Teacher Resources to bring Zinc skills and strategies into your classroom
Lessons, videos, and printables to help you get everyone on the same page about what to DO when reading
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.
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 share these modules with your team? Download our PDF overview guide.
Teach Zinc’s Four Ignition 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, and asides. Students practice spotting these cues so they don’t lose the thread when a text shifts direction.
More Mini-Lessons for the Classroom
We’ve built more mini-lessons you can integrate into your full-class or small-group instruction. Use these customizable slides to teach:
How to notice and fix “small mistakes” in fluency and decoding
Zinc’s 4-step test-taking method
High-value writing and editing skills for the TX STAAR test
Research shows when students hit just five unknown words on a page, comprehension collapses. Prime students for comprehension and keep them reading with these downloadable lists.
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 “provide” or “item”—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.
These webinars cover a variety of topics such as implementation suggestions, activity overviews, and more. Come back for more videos as the school year goes on and share your requests for webinars with partnerships@zinclearninglabs.com.
Webinars
Getting Started with Zinc for Administrators
This year, give your teachers a powerful yet simple tool for building stronger readers by watching this 30-minute video of our Zinc Office Hours.
Zinc Office Hours - Getting Started with Zinc
Learn the basics from assigning your first activities to reviewing reports in Zinc by watching this 35-minute video of our Zinc Office Hours.
Zinc Office Hours - STAAR Mastery for Fall Retesters
Get an overview of the STAAR Mastery program components and implementation suggestions by watching this 30-minute video of our Zinc Office Hours.
Zinc Office Hours - Using Zinc to Support Writing
Learn more about Zinc’s resources to support writing, including our NEW AI Writing Coach, by watching this 22-minute video of our Zinc Office Hours.
Zinc Office Hours - Supporting Diverse Learners with Zinc
Looking for an overview of Zinc resources and how they support the diverse learners in your classroom? Watch this 40-minute video of our Zinc Office Hour.