Hi teacher friends! Welcome to my first Tech Tuesday blog post! I’m sure “Tech Tuesday” isn’t anything new, but it’s new to me and my little blog 🙂 Every Tuesday (or sometimes every other Tuesday… we all know how busy teacher lives are) I will be sharing a favorite online site or app and showing ways to use it in your own classroom. There are SO many amazing resources out there and it can be overwhelming at times. Hopefully this can be a way to simplify some of the info and find new things to help you in your teaching.
This Week’s Spotlight: Epic!
Epic is one of my absolute favorite FREE online resources. It’s basically an online virtual library of ebooks. Students can use laptops, Chromebooks, ipads, etc. and pick from hundreds of different titles. I was skeptical about the quality of literature when I first discovered the site because lots of time free=not the greatest quality. BUT that’s not the case with Epic. There are so many great titles, along with books that you’ve actually heard of.
Setting Up Your Class
Setting up your class is super easy. When you create an account, you will be given a class code that you can give your students so they can join your class. Once they join, you will have access to all their info like what books they read, the amount of time they spend on each book, and their quiz grade if they complete a quiz. Students can search freely on the site for books, or you can assign certain books for them to read.
Creating Collections
Collections are my favorite feature of Epic because it makes organizing your online library SO easy! You can create different collections for your different books and assign collections to your students. For example, if you are learning about biographies, you could create a biography collection, add in your selections that you want your students to read, and then assign the collection. Most of the books also come with quizzes can you can assign once a student has finished the book. If a student has just flipped through the pages and not actually read the book, the quiz will not appear and the last page will tell the student they read the book too fast and ask them to start over and read more carefully-so smart!
How to Search for Books
I love that the site makes it easy for you to find what you’re looking for. You can browse through all of the books, search for a specific title, or by reading level. You can also browse by genre, topic, or the type of book (ebook, read to me, or audio book)
Formats
The site has three different formats for their books:
- e-books
- Read to Me
- Audiobooks
E-books
These are books that students can read online. They are the exact same as the print based text, but in an online format. Students turn the page and read the book themselves.
Read to Me
In this format, the books are read aloud. The books are formatted the same as e-books, but each page contains a play button that students can click for the book to be read to them. Unfortunately not all books have this capability. It would be great for differentiating if they did! Still great though 🙂
Audiobooks
Audiobooks are books that are read to the kids without the actual pages of the book being shown. This is great for those auditory learners or if you have a copy of the book and you want an audio recording of it for students to use.
I just think this is the best site to use in your classroom! I love the fact that it gives each of your students a copy of the book. It makes extension activities or assignments involving picture books so much easier because you have multiple copies of the book that students can refer to. I’ve tried to make all of my Guided Picture Book Read Alouds using books that are available on Epic. I’ll link them here if you want to check them out. They are also bundled in a year long bundle that you can check out here and save. 🙂 Here’s my blog post that explains what is included in each read aloud.
Santa Clauses: Short Poems from the North Pole
Ruth Bader Ginsberg: The Case of R.B.G. vs. Inequality
Mother Ghost: Nursery Rhymes for ChildrenT
The Night Henry Ford Met Santa
A Picture Book of George Washington
Do y’all use Epic in your classroom? I’d love to hear!
