Want to spark more reading joy in your classroom?
Access free lessons, videos, and printables—no Zinc account needed.
The Zinc Flight Reading Mission
Invite your students on a mission to find their next great read.
Send your students on a multi-week journey to discover their next great read. This downloadable kit includes slideshows, activities, weekly trackers, and more—all designed to spark conversations and build a reading culture in your classroom and beyond.
Ignite confident reading. In just about an hour—split into four 10–20 minute modules—you’ll learn Zinc’s simple protocol and get classroom-ready strategies your students can use right away. Complete all four to unlock free Zinc licenses.
On Demand e-Learning Modules
Build confident, engaged, and motivated readers.
This one-hour, four-part training series, shares Zinc’s simple reading protocol that will upgrade ALL your students’ reading levels and can instantly help your students engage with anything they read—starting with the very next text you teach in class.
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After completing this 10- to 12-minute module, you will:
Understand the obstacles that decoding and vocabulary pose for secondary readers
Identify Tier 2 words and understand how to help students learn them through multi-modal and spaced repetition strategies
Recognize common decoding gaps among adolescent readers and learn how to address them with simple, everyday classroom practices
Create a classroom environment where all students know to look for and correct reading mistakes
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After completing this 20-minute module, you will:
Understand the obstacles that hold students back from comprehending when reading
Learn a simple reading protocol that teaches students what to DO when they read
Acquire tactics to apply these strategies to any text, making class discussions more inclusive and alive
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After this 20-minute module, you will be able to:
Plan effective integration of Zinc activities
Understand the components and intended outcomes of Zinc Journeys
Assign course-aligned activities in Zinc
Identify key information in Zinc reports to inform classroom instruction
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After completing this 10-minute module, you will be able to:
Explain the difference between intrinsic and extrinsic motivation
Understand the role of love-driven effort in learning
Understand what motivates teens and how reading can appeal to their deepest needs
Build a classroom culture of reading
Want to connect with someone at Zinc before starting these modules? Email: partnerships@zinclearninglabs.com.
*Zinc awards free student accounts for one to two teachers per school.
Teach Zinc’s Four Advanced Reading Skills
Too often, students latch onto a word or two, then drift further and further from the author’s meaning. Zinc’s four core skills give them concrete moves to stay with the text—and actually enjoy it.
Use Your Senses
Students tune in to sensory words and phrases—images they can see, hear, taste, touch, or smell—as their first way into any text.
Make It Real
Abstract words and phrases like “community” or “freedom of expression” don’t easily create images in our minds. Students learn to make these concepts real by connecting to examples they already understand.
Activate Pronouns
“She,” “it,” “this”—these little words carry big meaning. Students learn to track each pronoun back to its antecedent to stay connected with the writer’s idea.
Navigate Punctuation and Transitions
Writers use signposts including transition words, punctuation, asides. Students practice spotting these cues so they don’t lose the thread when a text shifts direction.
Research shows when students hit just five unknown words on a page, comprehension collapses. These free vocab lists help you prime students for comprehension and keep them reading.
High-Value Vocab
Tier 1 Vocabulary List
For EB and MLL students, even everyday words can cause a stall in comprehension. This list builds confidence with common vocabulary—like “chair” or “highway”—so texts feel more accessible from the start.
Tier 2 Vocabulary List
Words like “ambivalent,” “evaluate,” and “magnitude” show up everywhere—in literature, science, and history. This list gives students the versatile academic vocabulary they need to unlock meaning across subjects.