What is Epic?In recent times, many parents have been trying to cut down on screen time for their children. They don't want their kids spending so much time playing apps because they aren't necessarily educational. Suren Markosian, an online gaming veteran, had a son who really loved playing games on his iPad and Markosian found it really interesting that his son had unlimited, almost instantaneous access to games but not books. After talking to other parents and realizing they also wanted their children to have access to books on their iPads, he was inspired to meet that need. The solution is an app called Epic.
Epic is an app that provides its users with unlimited children's ebooks of every topic and genre imaginable. In fact, on iTunes, the app boasts over 10,000 high quality titles for kids up to age 12. Immediately, you might jump to the conclusion that its library must be filled with unknown, even weird books. I know I have downloaded apps with children's books only to get an odd vibe from the library contents. In the case of Epic, this is not so. It includes very popular titles from companies such as Scholastic, National Geographic, and Harper Collins. Some books include Frozen, The Berenstein Bears, and Goodnight Moon. Essentially, any kids could find books that truly interest him or her.
Getting Started
First, you have to download the free app (I included the iTunes link earlier in this post) and sign up for an account. At this point, you have two options depending on whether you are a parent or a teacher. If you are a parent, you will need to subscribe for $4.99 a month. If you are a teacher, you can get Epic for Educators for absolutely no cost at all. Since I am an educator, I will explain the process of creating an account from an educator's point of view.
When you open up the app, you will see a button that says "Create an educator account." By pressing this button, you are ensuring that you will get to experience Epic for free. You will then be asked for your school name and zip code, profession (teacher or librarian), name, educator email address, and a password. After this, press "Create" and you will be given options to customize the books that will show up in your library. You will be able to customize your library contents according to the age group you teach (it offers books for children up to 12 years old), what subjects your students like to read about (sports, fairytales, history, cooking, etc.), and what genres are suitable for your class (funny, mystery, science and nature, daily life, spanish, etc.). You can pick as many or as few as you would like and you can always change your preferences later as you students' needs and interests fluctuate throughout the year.
How do I use Epic?
Once you have an account, you are free to explore the app and its many features. On the left side of your screen, there is a toolbar containing your profile or dashboard, a search button, a browse button, a "My Books" button, and a final tab for educators. The first one, "Profile", allows you to create and manage student profiles. To create a student profile, you should click "Create Profile" which is located at the top of the screen. After entering the student's name, you will be able to monitor how many books they've finished, how many hours they have read books on the app, the title of the book they last read, and the number of pages they have flipped through.
The search button allows you to search for a specific book in the library. On the other hand, the browse button takes you to the Epic library where you can scroll through all kinds of books such as biographies, popular history, featured books, popular non-fiction, and more.
The next tab, "My Books", takes you to your most recent reads, your favorites (the books you have liked), and the books you have made available offline. I will discuss liking books and making them available offline in the features section of this post. Lastly, the "Educators" tab simply tells you the mission of Epic and asks that you share the app with parents so they can continue to keep it free for educators.The most important part of this app is actually reading books and thankfully, it is very easy to do so. To read a book, you should click on it, zoom in with your fingers, and swipe to the right to flip a page. At any given time, there is a white ribbon in the middle of the book that can mark your place when tapping it. This is great if it is time to clean up and move onto a new activity in your classroom because the student will then be much more likely to return to the book and finish it later on.
Features
- Thousands of ebook options
- Customizable library
- Books with AR reading level, age, and estimated reading time
- Read-to-Me and Audio Books
- Earn badges for reading books
- Option to save an ebook so it can be read offline
- Create student profiles and monitor their reading
- Books for the different levels and interests of every reader
Although there are numerous features I love about this app, I am just going to talk about a couple of my favorites. One feature involves earning badges. In Epic, a student can earn badges just like they can in so many popular iOS games. Instead of earning badges for making a character jump over obstacles, students get badges for cracking open ebooks and reading them from start to finish. You might say, well, a student could easily open a book, quickly flip through it, then collect a badge at the end with no effort on their part. However, Epic does not allow this. At the front of each book, you will find the recommended age, estimated reading time, and for some books, the corresponding AR level. In order to successfully complete each book (and have it count towards badges), you have to read the book for the estimated reading time. For example, if the estimated reading time for a book is 5-15 minutes, a student would need to spend at least five minutes reading the book before he or she could reap a reward from it.
Additionally, you are able to save a book to your app so it can be read offline. Sometimes, you may not have access to the Internet and at other times, the Internet may be having technical difficulties. By saving a book to read offline, you never have to worry about that. At the top of each book, there is a small button that says "Read Offline." Once you press this, it will show up in your "My Books" tab and you and your students will be able to read it whenever you please. This could also be great if you only want your students to have access to certain things and do not want to bother with connecting a device to the Internet.
How Can I Use This in my Classroom?
One way to use this app is for a group reading activity. I could easily get my students together for circle time and read them a book that either relates to a standard I need to teach or an upcoming event. For example, the book Day and Night would be a great addition to a lesson on NC Essential Standard 1.E.1: Recognize the features and patterns of the earth/moon/sun system as observed from Earth. In another example, I could read the book Barack Obama during Black History Month or around President's Day.
I could also easily use this app to differentiate. Not only are there many different levels of books I could recommend to each individual child, but there are read-to-me books and audio books. If I know a student is struggling with pronouncing certain words, I could direct him or her to a read-to-me book. Additionally, these options would be great for English Language Learners. I could use this app during centers, in groups, or as a whole class and assign fun reading comprehension activities.I also found another great feature of many of the books in the Epic library. If you have ever spent a significant amount of time in a first grade classroom, you know that teachers must place a heavy emphasis on text features in non-fiction texts. While browsing through Epic's ebooks, I have found that many of them include text features such as captions, tables of contents, glossaries, and indexes. I could easily imagine using some of these books to recognize text features either as a group or individually.
My Take on Epic
Epic is an app that is truly epic. It's free and provides teachers with lots of really cool, educational ebooks that could be used in a variety of ways. Teachers on Graphite are giving it five stars and have even uploaded numerous lesson plans involving the app. Reviewers on app advice.com are also giving Epic a positive review. I have to say I wholeheartedly agree. Honestly, this app really excites me. It is not often that teachers are given so many great resources at the click of the button at no cost. I really think this app could make a positive impact in the classroom by getting kids excited about reading and providing new ways to teach material. It will not be difficult to incorporate this app into everyday lessons and I am really looking forward to doing so. Overall, I do not think a teacher could find a cooler reading app than this one and trust me, I've tried.
References
Epic in classroom [online image]. Retrieved March 10, 2016 from https://www.getepic.com/educators
Epic screen shot [online image]. Retrieved March 10, 2016 from http://www.allstudentscanshine.com/2015/02/epic-app-free-books-for-ipads.html
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