5 ways Sora can save educators time & enhance the student reading experience

Schools rely on their librarians to build diverse collections, customize book selections for students, and curate curriculum-aligned titles for classroom teachers—often simultaneously. (And sometimes that's just the tip of the iceberg!) But with the right digital tools, you don’t have to consult multiple databases or apps just to find the materials you need. With Sora, you can save time and meet the needs of students and teachers more efficiently.

1. Instantly purchase new titles for classroom use

Your teachers might ask you to put together specific titles for upcoming lessons—but it’s not always time- or cost-effective for schools to purchase multiple hard copies for short-term use. Our Class Sets rental option allows you to provide titles on-demand to as many students as needed for a 90-day period. What makes Class Sets so convenient?

• They’re available within 24 hours of purchase - no processing or intake time needed.
• You can assign them to specific students or make them available for students to borrow on-demand when they need them.
• You can purchase classroom staples and new and trending titles.
• They start at just $.99 per student.

2. Get assistance choosing books

Researching and curating reading lists by grade, classroom, genre, format, language, or particular interest can quickly eat up working hours that you might not have. And yet, it's an integral part of the job that requires a deep knowledge of the curriculum and an understanding of your teachers' and students' needs and preferences. Luckily, your Digital Content Librarians (DCLs) are here to help you do the legwork and decide which titles to add to your Sora collection. Your DCL can:

• Recommend new titles based on trends, bestsellers, or new releases.
• Help you source titles for your curriculum.
• Create ready-made reading lists to simplify purchasing titles for you and your staff.

Learn more about how our DCLs can help you meet your collection goals: Contact your Sora team or asksora@overdrive.com.

3. Save time with Sora Subscriptions

Not only can your DCL provide personalized content recommendations, you can also quickly and easily add content to your collection with our automated Sora Subscriptions, a simple, time-saving way to ensure your library is ready for new readers. All you have to do is pick your packages, let us know what your enrollment size and grade levels needed are, and we’ll take it from there. Package options include:

• All Access Comics
• All Access Magazines
• All Access: Classroom Explorers Collection
• Supersonic Phonics & Decodables

Cost-per-subscription will vary based on the number of packages selected and/or your student enrollment at your school.

4. Easily access learning resources from TeachingBooks

There’s no better way to reinforce learning than by extending a text with an interactive game, video, or activity. Instead of spending extra time searching for resources in other apps, librarians can tap into Sora to find interactive reading and learning resources from TeachingBooks. For Sora schools with an active TeachingBooks license, you can get the TeachingBooks Sora Extra, which allows students to navigate directly to TeachingBooks from the Sora app to access a vast collection of book-specific games, video book trailers, read-along audiobook performances, meet-the-author interviews and more—enabling them to engage more deeply with the titles they’re reading. 

A TeachingBooks license also gives you access to Book Resumes, which are concise reports that can help librarians and educators determine whether or not a title is suitable for their collection. Each Book Resume is organized into sections that indicate any literary awards or state list recognitions associated with that title, established reading levels, Library of Congress Subject Headings, and more. Plus, Book Resumes include professional reviews from leading authoritative sources. These include publications like School Library Journal, Library Journal, Publishers Weekly, Kirkus Reviews, Booklist, The Horn Book and Audiofile Magazine. You can save Book Resumes, print them and/or share them with other colleagues or teachers.

Bring your books to life at TeachingBooks.net.

5. Gain timely insights into student reading preferences

It's critical to understand which books and formats most resonate with your students. It enables you to better support different kinds of readers, plan for future lessons, and adjust curriculum. These insights can also help you purchase more strategically and justify future collection expansion. This is something that digital is uniquely equipped to help with, because it can provide data not only on what students are reading, but how, tracking stats like:

• books opened,
• time spent reading
• number of reading sessions
• active days
• average times per session and book.

Not only does Sora allow students to track their own reading data from their Me tab, but schools can go into OverDrive Marketplace (Sora’s shopping and administrative portal) to track building-level usage. Or, districts can choose to turn on the student dashboard. This tool allows authorized users to set up classes and view reading data by student. You can use it to pull reports and share timely information with teachers to help them better support emerging readers and gauge which reading materials students prefer.

Example of data available via the student dashboard.

Learn how to set up the student dashboard.

Ready for more? Contact us today for next steps!