Epic! (https://www.getepic.com/educators )
is an excellent free resource for teachers and librarians that offer access
to 25,000 eBooks, learning videos, quizzes, and many more for grades
kindergarten thru fifth (ages 12 and under). Epic provides an unlimited
selection of eBooks that can instantly be discovered, read, and shared with
friends. Epic contains numerous high quality, curated children’s books and
resources that don’t need to be downloaded or purchased. Epic also has the
feature to personalize individual readers. Students and educators are able to
personalize their own library in which they can take anywhere. Although Epic is
free for teachers and school librarians, there is a small monthly fee for
parents and other users.
Epic was created in
January of 2013. The creators and teams of Epic built this helpful resource
because they noticed that children are constantly spending their free time on
their tablets and mobile devices playing games and watching videos rather than
reading. It didn’t make sense that videos were so easily accessible, while
books required a parent or other adult to make a purchase. Today, Epic is
available with absolutely no cost that can be accessed through a desktop/laptop
or tablets/mobile devices by downloading the “Epic” Application. The app is
also free. As long as an account has already been made, you would just have to
sign in on the app and your personalized library and account is accessible.
To begin using Epic to
access their selection of books, you will sign up and register as an educator
using your work email and listing you school site. Upon entering your Epic
account, you will have the option to create student profiles and assign
activities, quizzes, and assignments for your class after assigned reading.
After obtaining your username and password, you will also be given a class code
that can be given to your class to enroll. On your dashboard, you will be able
to monitor how many students you have, the number of books read, how many hours
spent reading, and the number of videos watched. Once given access to the
thousands of books available, you will be able to read and add books to your
collection so that it is stored in your personal library. Teachers even have
the option to create quizzes for a book they would assign to the class. When
browsing for a book, books are organized and categorized by recommended books
for you, popular, featured collections, learning videos, recommended audio
books, and top picks in daily life. You also have the option to browse and
search for books based on genre. There are numerous fiction books including
non-fiction collections such as the National Geographic articles, Animal
Wonders, and Smithsonian.
After clicking on a
desired book, the age, reading time, AR level, and Lexile measure will be
listed prior to starting the book. Readers also have the option to magnify
words by putting the curser over the word. In addition, when you click on the
words, a small window pops up with the definition of the word and how it is
pronounced with a voice over to model how the word is properly said.
In conclusion, I would
highly encourage other educators to take advantage of this literacy resource,
especially because it is absolutely free. A few minutes to sign up for this
resource is worth the access to thousands of books and learning videos. Once an
account is set up, navigating and using Epic is easy and simple to use. Even
though Epic is geared towards students in grades k-5, I could see this being
applied in the secondary classrooms especially in the resource room since audio
books are also available. This resource is a great classroom tool that can be
used for pleasure reading, to be projected on a whiteboard to be read as a
class, comprehension checks, or as supplemental resources for a lesson.
According to the Epic
website, here are 10 creative ways to use Epic! in the classroom:
1.
Use
Epic! For the “Listening” portion of daily 5 using read-to-me and audio books.
2.
Project
Epic! On an interactive whiteboard to teach a specific skill or strategy
3.
Use
non-fiction books for research projects, such as reports on animals.
4.
Students
create a “wish list” of books and then partner up to explain that list.
5.
Epic
is perfect for read aloud, shared reading & independent reading time.
6.
Students
create book reviews and recommend favorites to classmates
7.
Expose
students to different expressions and intonations using read-to-me books
8.
Perform
experiments using ideas in Epic’s STEM books
9.
Create
a book commercial using multimedia tools such as iMovie, etc.
10. Compare two books by the same
author.
Quick Start Guide:
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