When I started at my current school our fantastic Curriculum Coordinator @mmcormick87 introduced us to Epic! books.It is basically Netflix for young readers and is free to use during the school day. The parents of the students can also sign up for a subscription so the students can use the site at home outside of school hours.
Why I love it:
- It has an excellent range of books and all the books are ‘proper’ books i.e. books you could also buy in a store.
- You can create reading lists linked to a certain topic and share these with the students you teach.
- The books include a range of information about the reading level of the book allowing you to make sure you assign suitable books for your students.
- You can create quizzes for books you want the students to read and assign this to different groups.
- You can see reading lists and quizzes other teachers have created and use and adapt these for your own needs.
- The books are a great resource to underpin your units of inquiry which have a more scientific, historical or geographical focus.
What could be better:
When some of the families in my class subscribed to the site they had issues linking their paid for account with the account for the class. It caused unnecessary extra work for me trying to sort help them sort this out.
I have created reading lists for each of the IPC units I do with my Year 5 students. If you clink on the unit title it will take you to the reading list which you can then use and adapt for your class. I hope you find it useful!
What online resources have you found which can support your units of inquiry? What other sites have you found which can help support students reading at home? Please leave your ideas in the comments section below.