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A few years ago I had a student in my class who came into fourth grade as a non reader. He barely knew his alphabet.
When I conference with my students at the beginning of the school year, I always ask them, "What kind of reader are you?"
He answered, "I'm the kind of reader who reads chapter books." My heart broke for him knowing his current level, but I made a promise to him that he definitely would be by the end of the year.
At Christmas time we started his first "chapter books" the Fly Guy books. By the end of the school year he was devouring the Mercy Watson series. I had kept my promise, and I couldn't have been prouder of him!
He recently stopped by to say, "Hi!" to me, so of course I asked, "Are you still a chapter book reader?"
He said, "I don't read books anymore." My heart sunk... then he added, "Now I read Epic!"
I had of course heard of Epic!, and had even used it a few times in my class, but his saying this made me check out the app a bit more. I am always on the look-out for anything that will help my reluctant readers LOVE reading!
Even though the app has been on all of my students' iPads already, I hadn't really seen any of them use it. So, I decided a mini-lesson was in order to introduce it to them. (If you haven't already signed up for Epic! you can sign-up here - it is FREE for teachers)!
When your students sign-in to your account, they will see this screen, where they can press their names to find the books they would like to read or to continue reading the books they were already reading.
They can choose interests and Epic! will suggest titles for them, or they can just search the over 25,000 titles that are available.
This student searched for Lego books (his current passion) and was able to find just the right book.
This student chose a chapter book series she had been reading.
Students can even listen to books. The only thing I feel is missing with this feature is the text - students really benefit from following along with the text as they listen. I have figured out a work around though, I started matching books from my library with the books from Epic! so they can listen to them as they read.
Some other features that I love as a teacher are the content collections, their Epic! for Educators resource page, and the parent accounts.
They have a wide selection of content collections that you can search through for various themes. Our school uses the Lucy Calkins units of study and I have had a difficult time with the American Revolution Unit because I honestly don't have enough books in my library for it. But, Epic! to the rescue because they have this collection ready made by another teacher, and I can even make my own. All of my students can access these resources at the same time using Epic!
The teacher resource page includes these 10 creative ideas for using Epic! in the classroom as well as many other videos, tutorials, tips, and more.
Parents can sign-up for an account for their child to use at home. It is only $7.99 and gives them access to over 25,000 books! No more excuses about having nothing to read at home! I will be sending home flyers at the end of the year to make sure that my students continue to read over the summer. I can't wait for them to come back and visit me in a few years to tell me how excited they still are about reading because of Epic!
If you want to instantly increase your library by over 25,000 books, sign-up for Epic! now!
If you are already using Epic! in your classroom, I'd love to hear the ways you use it! Leave a comment below so we can all benefit from your great ideas!
Thank you to Epic! for helping to make reading even more enjoyable! You can learn more about Epic! and discover even more ideas for using it in the classroom at the Epic! Website, as well as Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, and Twitter.
If you are interested in having An Apple for the Teacher review your innovative product or book, please contact me at kellys3ps@sbcglobal.net.
