Every day, our team explores diverse online sources for the best content, picking real-world texts to use in your classroom. We find the freshest, most thought-provoking pieces to engage students across reading levels and interests. Each article includes a challenging quiz that the system will score automatically. Zinc even uses these quizzes to track specific reading skills for all of your students!
We’ve made it easy for teachers and students to find articles covering a wide range of topics and classroom needs. Teachers may assign articles with optional Vocabulary and writing prompts, all scored by the system! To work on comparing texts, we also have many comparison quizzes. Missions — Zinc's choice-based independent reading program inside Zinc Journeys — automatically allows students to choose their own article at an appropriate skill level.
What are Zinc Articles and Quizzes?
Zinc articles are real-world texts, sorted for you by Zinc Level. Articles assignments always include challenging quizzes, which help develop specific reading skills. At your discretion, articles assignments may also include Vocabulary and writing prompt activities.
For teachers, the article page is found by clicking “A La Carte Activities” in the left menu and then clicking on “Articles + Texts.”
Students will see any assigned articles on their Zinc Dashboard or homepage. Articles will also be part of their Missions in Zinc Journeys. These articles will be offered automatically based on their Zinc Level.
When a student selects an article in Zinc Journeys or clicks on an article assigned to them, they'll be taken to the article page in Zinc. This page provides clear, step-by-step instructions that detail everything the student needs to do to complete the assignment.
All article assignments include a quiz. A student assigned an article with only the quiz will see the quiz page below. Along with the article and quiz, they have the option to learn words from the article in Vocabulary.
If the article is assigned with Vocabulary, students must complete the Vocabulary first by clicking "Learn Words” before the quiz will unlock.
Zinc reminds and encourages the student several times to read the article, and it asks them what they thought of the article and its difficulty. Zinc hosts many articles, while others will be found on carefully vetted sites.
Each quiz includes Warm-up, Target, and Challenge questions. Warm-up and Target questions are on-level for students, so they count more towards the final score than a Challenge question. Students are required to make a prediction before viewing any answer choices. Encourage your students to check the article if they aren't sure about the answer!
Here’s the article score breakdown:
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40% for confirming they read the passage
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60% of score for answering questions:
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Easy questions: 25%
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Medium questions: 25%
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Hard questions (Challenge question): 10%
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When you assign articles to your students, you have the option to include Vocabulary and writing prompts. These activities bring added depth to article assignments, and they reinforce everything the student learns during the process.
Finding Zinc Articles
Zinc has gone to great lengths to help teachers and students find the articles they want. At the top of the articles page, a variety of dropdown menus make it easy to sort through the article library. You can also look for specific keywords using the search bar.
The Topics menu includes broad matters of interest like Art, Change Your Life, and Making History. Clicking on expandable topics will show sub-topics. For expandable topics, you can either select an individual sub-topic to explore or click "Select All" to browse all sub-topics under that topic.
To further narrow down your search, use the dropdown menus to sort by details like Zinc Levels, reading skills, and reading time. Clicking the Article Source menu will let you sort out legacy articles from paywalled sources. Clicking the Standards dropdown shows the academic standards set for your account.
By clicking on the Vocabulary tab, you can view the 10 words included in the optional Vocabulary assignment. These short activities help prepare students for reading and understanding the article.
The final Writing Prompt tab shows the optional writing prompt. Like the rest of the activities, the writing prompt is automatically graded by the system, so it's a great way to provide additional practice for students without adding to your teacher workload.
Once you’ve found articles that are a good fit for you and your students, consider clicking the yellow bookmark outline to save them for later in your Zinc bookmarks. This will help you keep track of your favorite articles from one semester or school year to the next.
Assigning Zinc Articles
Students automatically receive Zinc articles through Missions in Zinc Journeys. These articles include the associated Vocabulary. Students can choose articles about topics they like from a selection tailored to their reading level. You can view student activity in Missions by clicking the Zinc Journeys report for each class on your homepage.
Teachers may also assign specific articles to single students, groups of students, or entire classes at a time with ease. From the main Articles + Texts page, click on any article to bring up further details as described above. Click the green "Assign" button to reach the New Assignment page.
On the New Assignment page, you can choose the class with students who should receive the assignment. Select the correct class from the dropdown menu.
If you would like to assign pre-reading vocabulary, click the toggle switch. Please keep in mind, students should complete this vocabulary game before reading the article. You also have the option to include the writing prompt. Remember, writing prompts are automatically scored by Zinc, so you don't need to worry about adding to your own workload.
If you vocabulary toggle is included, the vocabulary options will appear. These options include the vocabulary timer, Enable Classic Mode (restart if a mistake is made), and Spanish vocabulary support (if included for this set). When vocabulary is included with the assignment, the system will not unlock the article quiz until this vocabulary game is completed.
Once you've selected all of your options, click the green "Choose Students" button.
Please note that if a student has already received the assignment, then you will not be able to click the checkbox to the left of their name, and they will not be selected if you click the "Whole Class" button. Please ask them to complete the assignment on their dashboard. You will see their results with the rest of the class on the article's Assignment Progress Report.
Article activities expire two months after being assigned. Once an assignment has expired, the student will no longer be able to complete it using the options you've selected. Once an article has expired, you can reassign it to a student.
Articles can be canceled by clicking the Cancel Activities button on the class's article report page. Canceled activities can also be reassigned.
Writing Prompts
If an article assignment includes a writing prompt, students must complete the prompt after completing the quiz. Articles will have a prompt in one of three categories: Creative, Argument/Opinion, or Explanatory/Informational.
From the student view, each writing prompt assignment includes the question they should answer and helpful guidelines for crafting a strong response. Students are encouraged to go back to the article for quotes and clarifications. When the student is done, they click "Submit Your Response." Students may save their work at any time by clicking "Save Draft." Drafts are also autosaved.
Clicking on the assignment will show you all the students who were included. Once a student has completed their writing prompt, the Writing Prompt entry on that student’s row will show “Review.”
Click the green "Review" button by a student's assignment to open the writing prompt response review. This page includes the original prompt, the student's final response and feedback, and their suggested score. You can click to view their draft response and feedback.
If you'd like to revise their score, use the buttons under "Teacher Scoring." You can view the Scoring Rubric to see the suggested requirements. The total score is always 1 to 5 points.
Comparison Quizzes
Zinc offers a selection of comparison quizzes for teachers and students. These comparison quizzes offer a special quiz that refers to two articles. These comparison quiz assignments help students strengthen their ability to compare texts.
These comparison quizzes work like our other article quizzes. They require students to make predictions before revealing the multiple choice answers. Please note: comparison quizzes require students to read two texts. When you assign comparison quizzes, you do not have options for vocabulary or writing prompts.
Paywalled Articles and Zinc
After they were added to Zinc, some articles have been placed behind a paywall. Due to requests, we have continued to make these articles and quizzes available for teachers who use them in class. Please note, all new articles on Zinc will be freely accessible to all users. Lift Off will not include known paywalled articled.
If an article on Zinc is behind any kind of paywall, it will include a note on the article's assignment page. Please let us know if you come upon an article on Zinc that is missing the paywall warning.
If you experience any issues with accessing Zinc articles, please contact Zinc Support by clicking the green chat icon in the bottom-right corner of your Zinc screen.
What to do if a Zinc Article is Blocked or Unavailable
Because we use real-world texts, articles sometimes do not appear when you or a student clicks the “Read the Article” button. Fortunately, we're here to resolve any issues.
If you or your students require a text that is blocked or unavailable, please contact Zinc support using the blue balloon in the bottom right-hand corner of your Zinc homepage. Our team will supply you or your students with a PDF to complete the quiz.
If you and your students find several blocked articles, please forward our Zinc article whitelist to your IT department. Your IT department can use this whitelist to allow all of your students access to every Zinc article.