New from Zinc: Reading Ignition
When you read, your brain first turns the letters into sounds, which is what most people think of as “reading”—the ability to pronounce the words. But then, assuming you know what most of them mean, there’s still one more crucial step: Your brain has to turn those words into images, meanings, and experiences. And then it has to keep doing that, stringing those together in a continuous chain of comprehension.
The first part is easy enough. Most of us make some mistakes when we read. Some struggle with decoding. Everyone needs continuous reminding to sound out and pronounce the words—and no one should be shamed for struggling—but this skill is easy enough to teach.
The part that really needs training and practice is what comes next. Connecting the pronounced words into meaningful brain experiences.
We English teachers enjoy teaching literature. We want to teach cultural awareness and critical thinking. We want our classes to be the one bastion during a day packed with transactional knowledge-gaining where our students’ minds are opened to themselves, to each other, and to the world.
But the touchstone for all that is the written word. We often find ourselves running on what should be solid ground only to discover that our students are traveling in deep, slippery mud. What they “read” may ground them in something, but it certainly isn’t the text you felt inspired to share.
Zinc’s newest feature, Ignition, can help. It offers a standards-aligned reading system for middle and high school students of all levels that grounds their comprehension in the text.
If you want reading growth AND meaningful discussions that develop critical thinking, you need Ignition, the reading protocol for middle and high school teachers who care to get everyone (literally) on the same page.