Book Reader and Literacy Tools

When a student chooses to open a book, they go to the opening page, where they can select Start the Book.

Once the book opens, students see controls on the bottom and the side of the page. See the following sections for more information.

Next and Previous Page Arrows and the Pages Icon

Use the arrows at the bottom of the window to go to the next page (arrows pointing right) or the previous page (arrows pointing left).

If you want to go to a page somewhere else in the book, or if you want to see your progress, select Pages in the toolbar on the side or the bottom of the page. This opens a view showing thumbnails of the pages in the book. Pages that you have read have the page number in blue. The page you're currently reading is outlined in blue. You can scroll through the pages to see how many there are.

 

You can also select Other Pages above the thumbnails to open other resources for the book, such as the copyright or the table of contents. The available resources depend on the book. Some books include pages with more information about the book's topic, and some myON quiz questions may come from those pages.

Play or Pause Audio and Rewind

Select the Play button to play the audio for the page; the button changes to Pause so that you can pause it again as needed. To rewind the audio 10 seconds, select the control on the left, which also shows how long the audio for the page is and how many seconds have played.

Record Button

To record yourself reading aloud from a book, select the Record button.

Once you start recording, you will see the graph move as you speak to show your voice is detected. Select the red button when you're done.

You can then listen to your recording or decide to record again.

When you are ready, you can submit the recording. You can submit recordings as you read the book or wait until the end of the book. Note: For assignments, you can only submit a recording once.

To submit a recording, select the Submit button on the side of the window.

For more information about recording, see Recording Students Reading Aloud.

The Toolbar

On the side or bottom of the window, you'll see a toolbar with several options.

Close

Select Close to exit the book. If you're not done, you can continue where you left off next time you open the book.

Dictionary

Use the Dictionary to look up a word. There are two ways to use the dictionary:

• Select a word in the book; then, select View In Dictionary.
  
• Select the Dictionary button in the toolbar. Then enter the word to search for in the dictionary and press Enter.

You will see the definition of the word. To the right of the word, in the light blue bar, select the speaker icon to hear how the word should be pronounced. If the word has an example or related words, select the arrows to open them and see the information.

Journal

Select the Journal button to open your journal, which lets you make notes about the books you read.

At the top of the Journal, you'll see four buttons:

• New Entry starts a new journal entry. Previous entries are listed on the left, where you can select them to open them.
• Copy Text enables you to copy text from the book. This is not available for books that do not include audio.
• Add Citation enables you to add a citation. It automatically adds the information from the book along with a date.
• Delete Entry deletes the open journal entry.

To close the journal, select the X in the top right corner of the journal or select the Journal button again.

For more about the journal, see How Students Use Their Journal.

Tools

Select Tools to open the toolbar with the color selector, brush, highlighter, sticky note tool, shapes (square or circle), line, arrow, eraser, and delete icons.

Color

Select this button to set the color for items you add to the page, including the brush, highlighter, shapes, lines, arrows, and sticky notes.

Brush

Select the brush to draw in the book using a paintbrush.

Highlighter

Select the highlighter to highlight text on the page being read.

Sticky Notes

Select the pin to create and edit sticky notes on the page being read. Students click to create a note and click and drag the icon to move it. Then they can enter text. To choose a different icon for the top of the note, students can select the button with three lines and then select a different icon to show what type of note it is, such as a question or something the student wants the teacher to look at. Students can also change a note color when they select the palette icon . To delete a note, select the red trash can icon.

Shapes

Use the square, circle, line, or arrow tools to mark areas of the page.

Eraser

Use the eraser to erase other items the student has added to the page, such as brush marks, highlighting, shapes, lines, and arrows. (Sticky notes are deleted using the trash icon in the note.)

Delete

When you select the trash icon, a menu opens; in the menu, choose if you want to remove a specific type of annotation and whether you want those annotations removed from this page only or the entire book.

Zoom and Full Screen

The Zoom button opens a zoom control. Move the circle to the right to make the page bigger. When the page is zoomed in, you will only see a part of the page; click and drag to move the page to see other sections. Move the circle to the left in the zoom control to make the page smaller.

The Full Screen button makes the book reading window full screen, removing distractions such as the browser tabs and URL at the top and operating system controls at the bottom. To leave Full Screen mode, select the button again or press the Esc key.

Settings

The Settings control the speed and volume of audio, whether to show annotations, whether to highlight sentences and words as audio plays, whether to allow keyboard shortcuts, and whether to show the toolbar on the left side of the window instead of the right.

Audio Speed

Move the circle to the right to speed up the audio, or move it to the left to slow down the audio. The arrow above the slider will show you if you are playing audio at normal speed (), at a faster speed (), at the fastest speed (), or at a slower speed ().

Volume

Move the circle to the left to decrease volume or to the right to increase it.

Show Annotations

If this is checked, you will see any brush marks, highlights, shapes, lines, arrows, or sticky notes you added. If it is not checked, they will be hidden.

Highlight Sentences

If this is checked, sentences are highlighted as each sentence is read on a page (if audio is being played). If it is not checked, sentences are not highlighted.

Highlight Words

If this is checked, words are highlighted as each word is read on a page (if audio is being played). If it is not checked, words are not highlighted.

Keyboard Shortcuts

If this is checked, keyboard shortcuts are available while reading books. If it is not, the keyboard shortcuts are not available. It may be helpful to turn keyboard shortcuts off while using some screen readers.

If keyboard shortcuts are checked, you can press K to open the keyboard shortcuts menu. As that menu shows, you can use these keys while reading:

• K to show or hide the keyboard shortcut menu.
• F to enter or close full screen mode.
• S to show or hide the settings.
• D to show or hide the dictionary.
• J to show or hide the journal.
• C to focus on the current page (when focused, zoom and pan shortcuts will be available).
• P to play or pause audio.
• the left arrow to go to the previous page if you have not zoomed in or to move left if you are zoomed in.
• the right arrow to go to the next page if you have not zoomed in or to move right if you are zoomed out.
• Shift + up arrow to zoom in. (When you do so, the zoom out and pan shortcuts will be available.)
• Shift + down arrow to zoom out if you have zoomed in.
• the up arrow when zoomed in to move up.
• the down arrow when zoomed in to move down.

Buttons on Left

Moves the side toolbar to the left instead of the right.

Favorites

Select the heart button to add the book to your Favorites. Once you have added the book, the heart will include a check mark.

     

Copy Link (Faculty Only)

Faculty members have an extra button that allows them to copy a link to the book or a specific page in the book. See How to Share a Direct Link to a myON Book (Faculty and Administrators).