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Build A Community of Readers with Zinc

Deepen students’ reading comprehension with mini-lessons, videos, and printables.
Bring the skills students learn in Zinc to any text you teach.

Connect Zinc Comprehension Skills to Your Curriculum

These 10-minute, teacher-led mini-lessons help you introduce and reinforce the skills and strategies students practice in Zinc. Customize them to fit any text or unit.

  • 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

Explore the Mini-Lesson Library
A young female teacher smiling and pointing at a whiteboard in a classroom with students.

Re-ignite Independent Reading with a Flight Reading Mission

Group of teen students engaged in conversation and reading books in a bright library setting.

Send your students on a multi-week journey to discover their next great read. Use the full six-week plan or pick and choose activities to supplement your independent reading unit.

  • Discussion starters and reflection prompts

  • Lesson plans and full-class activities

  • Printable reading logs and points-based “missions”

Launch A Reading Mission

Research shows when students hit just five unknown words on a page, comprehension collapses.
Use these printable word cards alongside Zinc’s multi-modal vocabulary games.

Build Background Knowledge with High-Value Vocab

Green printable card with an icon of an open book with a magnifying glass and the text 'Printable Word List Need-to-Know Tier 1 Words, 50 words'.

Tier 1 Words

For EB and MLL students, a lack of confidence with everyday words can easily stall in comprehension. Build essential knowledge with must-know words like “provide” and “item”—so texts feel more accessible from the start.

Print the Tier 1 Set
Blue cover page titled "Printable Word List" with subtitle "High-Value Tier 2 Words." An icon of a mountain with a flag on top. A small icon of a dictionary with the text "50 words" in the bottom left corner.

Tier 2 Words

Words like “ambivalent,” “evaluate,” and “magnitude” show up everywhere—from literature to science to current events. This list gives students the versatile academic vocabulary they need to unlock meaning.

Print the Tier 2 Set

Bring Zinc’s Reading Habits to Your Classroom

An infographic titled 'Use Your Senses' emphasizes engaging sight, hearing, smell, taste, and touch to enhance learning and experience. It features icons and images for each sense, a quote about ships and wishes, and tips for starting reading with senses.
Infographic titled "Make It Real" comparing sensory images and abstract words, explaining how to connect these to real-world examples through steps of spotting, connecting, and checking if an example fits.
Educational poster about pronouns, explaining their usage, types, and tracking pronunciation for language learning.
Educational poster about different types of navigators, with illustrations of a boat, lighthouse, and snake, explaining patterns, punctuation, transition words, and asides.

Keep the strategies students practice in Zinc front and center with printable posters for all four Zinc Ignition reading habits.

Print All Four Posters

Deepen Your Literacy Instruction with Zinc

A woman smiling and sitting at a desk with a laptop, globe, and papers, in an office setting.

From getting started with the Zinc app to Science of Reading-aligned resources specifically for 6-12 teachers, Zinc offers Professional Learning options for everyone:

  • Free self-paced, online courses

  • Live monthly Office Hour meet-ups

  • In-person or virtual workshops for your team

Learn with Zinc