Summer Brown
Snapshot
Reading is EPIC!
How can the implementation of a computer workstation that focuses on an online reading resource increase student engagement in independent reading to better help them achieve Accelerated Reader goals and increase overall reading achievement? My problem of practice centers around the observation that students that receive ELA instruction from me that are not in my homeroom do not have as many opportunities for independent reading time throughout the day and often struggle to meet their yearly Accelerated Reader goal set by the school because of this. The students in my homeroom are provided with at least 20 minutes of independent reading during homeroom. My nonhomeroom students are in a homeroom with a teacher who provides math instruction so they complete math activities during this time. In addition to this, the other classroom does not have a classroom library, so students do not have easy access to various reading materials during homeroom. Even though all students are encouraged to read at least 20 minutes at home, lack of reading materials, parental support, and lack of interest in reading add other barriers to these students. In order to address this problem, I plan to implement a computer workstation using an online reading resource, Epic!, in addition to a traditional reading zone using books from my classroom and school library. I plan to have students access the website Epic! which has over 25,000 books for children under the age of 12, during a 30-minute workstation rotation at least twice each week. Epic! offers many different book genres, including award winning children’s literature and comics, with audio book and read to me options. This will allow students the opportunity to choose what they read to find what interests them as readers. The read to me and audiobook options will benefit struggling and nonreaders.