Missions is the ongoing component of Zinc Journeys, a comprehensive reading program that provides a years' worth of growth-focused content. Every licensed student automatically has access to Zinc Journeys and the practical reading application of Missions.
Missions are auto-differentiated activities that nurtures a love of reading and grows independent reading habits. Students choose what they read from options tailored to their reading levels. Missions 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; students completing Missions will populate your Standards Report with valuable student data.
Zinc Journeys includes 24 themed Missions, each with 3 activities. This is equivalent to 24 weeks of tailored content per semester. 12 Missions will be available in the fall, with 12 more opening up on January 1.
As students work through Zinc Journeys and Missions, you can track their progress through each class's Zinc Journeys Report.
Each time a student completes enough Missions 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 Missions 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 you'd like, you can tell them to complete a specific Mission.
In Zinc Journeys, students must complete Ignition and the short Lift Off introduction activities before beginning Missions. As soon as a student is ready, Zinc Journeys will present Missions to them automatically.
Student Experience in Missions
After completing Ignition, Lift Off introduces students to the kinds of activities they'll complete in Missions. After Lift Off, they'll have access to the Missions map. Their map shows a variety of themed Missions grouped by sector. Each Mission includes articles and Close Reading Experiences that a student will complete.
In each themed Mission, students get to choose their activities. Missions each have their own broad category, and students 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. Wild Card Missions allow students to choose from whatever category they'd like, but they will always see texts at the appropriate level.
Once a student has completed enough activities in Missions, 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 Missions a student completes, the more book recommendations they receive.
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.
Students also have the option to complete Vocabulary inside Missions by clicking the VOCAB gauge on the right side of the screen. This helps them learn new words through Spaced Repetition. They can choose from essential SAT/ACT Power words or Words to Know from a variety of topics.
The Book Recommender
As students complete Missions, they gain access to the Book Recommender.
Book Recommender uses a student's Zinc Level and their answers to a brief survey to provide individualized book recommendations. 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 Class Bookshelf report on your Reports page. 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.
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 Missions
We recommend all students start off their school year with Ignition, automatically available through Zinc Journeys. Once Ignition is complete, students will automatically have access to Missions.
We recommend that students spend 10 to 20 minutes, two to three times a week, in class or at home on Missions. Many teachers use Missions as a daily “do now" activity, allowing them to circulate and help students one-on-one or in small groups.
Teachers often ask their students to complete a certain number of missions by a specific date. This is the strongest method we have seen in practice for students to stay engaged with Missions.
Missions works well for both classwork and homework. We encourage teachers to check in every day students are expected to work on Missions. This can be done in a few short minutes using the Missions tab in your Zinc Journeys report, accessible from your Zinc homepage.
Missions remain available throughout the school year, with more options for themes available on January 1.
How are Missions different from Lift Off and Reading Sprints?
Lift Off and Reading Sprints were Zinc's previous methods of providing auto-differentiated reading practice. Missions emphasizes student choice, auto-differentiated reading practice with the addition of themed activities. Like Lift Off, Missions is automatically available to all students throughout the school year.