Using EPIC in the Classroom

I love EPIC and I love using it my classroom. It is perfect for digital learning and provides parents with tons of books for kids! (During COVID it is free for at home use, usually it is only free for at school use).

 

I use EPIC many different ways in my classroom and today I wanted to share some ways you can use it in your classroom or in your distance learning!

EPIC Book Companions

I will assign students a book companion. The way this works in on Google Slides I send them an assignment through Google Classroom.

This assignment tells them what book to go read on EPIC. Then, it gives them three questions to answer while reading. The questions have page numbers next to them to make it even easier.

Once they are done reading and answering questions then they do an assignment that goes along with the book. This assignment focuses on a specific skill, like theme or point of view.

>>Check out my 10 book companions here<<

EPIC Book Presentations

My kids LOVE to make presentations on Google Slides. They love doing this even more when I give them creative power. You will be amazed at how hard your kids will work and the product they will create when you let them take the lead.

What I do: I assign students a collection of books to pick form (or they can just pick any book) and then I tell them to create a presentation for the class that tells us about the book. If I am doing nonfiction, I have them create a presentation that teaches about the subject. If we are doing fiction, I have them do a summary of the book through a presentation.

My rules:

*Has to be 5 slides

*Must have a minimum of one sentence on each slide

*Each slide needs a title

*Each slide needs pictures

EPIC Quizzes

Did you know that many of the books on EPIC have a quiz?! This is a great way to check students reading accountability. I usually make this fun and have the kids send me one quiz that they finish each week. If they got a 100% I give them a DOJO or send them a funny picture of me!

Be The Teacher

This is my FAVORITE. SERIOUSLY!

I love letting kids be the teacher. I talk with kids about things that they want to learn more about. Usually, they pick an animal or something like that. Then, they look on EPIC for a book that is on that subject.

I let students completely create a lesson on that animal. They can make videos, make a poster, do Google slides, make a Google form, or more.

Kids then have to show it to me and I give them feedback to make their lesson better. When they are done I let them teach the class. It is so much fun and requires a lot of creative and higher level thinking!

Holiday/Themed Collections

This is simple. But I love to send holiday collections to my students. So, if it is Easter I will search for a good Easter collection and assign it to my students. They get excited to read books about the topic.

I will even do this for things like insects, chapter books the teacher loves, etc. Anyway to send them books that I picked out for them gets them reading new things.

In Google Classroom I will post, “I just assigned you all a collection on Earth Day, if you read one of the book comment below and tell me what you learned!” This is a great way to facilitate conversation and check for comprehension.

Recording Myself!

I will make an audio recording of me reading a book that can be found on EPIC. Then, the students can follow along with me reading the book on their own device.

Now I know that many of these books are read to me. But the students really love to hear their teacher reading it. Sometimes I will make them just listening to me read without looking and then listen to me again while reading the book along with me. This helps with so many skills!

Novel Book Projects

The last thing I may have kids do is read a novel on EPIC. There are lots of novel choices through the platform and it being digital is extra exciting for the kids.

I have the kids read a book on EPIC and then pick a digital book project to do. These book projects range from making a newspaper to creating a blog. There are tons of ways for students to share their learning!

>>Find these book projects here<<

 

That is it! There are many ways that you can get kids reading and talking about what they read by using the EPIC reading app and website!