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 three 20 minute modules—you’ll learn Zinc’s simple protocol and get classroom-ready strategies your students can use right away.
On Demand Professional Learning Modules
Build confident, engaged, and motivated readers.
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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
Want to share these modules with your team? Download our PDF overview guide.
Zinc-Aligned Mini-Lessons for the Classroom
We’ve built teacher-led 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 videoof 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.
Zinc Office Hours - Using Zinc to Support Test Prep
Watch this 35-minute video to learn about Zinc programs, dashboards, and individual activities to ready your students for an upcoming assessment.