Lift Off is the ongoing 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 practical reading application of Lift Off.
Lift Off is an auto-differentiated program that nurtures a love of reading and grows independent reading habits. Students choose what they read from options tailored to their reading levels. Lift Off is an ideal way to build on the skills introduced in Zinc Ignition.
All activities are scored automatically, and you can track student and class progress in your Zinc Journeys Report. Every activity covers important reading skills; just one classroom Lift Off assignment will populate your Reading Skills Report with valuable student data.
Zinc Journeys includes 6 Lift Off phases, each with 3 modules. This is equivalent to 18 weeks of tailored content per semester. At the beginning of each semester, the cycle begins again, providing a fresh Ignition and new Lift Off phases.
You can easily preview Lift Off for yourself or look over what a student will experience below. As students work through Zinc Journeys and Lift Off, you can track their progress through each class's Zinc Journeys Report.
Each time a student completes enough Lift Off activities, the Book Recommender gives them two book recommendations based on the choices they make along the way! We are partnering with Penguin Random House, and all recommended books come from their current Classroom Library Collections.
Every student has automatic access to Lift Off through Zinc Journeys on their Zinc homepage. You just need to encourage your students to sign in to Zinc and work on Zinc Journeys!
Students must complete Lift Off and a follow-up Level Placement before beginning Lift Off. As soon as a student is ready, Zinc Journeys will present Lift Off to them automatically.
Zinc Journeys repeats at the beginning of each semester, and students will again have access to fresh Lift Off articles, quizzes, vocabulary games, and Close Reading Experiences.
Preview Lift Off as a Student
To work through Lift Off as a student, please click the green "Try this as a student" link under Lift Off in the Assign Activities menu.
You'll be greeted with the same video and initial question as a student. You will then begin a Level Placement, which will determine the Zinc Level for your preview.
You can complete as much or as little of this assessment as you like. At any time, click the purple "Skip to the End" button. The options to choose a specific Zinc Level will appear. Select the Level you prefer and click "Complete."
Your Lift Off preview will now reflect that Level. Each time you begin a Lift Off preview, you may choose a different level (For more information about Zinc Levels and Level Placements, please click here.)
After determining a Zinc Level, you can begin your Lift Off student activities. To learn more of the student experience inside Lift Off, please see below.
Student Experience in Lift Off
Lift Off begins with a video guide to the program. The Lift Off map shows the articles and Close Reading Experiences that a student needs to complete.
In Lift Off, students get to choose the topics for their activities. They can click on any broad topic they like, and they can further narrow it down by clicking on specific subtopics. To provide a greater amount of appropriate content, students may choose from articles at current Zinc Level, or from articles slightly higher or slightly lower than their current level.
Once a student has completed enough activities, they are rewarded with the Book Recommender. Using the topics students choose and their answers to a short survey, Book Recommender shows them recent book titles from Penguin Random House. Students can save these titles to find or request at their school or local library. The more times a student completes Lift Off, the more book recommendations they receive.
Please note: Right now Lift Off can only show students book titles and summaries. Stay tuned for more features coming soon!
If students want to review their recommended book titles, they should go to the assignments on their Zinc Dashboard or homepage and click "View All Assignments." On the next page, they should click the "Completed/Past" tab. Then they can click on the completed Lift Off, where the book titles will appear.
The Book Recommender
At the end of Lift Off's four weeks, and after a student has completed most of their Lift Off assignments, they gain access to the Book Recommender.
Book Recommender uses a student's Zinc Level, their choice of article topics, and their answers to a brief survey to provide individualized book recommendations. Right now we can only show book titles and summaries, but students can save these titles to look for or request books in their school or local library.
You can view all student book recommendations using the Student Choice Stats tab of your Lift Off report. Teachers can use these recommendations in various ways. For example, teachers have purchased recommended books for their classroom or requested their school librarian acquire the books for their campus. Others have added popular titles to extra credit or summer readings lists, or used excerpts from titles for in-class examples or instructional slides.
If you'd like to see all the books the Book Recommender draws from, you can do that too! We're partnering with Penguin Random House, and every title in the Book Recommender can be found in their Classroom Library Collections. Here's a link: https://penguinrandomhousesecondaryeducation.com/catalog/category/classroom-libraries/
Implementation for Lift Off
We recommend assigning Ignition to students as a way to start off the school year or new semester. Once Ignition is complete, you can use a similar implementation plan for Lift Off. However, you may always begin with Lift Off if it better suits your classroom needs.
We recommend that students spend 10 to 20 minutes per day in class or at home on Lift Off, depending on the workload the teacher has assigned. Many teachers use Lift Off as a daily “do now" activity, allowing them to circulate and help students one-on-one or in small groups.
Lift Off works well for both classwork and homework. We encourage teachers to check in every day students are expected to work on Lift Off assignments. This can be done in a few short minutes using Lift Off reports.
You can assign Lift Off an unlimited number of times per school year. Students will encounter new activities each time. You can chain together Lift Offs every four weeks, providing fresh and challenging content to your students throughout the semester.
Sometimes students need more time to finish. There may also be school breaks or unexpected interruptions. Don't worry! Students continue to have access to Lift Off assignments after the four-week period has ended.
How is Lift Off different from Reading Sprints?
Reading Sprints focused on leveled practice, but students lacked control of the texts they read. Taking the best aspects of Reading Springs, Lift Off provides more options for teachers and greater freedom of choice for students, as well as keeping students on track with motivational elements from Ignition, including badges and points.
We're excited to share this engaging Zinc tool with you. Try assigning Lift Off today!