4.

4C Analysis of Databases & Digital Information Resources - Reflection & Recommendation for Use

Elizabeth Revelo
TED 8710
Research & Inquiry
November 8, 2021

Dear Principal:
Inquiry is important because it requires our research to be student-driven and as teachers we are
facilitators of learning, acting as coaches and guiding them through an effective inquiry process. When
used effectively and appropriately, it helps students take ownership of their learning and use effective
questions to open up their learning. I’ve personally seen the effects of inquiry done in my classroom and
students taking charge of their learning and running with it for the better.
Epic is the database covers many different topics such as: ELA, Science, the Arts, Social
Emotional Learning, Social Studies, Math, and Languages. It has different areas to explore such as by
Lexile levels, what’s recommended, comics, audiobooks, videos, and Read-to-Me books. I love Epic! As
a resource for my kids for many reasons.
What mainly stands out as helpful on that page/dashboard is the monthly activity
calendar and prompting of different curated collections with different topics in mind that keep
in mind the teacher’s grades and their student’s ages.
You can see all your student’s daily reading activity, assignments my class roster, student
logs, and quizzes.It gives ideas as for how teachers can use Epic! More in their classroom.
Starting with Independent reading, it gives tutorials how to search the library by sorting with a
reading level and topic, how to sort by-read-to-me books, and boasting over 40,000 books and
videos for students to explore.
Under Research Projects, I can explore subtopics such as ELA, Science, the Arts,
Social-Emotional Learning, Social Studies, Math, and Languages. I can search and assign books
to my class or individual students. Under those subtopics are other topics underneath that, such
as ELA: chapter books, fables & folktales, Hi-Lo books, narrative nonfiction, and poetry.
In Science & the Arts, they include topics about animals, life cycles, water cycles, states of
matter, simple machines, solar system, music, makerspace, magnets, light & sound, landforms,
animals and their habitats, human body systems, healthy habits, food webs, energy, electricity,
ecosystems & habitats, bodies in motion, art, and weather.
Under Social Studies, there is American symbols, biographies, citizenship, economics,
explore our past & present, georgraphy & maps, government, history, immigration, native
americans, real-life heroes, U.S. states, and westward expansion.
Under the website’s Educator Resources, there are tutorials from a dictionary lookup to
adding students to your roster and includes an Epic School Presentation for Educators.
This resource specifically supports the 3rd Grade Research & Inquiry project in ELA
Module 6: Create a Wildlife Blog, where in this database I can easily curate or find a collection of
books of animals for my students to explore and read through.
It specifically supports the needs of my third grade and similar grade students as it has
many books, including Read-to-Me books (that are text-to-speech) that will specifically help our
students with low reading levels or are English Language Learners. I personally have students
that are ELL and with the academic loss, some of my students are at a lower reading level and
highly depend on the Read-to-Me books to get their information. It also specifically supports our
students with collections that teachers can curate themselves specifically for their students or
use collections that are curated by Epic or other educators. It is a fantastic resource for growing
literacy as well as research projects and engaging students in choosing their own animal,
immigrant or American hero to research, as well as providing books for students to look more
into Native American Heritage Month.
I would appreciate your support in keeping the Epic! Resource for our students.

Sincerely,

Elizabeth Revelo