Zinc equips middle and high school students with critical reading and thinking skills, and uses fresh content and gaming elements to ensure that students enjoy the literacy-growth process. The program has three components: reading, vocabulary and data. The reading portion is comprised of a selection of nonfiction articles curated from the best writing around the web, from sites like The New York Times, Wired, and The Atlantic. Zinc also has a selection of fiction excerpts. All of their reading can be filtered by level (from 4th grade up to college), length, topic, State Standards, and reading skills. Each piece of text is accompanied by a short quiz and an (offline) writing prompt. It also has vocabulary to go with each piece of text, and to go with test prep (ex. SAT/ACT), to go with commonly taught text, by grade level and customized by teachers. The vocabulary games have four modes (image, sentence, definition and synonym) and use spaced repetition, meaning students see each word six times over two months. Zinc gives users access to detailed data on progress and performance through their reports. Their leaderboards promote healthy competition and keep students logging back in even when assignments are complete. Learn more.
