ILA Newsletter Weekly Project: Effective Literacy Website #3

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Maria Patricio

ED638-41

Dr. M. Rivera


     “How do we make books more accessible to kids?” This question was the catalyst to creating the world’s leading digital library, Epic! Epic (https://www.getepic.com) is an exceptional literacy website that holds an extensive selection of animated books, read aloud videos, audiobooks, and educational videos. There are so many well-written stories and age-appropriate books for students in Pre-Kindergarten through middle school. What’s great about Epic is that classroom teachers have free access! 

       Once teachers log in, the home page is filled with an enticing collection of eBooks and other valuable features. The site divides its digital library into five sections which are as follows: Recommended, AR, Read to Me, Videos, and Audiobooks. Here, teachers can easily explore its educational resources by grade level, subject, topic, Lexile measure, or simply use the search engine at the top to look for a particular author, title, or keyword. As you scroll through the recommended page, stories are organized by categories such as Top Picks, Award Winners and Honors, Recently Added Books, and more. The AR section holds books based on a student’s accelerated reader (AR) level, which are directly aligned with the student’s current grade level. This is great for teachers to have an idea of where a student is at in terms of reading level and to recommend books suitable to their AR level. 

        Two personal favorites include the Read to Me and Videos sections. The Read to Me option allows students to follow along with the text while hearing the words. As the story is being read, each word is highlighted individually which is great for emergent readers to visually see one-to-one word correspondence and correct directional movement when reading. When coming across unfamiliar words, students can simply tap and hold on any word to see its definition. Likewise, the Videos section houses a plethora of animated and high quality read-aloud videos, which is quite similar to Vooks. In addition to Epic’s many features, the site offers several audiobook options which may be most useful for students in the upper grade levels. 

        In contrast to Vooks, Epic allows teachers to create a class, assign students books to read, and generate quizzes. Teachers can progress monitor by accessing class summaries, daily reading reports, student logs, and other analytics that can provide not only themselves, but also parents valuable insight into their child’s reading habits and progress. This is a great way to track students’ reading and at the same time, encourage extensive pleasure reading in the classroom. 

        In a nutshell, Epic is an invaluable addition to every teacher’s pile of literacy resources. It is user-friendly and gives unlimited access to thousands of book titles by well-loved authors. Teachers will appreciate the quality of the materials designed for students with differing reading abilities and interests. If you want to help inspire children to freely explore and ignite a love of reading, Epic is the perfect place to start!

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