Skip to content
Contact us
  • There are no suggestions because the search field is empty.

Ignition

Raise your students' reading levels with this interactive journey!

Ignition is the first major component of Zinc Journeys, a comprehensive reading program that provides a semesters worth of growth-focused content. Every licensed student automatically has access to Zinc Journeys and the immediate growth found in Ignition.

Ignition is a hyper-differentiated, student-paced series of lessons on Zinc's four essential reading skills. Students make their way through passages and questions, working with increasingly difficult texts and getting extra instruction and practice if they reach a skill that challenges them. Once they've completed all their required levels, they'll take a final Level Placement to assess their current level and measure growth.

We created Ignition because we often hear from middle and high school teachers that they need more resources for teaching reading comprehension. Struggling students need to be able to read grade level texts, and all readers should be prepared to access college-level texts. We've identified four key skills that we've found have the biggest impact on reading comprehension:

  • Use Your Senses: tapping into sensory words and phrases

  • Make It Real: connecting real examples to abstract ideas

  • Pronouns: tracking pronouns to their antecedents to stay connected to the writer's point

  • Navigators: following the signals and layers authors create to make meaning

Our shared goal — among Zinc, teachers, and students — is reading comprehension growth. We believe that by meeting students where they are, and guiding them at their own pace, Ignition can make a difference.

How to assign Ignition?

Every student has automatic access to Ignition through Zinc Journeys on their Zinc homepage. You just need to encourage your students to sign in to Zinc and work on Zinc Journeys! 

If a student does not have a recent Level Placement, they will need to complete one before beginning Ignition. Zinc Journeys will present that activity to students automatically.

Zinc Journeys repeats at the beginning of each semester, and students will work through a fresh Ignition as they begin.

 

Time to Complete Ignition

Most students spend about 120 total minutes on the program. We recommend giving student 10 to 15 minutes of class time three or more times a week to work on Ignition.

Remember, If a student hasn't taken a recent Level Placement, they will need to complete one before beginning Ignition. A first-time Level Placement takes 30 to 45 minutes, while follow-up Level Placements take much less time.

Ignition is designed to allow students to work at their own paces. As a result, they will likely be in different places in their Ignition journey at any given time.

Recommended Student Instructions

  • Encourage your students to sign in to Zinc and begin Zinc Journeys.

  • In Zinc Journeys, they'll begin with a Level Placement if necessary and a very short survey about reading before.

  • In the Ignition part of Zinc Journeys, let your students know that they'll see three progressively more difficult levels for each skill.

Previewing Ignition

It's easy to experience Ignition from a student perspective! This special preview allows you to try out various parts of Ignition. There are special options that aren't available to students to help you try everything out.

To reach the Ignition preview , click "Assign Activities" in the middle of the top menu. Under "Ignition," click "Try this as a student."

 

You'll now start Ignition as if you were a student. For more information about what a student will experience in Ignition, see below. The biggest difference between the preview and an actual assignment are the purple "Skip to the End" buttons. You can use these at any time to continue to the next part of Ignition.

 

A Student's Experience in Ignition

 

  •  

    Skill Videos: Students watch a video explaining each of the four Ignition skills before they start the level. They can rewatch the videos if they need a reminder as they make their way through the required levels.

  • Required Levels: Depending on their score on the first Level Placement, students are assigned a starting Zinc Level. They then complete three passages at each skill: a passage at Your Level, a Goal passage one level above, and a Challenge passage two levels above. If a student is struggling at a particular level, Ignition will assign additional passages for more practice.

  • SWYKs: After students complete the first two skills, they complete a Zinc-ing SWYK (Show What You Know). Then, after they finish the third and fourth skills, they'll see a Tracking SWYK. SWYKs are made up of three short passages at three different levels, with five questions per passage. Each passage presents students with questions focusing on the skills they've learned so far, allowing students to Show What They Know.

  • Passages: In each activity, students will read the text on the left side of the page, then answer the questions about them. If they try to rush through the passage, they will be asked to slow down so they can really understand it.

  • Click on a Phrase: Some questions will ask students to click on words or phrases. Available phrases appear shaded in light gray. Students simply need to click on the desired word or phrase to submit their answer.

  • Drag and Drop: Use the cursor to drag a word or phrase in the passage onto another word or phrase. Phrases that can be dragged onto appear shaded in light gray. A green or red arrow will appear indicating whether students have made the correct connection. Students can also click on the desired second word or phrase rather than dragging and dropping onto it.

 
 

Implementation Tips From Teachers

Here are a few favorite implementation strategies from current Zinc teachers:

  • Use Zinc Journeys as a “do now,” allowing you to circulate and help students one-on-one or in small groups

  • Teach a reading skill using one of our Ignition Skills Mini-Lessons, then have students work on the corresponding skill in Ignition for the rest of class

  • Assign Zinc Journeys as homework or remote work with class-wide milestones due at the same time (e.g., everyone finishes Week 1 by Friday).

  • Celebrate your students' hard work on Ignition with these printable certificates!

Pre-Made Lesson Plans for Ignition Skills

We put together some slide presentations for each of the Ignition skills so that teachers can integrate the skills and terminology found in Ignition into their classrooms. The more on-board teachers are with this approach, the more effective the Ignition experience will be!

We're sure there are some edits you'd like to make, so these Google Slides documents are totally editable!

To do edit the Google Slides:

  1. Go to File > Download

  2. Choose the format you'd like to use (like PowerPoint)

  3. Make the changes you'd like on your version

  4. After your lesson, please send your version to support@zinclearninglabs.com so that we can synthesize the changes real classroom teachers have made and make improvements!

Printable Offline Ignition Activities

Here are some offline activities to reinforce the skills your students are learning in Zinc! These custom printables are perfect for assigning as classwork or homework.

We've also provided printable resource pages to help teach Zincing skills. We hope you'll find these pages valuable for instruction or as a classroom resource.

If you have someone who finished Zinc early or just needs a little more time with the material, these options have you covered!

Use Your Senses

Make It Real

Activate Pronouns

Navigate with Transitions and Punctuation

Celebrate Completing Ignition with Printable Awards

What If Students Finish Early?

Because Ignition is auto-differentiated, students work at different levels and at different paces. This leads to a variation in how long they take to finish all of Ignition.

If you have students who finish ahead of the rest of the class, they can begin their first Lift Off of the semester. 

Grading Ideas

Grading on Completion

While monitoring to ensure students are making regular progress, give students targets and dates by which to complete each skill. While students are working on Ignition independently, have 1:1 conferences to discuss their progress, frustrations, and feelings of accomplishment. Based on how long it's taking your students to get through skills, set a final due date. If some students finish early, either ask them to complete bonus levels or explore their interests via Zinc articles and quizzes and self report their quiz scores to you.

Grading for Common Core Mastery

We built Ignition with the following parallels in mind:

Senses: tapping into sensory words and phrases

  • CCSS.ELA-Literacy.CCRA.R.4 Interpret words and phrases as they are used in a text, including determining technical, connotative, and figurative meanings, and analyze how specific word choices shape meaning or tone.

  • CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.CCRA.R.1
    Read closely to determine what the text says explicitly and to make logical inferences from it; cite specific textual evidence when writing or speaking to support conclusions drawn from the text.

Make it Real: connecting real examples to abstract ideas

  • CCSS.ELA-Literacy.CCRA.R.4 Interpret words and phrases as they are used in a text, including determining technical, connotative, and figurative meanings, and analyze how specific word choices shape meaning or tone.

  • CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.CCRA.R.1
    Read closely to determine what the text says explicitly and to make logical inferences from it; cite specific textual evidence when writing or speaking to support conclusions drawn from the text.

Key Images: identifying and making meaning from key images

  • CCSS.ELA-Literacy.CCRA.R.4 Interpret words and phrases as they are used in a text, including determining technical, connotative, and figurative meanings, and analyze how specific word choices shape meaning or tone.

  • CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.CCRA.R.1
    Read closely to determine what the text says explicitly and to make logical inferences from it; cite specific textual evidence when writing or speaking to support conclusions drawn from the text.

Pronouns and Antecedents: tracking who is doing what in each sentence

  • CCSS.ELA-Literacy.CCRA.R.4 Interpret words and phrases as they are used in a text, including determining technical, connotative, and figurative meanings, and analyze how specific word choices shape meaning or tone.

  • CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.CCRA.R.1
    Read closely to determine what the text says explicitly and to make logical inferences from it; cite specific textual evidence when writing or speaking to support conclusions drawn from the text.

Navigators: following the signals and layers authors create to make meaning

  • CCSS.ELA-Literacy.CCRA.R.4 Interpret words and phrases as they are used in a text, including determining technical, connotative, and figurative meanings, and analyze how specific word choices shape meaning or tone.

  • CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.CCRA.R.1
    Read closely to determine what the text says explicitly and to make logical inferences from it; cite specific textual evidence when writing or speaking to support conclusions drawn from the text.

Remember, tell your students to do Zinc Journeys to experience Ignition!