How one of the largest virtual charter schools in America introduced engaging, student-owned interventions that students, families, and teachers couldn’t get enough of.
They’re a school like no other: Epic Charter Schools serves the entirety of Oklahoma with virtual school solutions, teaching approximately 30,000 students. It’s among the largest of its kind in the United States, with students joining Epic from a diverse range of household settings, for a plethora of reasons.
Last school year, the virtual charter school launched a new department, ELA+, focused on providing high-quality literacy interventions for Epic’s most in-need students. Launching a new intervention program can be a challenge in any setting, and Director Amber Parks knew that introducing this in a virtual, state-wide school would come with its own host of hurdles along the way.
Not to be defeated, Amber and her team of passionate teachers knew that their high-quality instruction needed to be teamed with a high-quality platform to host it on, which is where Book Creator entered the fold. The team spoke to us about what it was like to roll out this new intervention program, and how it positively impacted students and their families.
Establishing a high-quality intervention program
Before any class could get started, Amber and the team had to set goals and plans in place to ensure the success of this newly founded department. Having experience founding a literacy development program before her role at Epic, Amber was familiar with the pillars that would need to be in place to scaffold their instruction.
Talking about the mission behind setting up ELA+, Amber says the team were given a green light to focus on the question: “‘what does high-quality, live, student-facing intervention look like?” She goes on to explain that “nothing can replace fantastic and passionate teachers, and that was really the impetus” for the mission at hand.
Before any technology or materials could come into play, Amber knew exactly what the core mission was: “having highly specialized teachers to provide the most powerful instruction to our most in-need students.” With those teachers brought together under this new department banner, it was time to look into which platforms and tools would best support their work.
Why use Book Creator for intervention?
Book Creator was used by a handful of teachers across Epic before the inception of ELA+. When the department came together, it was Middle School Teacher Lisa Marshall who introduced the creation software to the group.
At first, there was some resistance to adopting Book Creator, as teachers felt they didn’t have the spare time in their schedule to learn a new tool. For fellow ELA Instructor, Tabitha Martin, it was seeing what Lisa and her classes were already creating that got the wheels turning.
Once I saw the capability, I thought, ‘Woah, we need to be using this!'
Tabitha mentions that the original plan was to do the core work with students within Google Docs, but once the team had begun diving into Book Creator, the switch became a no-brainer. “The more time we spent on Book Creator, the more interactive Book Creator was,” Tabitha explains. “The kids can have their own workbook. I think that was really what it came down to: the kids would have ownership of their learning with Book Creator.”
As well as giving the students ownership, Book Creator offered a stream-lined, focused workspace for their learners. Meghan Nguyen, a SPED Teacher and ELA+ Instructor, loves how her students “didn’t need to go to a third party site, it was right there: all inclusive.” It’s a tale as old as time: fancy buttons and endless options get students excited, but too wide a choice can quickly become a distraction from their learning experience. This is especially true for students who need executive functioning support.
Book Creator solves this problem by offering a scaled down version of apps like Canva, Adobe, and Giphy directly within its interface. Rather than scouring the internet for an image, downloading it, uploading it, then moving it, you can use safe search directly in Book Creator to add images.
It’s their book, and that has such an affirming element to it.
Having that one-stop shopping creative experience for students is another key reason that Epic chose Book Creator for ELA+. Tabitha explains, “I think it really came down to presenting in a way that gave students ownership.” Teachers were able to use a book for presenting work, and then allow students to create their very own books to record their learning in. This gave students ownership of how they related to their learning, and presented their thoughts on the page.
“They knew they were going to come into class and do something visually engaging,” adds Meghan. After using Book Creator for their intervention program, Meghan asked her students for feedback on the tool. “They all just loved it so much,” she says. “It was the first time they could take ownership of a lot of what we were talking about in class.”
“It's a beautifully named program,” Amber adds, reflecting on the name Book Creator. “Students built a lot of confidence as they made their own books.” Amber found that having students work in a space with their very own book where they are the creator really helped students see value in what they were doing in class. “It’s their book and that has such an affirming element to it.”
Student ownership in literacy intervention
Student ownership was a topic that came up time and time again when we spoke to the Epic ELA+ team. When we dug into what made Book Creator such a staple for allowing that ownership to take place, the answer became clear. As Tabitha put it, “Book Creator gives students more freedom to express their creativity.”
Sample Book Creator pages from an ELA module on the Greek Gods
As the program was focused on literacy intervention, the team was often working with students who were disengaged from learning, or felt intimidated by reading and writing. A portion had found a home at Epic virtual charter because regular brick and mortar schools had not been able to provide them with the positive, progressive learning experience they needed. “Epic is an extremely welcoming school to students who a lot of times just haven't made it, can't make it, or are pushed out of regular brick and mortar schools,” explains department director Amber Parks. “We are considered a safe haven.”
When the department was set up, Amber and her team knew they would be going into core replacement and “filling in those missing foundational skills.” This meant that teachers needed to pull in a bigger range of resources to meet students where they were currently. ELA+ Instructor Chelsey Walters found Book Creator useful as a repository for leveled texts.
Having that one-stop shopping creative experience for students is another key reason that Epic chose Book Creator for ELA+. Tabitha explains, “I think it really came down to presenting in a way that gave students ownership.” Teachers were able to use a book for presenting work, and then allow students to create their very own books to record their learning in. This gave students ownership of how they related to their learning, and presented their thoughts on the page.
“They knew they were going to come into class and do something visually engaging,” adds Meghan. After using Book Creator for their intervention program, Meghan asked her students for feedback on the tool. “They all just loved it so much,” she says. “It was the first time they could take ownership of a lot of what we were talking about in class.”
“It's a beautifully named program,” Amber adds, reflecting on the name Book Creator. “Students built a lot of confidence as they made their own books.” Amber found that having students work in a space with their very own book where they are the creator really helped students see value in what they were doing in class. “It’s their book and that has such an affirming element to it.”
Student ownership in literacy intervention
Student ownership was a topic that came up time and time again when we spoke to the Epic ELA+ team. When we dug into what made Book Creator such a staple for allowing that ownership to take place, the answer became clear. As Tabitha put it, “Book Creator gives students more freedom to express their creativity.”
As the program was focused on literacy intervention, the team was often working with students who were disengaged from learning, or felt intimidated by reading and writing. A portion had found a home at Epic virtual charter because regular brick and mortar schools had not been able to provide them with the positive, progressive learning experience they needed. “Epic is an extremely welcoming school to students who a lot of times just haven't made it, can't make it, or are pushed out of regular brick and mortar schools,” explains department director Amber Parks. “We are considered a safe haven.”
When the department was set up, Amber and her team knew they would be going into core replacement and “filling in those missing foundational skills.” This meant that teachers needed to pull in a bigger range of resources to meet students where they were currently. ELA+ Instructor Chelsey Walters found Book Creator useful as a repository for leveled texts.
Book Creator gives students more freedom to express their creativity.
“I taught the struggle-y of the struggliest friends,” starts Chelsey, “A lot of my students were reading at a 2nd to 3rd grade level even though they were 6th to 8th graders. The buy-in for them was a little different.” Chelsey finds that with some tools, getting levelled texts right can be challenging. Middle grade materials are intimidating to her learners, which is why some educators may pull in lower grade materials. Chelsey avoids doing this, as it can be obvious to students when they have a lower grade material which looks or sounds like it’s for a younger audience than them.
Book Creator was helpful for Chelsey’s learners because she could add in text from different resources. “I could pull an 8th grade text, pull it through a level adjustor, and it didn’t look baby-ish.” Teachers can level a text with AI, and present it in a visually engaging and age appropriate manner within Book Creator.
Tabitha also found that the independence Book Creator fosters allowed her students to really engage with the content being taught in class. Reflecting on the workbooks they created in class, she says “It was really cool to give them a piece of ownership.” This year, Tabitha used Book Creator to present her lessons too due to that visual engagement element. “We could make it so colorful and so fun for them.”
Adding that fun spark to lessons is something that Meghan also found kept her students engaged in the program. “The students all mentioned that they got excited about each new ELA module starting,” Meghan explains, “Our modules were 6 weeks long, and they knew that the books were going to be completely different [each time].” The team would change the theme of the books from unit to unit, be it from a 90s video game theme to a summer-time beach theme.
This was something that students found highly engaging, and it added a positive experience for them to look forward to at the beginning of a round. Meghan saw the pay off for that first hand. “They always got excited on the first day of class. They would ask, ‘What is our book gonna look like? Let us in the library, let us see it!’ They were just so excited about it being different each time.”
Engaging caregivers in student education
Being a virtual school, Epic Charter Schools are no strangers to the important role that care-givers play on a student’s education. Attitudes to education in the home can vary widely depending on household styles or experiences, and teachers at Epic are particularly in tune with the difference that care-givers can play on a student’s engagement with learning.
“Parents are the backbone of how our model works,” Meghan tells us. “We're not geographically close to our students… I might have a student that's 3 hours away from me, or lives on the border of Arkansas, or lives on the border of Texas and has a different perspective on things than someone who lives in central Oklahoma.” The vast geography of Epic students, and the fact they are taught virtually, places extra emphasis on parent engagement.
Books could be designed in a way that was intuitive for students and parents.
“Our culture is very different. We pull from different families, different family types and styles,” explains Meghan. Students find themselves at Epic for a variety of reasons, and that also means the learning environment at home can vary greatly too. Some students may be self-motivated as their parents are working, while others have parents acting as tutors within the home. In this way, understanding of the program and its content varies between families, and so ensuring homework instruction is clear is massively important to the ELA+ instructors.
When it came to using Book Creator, parents were able to easily understand what was being asked of them and their learners because of the familiar book format. Chelsey would meet with parents at conferences, and they’d often bring up Book Creator as a highlight for their family. “They were really thrilled with Book Creator,” Chelsey tells us, “partly because it's so visually appealing, but also because it was really clear.”
As Book Creator can be laid out in the style of a traditional workbook, parents were able to intuitively understand the instructions their learner was given. Chelsey explains, “We could say, ‘hey friend, you didn't do page 7,’ and we could CC their parents on the email, and it was very clear what they needed to do.” This was encouraging for parents, as there were no complicated buttons or tech to work out. “It was very clear to parents what needed to be done.”
Influence of Book Creator on learner outcomes
With excited students and engaged families, the ELA+ program proved highly effective throughout the school year, fostering measurable growth. Teachers were able to engage students with fun visual materials, and foster creativity and independence by allowing students to work within their very own books. As Amber says, “It didn't sound the writing alarms for a lot of students because of how visually appealing and how individualized stylistically it could become.”
“I taught the struggle-y of the struggliest friends,” starts Chelsey, “A lot of my students were reading at a 2nd to 3rd grade level even though they were 6th to 8th graders. The buy-in for them was a little different.” Chelsey finds that with some tools, getting levelled texts right can be challenging. Middle grade materials are intimidating to her learners, which is why some educators may pull in lower grade materials. Chelsey avoids doing this, as it can be obvious to students when they have a lower grade material which looks or sounds like it’s for a younger audience than them.
Book Creator was helpful for Chelsey’s learners because she could add in text from different resources. “I could pull an 8th grade text, pull it through a level adjustor, and it didn’t look baby-ish.” Teachers can level a text with AI, and present it in a visually engaging and age appropriate manner within Book Creator.
Tabitha also found that the independence Book Creator fosters allowed her students to really engage with the content being taught in class. Reflecting on the workbooks they created in class, she says “It was really cool to give them a piece of ownership.” This year, Tabitha used Book Creator to present her lessons too due to that visual engagement element. “We could make it so colorful and so fun for them.”
Adding that fun spark to lessons is something that Meghan also found kept her students engaged in the program. “The students all mentioned that they got excited about each new ELA module starting,” Meghan explains, “Our modules were 6 weeks long, and they knew that the books were going to be completely different [each time].” The team would change the theme of the books from unit to unit, be it from a 90s video game theme to a summer-time beach theme.
This was something that students found highly engaging, and it added a positive experience for them to look forward to at the beginning of a round. Meghan saw the pay off for that first hand. “They always got excited on the first day of class. They would ask, ‘What is our book gonna look like? Let us in the library, let us see it!’ They were just so excited about it being different each time.”
Engaging caregivers in student education
Being a virtual school, Epic Charter Schools are no strangers to the important role that care-givers play on a student’s education. Attitudes to education in the home can vary widely depending on household styles or experiences, and teachers at Epic are particularly in tune with the difference that care-givers can play on a student’s engagement with learning.
“Parents are the backbone of how our model works,” Meghan tells us. “We're not geographically close to our students… I might have a student that's 3 hours away from me, or lives on the border of Arkansas, or lives on the border of Texas and has a different perspective on things than someone who lives in central Oklahoma.” The vast geography of Epic students, and the fact they are taught virtually, places extra emphasis on parent engagement.
“Our culture is very different. We pull from different families, different family types and styles,” explains Meghan. Students find themselves at Epic for a variety of reasons, and that also means the learning environment at home can vary greatly too. Some students may be self-motivated as their parents are working, while others have parents acting as tutors within the home. In this way, understanding of the program and its content varies between families, and so ensuring homework instruction is clear is massively important to the ELA+ instructors.
When it came to using Book Creator, parents were able to easily understand what was being asked of them and their learners because of the familiar book format. Chelsey would meet with parents at conferences, and they’d often bring up Book Creator as a highlight for their family. “They were really thrilled with Book Creator,” Chelsey tells us, “partly because it's so visually appealing, but also because it was really clear.”
As Book Creator can be laid out in the style of a traditional workbook, parents were able to intuitively understand the instructions their learner was given. Chelsey explains, “We could say, ‘hey friend, you didn't do page 7,’ and we could CC their parents on the email, and it was very clear what they needed to do.” This was encouraging for parents, as there were no complicated buttons or tech to work out. “It was very clear to parents what needed to be done.”
Influence of Book Creator on learner outcomes
With excited students and engaged families, the ELA+ program proved highly effective throughout the school year, fostering measurable growth. Teachers were able to engage students with fun visual materials, and foster creativity and independence by allowing students to work within their very own books. As Amber says, “It didn't sound the writing alarms for a lot of students because of how visually appealing and how individualized stylistically it could become.”
Chelsey tells the story about a student motivated by Book Creator.
Having fun learning may not be the main goal, but it certainly has an effect on outcomes for students who may otherwise not engage with or even turn up to classes. When using Book Creator, Meghan saw an increase in attendance to her zoom classes, and she feels it is because of the freedom it gave her students to engage with the content in a meaningful way. “For kids who are struggling with reading, or struggling with the content, that was a really big deal for them to have that kind of creative control and to build their confidence in the subject material.”
As well as increased attendance, the ELA+ team found that their learners were choosing to make-up for lost class time in their own time. Chelsey tells us, “In our last unit, they shared their writing, and they were so excited to do it. I had a student who was absent that whole week because she just did not want to come and then she was like, ‘you guys published your writing in Book Creator? Can I still do it?’ and she did it on her own outside of class.” Book Creator didn’t just help to transform the experience of learning within the classroom setting, but was integral in creating positive learning habits outside of the class too.
What makes an edtech tool effective for teachers?
Speaking about the experience of using Book Creator, Tabitha says, “I get so much joy from creating the books.” With hundreds of EdTech tools on the market, it’s easy to get lost in the world of software. Learning new tools, and re-learning them when there are updates, can be hard and time consuming. As an education-only tech tool designed to be used by every learner, it’s easy and intuitive for teachers to make their own presentations in Book Creator also.
Being such an easy tool for teachers to pick up, it was also very easy for them to make high quality products for their students. Using Book Creator over the school year, Meghan recounts that the team “grew as designers” through their projects. The team look back on their earlier books, which seem ‘plain’ in comparison to the books they’re able to make today.
Teachers could make fun, visually engaging workbooks that students would then fill in
ELA+ Instructor Kara Armoudian found it helpful that she could work in real-time within the books, alongside her students. “There was always a time when some little love just couldn't figure out what I was talking about. So I could open up their book and click on the box and say, do you see the box in red? Move it here, or do it this way or click on that. And they could follow along.” Real-time collaboration allows teachers like Kara to make learning impactful in the very moment, in a way which can sometimes be lost in virtual experiences.
This is something which is helpful across grades, as Tabitha recounts. Speaking about her middle grade classes, she laughs as she recalls some of the challenges she would encounter. “Sometimes [older students] would feign absolute ignorance and be like ‘I'm on page 77, but I actually cannot go to page 78, the arrow is not there!’ So I would move page 78 backwards and I'd be like, ‘Okay, well just go back a page.’ It eliminates students trying to pull one over on you.”
Having fun learning may not be the main goal, but it certainly has an effect on outcomes for students who may otherwise not engage with or even turn up to classes. When using Book Creator, Meghan saw an increase in attendance to her zoom classes, and she feels it is because of the freedom it gave her students to engage with the content in a meaningful way. “For kids who are struggling with reading, or struggling with the content, that was a really big deal for them to have that kind of creative control and to build their confidence in the subject material.”
As well as increased attendance, the ELA+ team found that their learners were choosing to make-up for lost class time in their own time. Chelsey tells us, “In our last unit, they shared their writing, and they were so excited to do it. I had a student who was absent that whole week because she just did not want to come and then she was like, ‘you guys published your writing in Book Creator? Can I still do it?’ and she did it on her own outside of class.” Book Creator didn’t just help to transform the experience of learning within the classroom setting, but was integral in creating positive learning habits outside of the class too.
What makes an edtech tool effective for teachers?
Speaking about the experience of using Book Creator, Tabitha says, “I get so much joy from creating the books.” With hundreds of EdTech tools on the market, it’s easy to get lost in the world of software. Learning new tools, and re-learning them when there are updates, can be hard and time consuming. As an education-only tech tool designed to be used by every learner, it’s easy and intuitive for teachers to make their own presentations in Book Creator also.
Being such an easy tool for teachers to pick up, it was also very easy for them to make high quality products for their students. Using Book Creator over the school year, Meghan recounts that the team “grew as designers” through their projects. The team look back on their earlier books, which seem ‘plain’ in comparison to the books they’re able to make today.
ELA+ Instructor Kara Armoudian found it helpful that she could work in real-time within the books, alongside her students. “There was always a time when some little love just couldn't figure out what I was talking about. So I could open up their book and click on the box and say, do you see the box in red? Move it here, or do it this way or click on that. And they could follow along.” Real-time collaboration allows teachers like Kara to make learning impactful in the very moment, in a way which can sometimes be lost in virtual experiences.
This is something which is helpful across grades, as Tabitha recounts. Speaking about her middle grade classes, she laughs as she recalls some of the challenges she would encounter. “Sometimes [older students] would feign absolute ignorance and be like ‘I'm on page 77, but I actually cannot go to page 78, the arrow is not there!’ So I would move page 78 backwards and I'd be like, ‘Okay, well just go back a page.’ It eliminates students trying to pull one over on you.”
I feel like it wouldn't have been as successful on a different platform.
It’s experiences like these which made all the difference to the ELA+ program when it came to engaging students. Thinking back over the year, Amber reflects: “knowing how much students can resist writing, I don't feel like we had it to the same degree as we would have if it was just a blank Google Doc set up.”
The sentiment is echoed across the team, as Meghan says “I feel like it wouldn't have been as successful on a different platform.” By combining highly specialized instruction with meaningful creation, Epic Charter Schools’ ELA+ department set their students up for success. Literacy intervention was fun and engaging for their students, and in turn students felt confident building their skills through the program. The effects of Book Creator were even felt in the home, with parents able to clearly guide their learners and get involved in their education.
Looking into the new school year, the ELA+ department looks forward to using Book Creator to create transformative learning experiences for even more of their students.
April Braithwaite joined Book Creator in January 2023, bringing with her a passion for digital literacy and inclusive learning experiences. If you’ve met her, you’d probably heard her catchphrase: “I wish I had Book Creator when I was in school!”
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