrator can also choose to allow access to books above students' grade levels when those books are part of a assignment.
Next, look at the completion settings on the right side of the Books section. Use the first dropdown list (Reading books) and choose how many of the books you selected the student must read to complete the assignment - all, a specific number, or 0:

Then, choose how many of the books the student must record in order to complete the assignment - all, a specific number, or 0:
Under Reader Settings, you'll see the following settings (select See more to see all six settings):
- Audio: If the box is checked, audio can be played for books in the assignment; if not, students cannot hear audio for books in the assignment.
- Recording: If the box is checked, students are allowed to record audio for books in the assignment.
- Highlighting: If the box is checked and audio is allowed, sentences are highlighted as the audio for each sentence is played.
- Quizzes: If the box is checked and myON quizzes are available for the books, students will see the quiz after each book.
- Book Reviews: If the box is checked, students will be asked to rate each book and add a review after reading the book.
- Literacy Toolkit: If the box is checked, students will have access to the literacy toolkit options, including the journal, paint brush, highlighter, sticky notes, and the shape tool.
Next, add instructions. For the assignment. First, modify the tile if necessary. Then, add instructions that explain to your students what they need to do to finish the assignment.
Faculty and Building Administrators can set a start date and due date; dates are not available to District Administrators since they don't assign assignments. The start date is optional. A due date is required if the assignment is assigned to students. To set the dates, select each field and type the date, or select the calendar icon and choose a date from the calendar. The due date can be up to 1 year from today's date.
On the right side of the Instructions section, choose whether to share the assignment with other educators. Depending on the district's account settings, this may mean educators in the district or any myON user. If you choose to share the assignment, use the Grade Level drop-down lists to choose a grade range for the assignment. Then, enter tags (or keywords) to help other educators find the assignment when they enter certain keywords in the search. Select Add tag after entering each tag; as you do so, the tags will be added below the field, and you can select the X next to any tag to remove it.
In the Add Activities section of the page, choose the other types of activities that you would like to include in the assignment:
- Writing: For writing activities, you include instructions about what to write. You can also set an optional goal for the number of words and add a checklist. If you want students to read and comment on the writing of other students with the assignment, check the Peer Review box. When you're done, select Add.
- Oral Response: If you want your students to complete a recorded oral response, enter the question or prompt that you want your students to answer. Since student recordings are limited to 5 minutes, make sure that the question is one that students can answer fully in that time limit. When you're done, select Add.
- Graphic Organizer: If you want your students to create a graphic organizer as part of the assignment, enter instructions for your students and then choose the type of graphic organizer; then, select Add. For more information, see Graphic Organizer Assignment Activities.
- News: If you want your students to read news articles as part of the assignment, in the news activity window, enter instructions, then search for articles to add to the assignment. When you find an article that you want to add, select + next to that article to add it to the list of selected articles on the right. (To remove a selected article from the assignment, select X next to the article.) After you choose articles, use the drop-down list above the search field to choose how many of the articles students must read in order to complete the assignment. When you're done, select Accept at the bottom of the window.
- Lexile Exam: If you choose a Lexile® Exam activity (if available based on your license), enter instructions. Then, choose a Placement Exam or a Benchmark Exam; the text in the window explains the difference between the two. When you are done, select Add. Note: If you choose the Benchmark Exam for the activity, you cannot change the activity to a Placement Exam if you edit it later; if you need to make the change, delete the Benchmark Exam activity and add a new task.
- Custom: You can also set up custom activities, which may include work done outside of myON. Enter instructions; you may also choose to enter a checklist. When you're done, select Add.
You can preview the assignment at any time by selecting Preview Assignment at the top or bottom of the page.
If you don't want to assign the assignment to students yet, go to step 12.

If you want to assign the assignment now, choose which students to assign the assignment to. (This section is not available to District Administrators, who cannot assign assignments to students.)

If you are a teacher, your roster is shown by default, and you can check any of the students in your class, click Select All to check all of the students, or click Unselect All to uncheck all students.

If you want to assign the assignment to a specific student and the list is long, it may be faster to search for the student in the list to find the student more quickly.

To confirm which students have been selected, select the number to the right of the "Students Selected" heading. This opens a list in another window. After reviewing the list, select Cancel or Accept to close the window.

If you prefer to assign the assignment to students in a specific group, select the My Groups tab. On that tab, use the drop-down list to select the group, then check students.

If you are a Building Administrator, instead of the My Roster tab, you'll see My Building and My Teachers tabs. The My Building tab lets you assign the assignment to a grade; use the drop-down list to choose the grade. The My Teachers tab lets you assign the assignment to students of a specific teacher; use the drop-down list to choose the teacher. You will also see a My Groups tab that lets you choose a group as teachers do. Once you've chosen a tab and a grade, teacher or group, check the students that you want to assign the assignment to.

Note: Each assignment can be assigned to up to 800 students; any students selected beyond the first 800 will not receive the assignment.
When you're done creating an assignment and you're ready to make it available, select Publish at the bottom of the page. You will go to the list of Active assignments, with the new assignment at the bottom of the list. You will see the message "Published" on the left side of the assignment for a moment.

If you are not yet done with the assignment, select Save as Draft to save the assignment without publishing or assigning it.

If you see an Assignment Incomplete message, select Edit to go back to the assignment. The assignment may be missing information, such as the instructions. If you chose to assign the assignment to students, a due date is required; make sure the due date has been set.