🗑 Using Wayground for fun review + more

💻 The extension teachers swear by

Ever sit down to plan and think: I do not have the energy for this right now? Same. That’s where Brisk comes in. 

It’s a free Chrome & Edge extension that folds AI right into the tools you already use - Docs, Slides, PPT, YouTube, websites, even PDFs. Highlight something, click Brisk, and boom: leveled texts, exit tickets, feedback on writing, lesson ideas, whatever you need. 

No wasted time. Just a little shortcut that saves you hours (and sanity).

🎯 QUICK TEACHING STRATEGY 🎯

🏁 Using Wayground for Fast and Curious EduProtocol

Last week, I told you about the Fast and Curious EduProtocol, a strategy I’m using to get my students meaningful reps with new vocabulary.

And today (below), I’ll tell you about the features in Wayground (formerly Quizizz) that I like the most.

But first … right here … I want to tell you about a “peanut butter and jelly” combo that has been working wonders in my Spanish class: Fast and Curious + Wayground.

Here’s how I do it:

• Create a Wayground assessment: I had Wayground AI take my unit study guide and turn it into practice questions.

• First try: I give students the assessment game … without any direct instruction. They try to figure out the content they don’t know on the fly.

• Quick feedback: I provide instruction, mnemonic hooks, reteaching, etc. on the things they struggled with the most.

• Second try: They immediately take the assessment game again to lock in the feedback I gave them.

• Repeat this process: I’ve done a Fast and Curious sequence with them several times over the past two weeks. Each time, Wayground identifies the most-missed questions. And each time, we review them to turn weaknesses into strengths.

Bonus: “Assign missed questions.” If you want to provide extra repetitions with the most-missed questions, there’s a button as soon as you finish the assessment game. Click it to create a Wayground assignment with just those concepts they struggle with.

💡 THE BIG IDEA 💡

🥳 4 ways that Wayground makes learning fun and meaningful

I’ve been a fan of Quizizz for a long time — since the early days.

• I loved how the game was student-paced … not a whole-class sprint where reviewing material turned into button mashing (like some review platforms).

• I loved the power-ups they introduced, putting a fun twist on the gameplay dynamics while keeping their focus on student reps and learning.

• I have always loved the stats that teachers can access — getting the immediate data we need to make instructional adjustments on the fly.

Some things don’t change. I still rely on it for these things — even this morning in my classroom.

But some things do change.

Quizizz is now called Wayground …

… and it’s way more than a quiz tool. It’s based on learning best practices and brain science. And with AI-driven features in just the right places, it’ll help you get work done quicker to focus on what matters most.

So … what can it do?

1. Start creating

Makes sense to change the name away from “Quizizz” when there’s much more than “quizzes.”

What do you want to build with Wayground?

• Assessment — These are interactive assignments/quizzes with multimedia options and 18 different questions (including multiple choice, drag and drop, fill in the blank, poll, categorize, and more).

• Interactive video — You’ve seen these assignments around the edtech world. Grab a video. Create an assignment that pauses the video to ask questions and offer notes at key moments. Yep, Wayground has it.

• Flashcards — Aaaaand you’ve seen apps like these, too: flashcards. Term on one side, definition on the other. Flashcards are still recognized as a best practice to create long-term memory. Plus, you can turn them into an assessment — and vice versa.

• Lessons — Again, have you heard of this … interactive slides? Students join your slides, you display them, then they answer questions on their devices? Yep, Wayground has that, too … and lots of its best assessment question types are available in these lessons.

• Passage — This is great for reading passages or for more complex question types. Bring your own text, generate it with AI, convert an online article/PDF, or choose something from the Wayground library. Add questions and assign.

Bottom line: You could use different apps to do all of these different things. Or you could keep it all in one spot with Wayground. (Which, honestly, isn’t a bad idea considering that it also adds all of the stuff below, too.)

2. Make it a game

I’ve always felt that Quizizz / Wayground has been on the forefront of making the game mechanics of their activities really engaging.

In short: They understand what students like.

Here’s an example …

If students are playing an assessment game and answering questions, they can earn these power-ups …

• Supersonic: Get 1.5x the score for 20 seconds when they play at a faster speed

• Gift: Send another player an extra score of 800

• Double Jeopardy: Double points if the player chooses correctly — but lose it all if they’re wrong

• Eraser: Eliminates one wrong option

• Time Freeze: Timer is frozen for one question

• Glitch: All players’ screens glitch (see image above) for 10 seconds

Here’s what I love about this: These power-ups (and the points students earn in the game) don’t change the assessment data on the teacher side.

I get what I want (accurate data to inform my instruction).

Students get what they want (a fun and engaging game experience).

Bonus: Students can edit their profile avatar (called a “Qbit”) with different clothing and accessories. If they have a student Wayground account, they can earn coins to unlock new accessories. (You might be surprised at how much some of them really love this feature.)

3. Use AI to get more done

Wayground seems to really get the idea behind AI and teaching. We want to streamline and eliminate the drudgery — but preserve the solid learning and human part of teaching and learning.

And this isn’t just “AI features for paid accounts.” There are great AI features available in the free version, too.

For example, Wayground will use AI to transform your existing resources — worksheets, question banks, documents, YouTube videos, websites, online articles — into assessments and engaging activities.

You can generate a new activity just by typing a topic, pasting some content, providing a link or document, or linking to a YouTube video. (And it’ll align it to content standards.)

4. Support students with accommodations and differentiation

We know that “one size fits all” doesn’t apply in the classroom!

Thankfully, in Wayground, there are lots of ways to customize and adapt to what students really need to help them succeed in learning.

Here’s maybe the most impressive accommodation you can make (in my opinion anyway) …

Before you start an assessment (aka “quiz” or “game”), you can go through student by student and enable these accommodations …

• a read aloud feature

• extra time for questions

• less answer choices for questions

• AI-generated hints for students

• a dyslexia-friendly font

• … and more.

Here’s an accommodation that students really love: redemption questions. If they get a question wrong, redemption questions let them try the question again — to fix their mistake AND to get an extra repetition to learn it.

Also, you can create variants of your assessments with the “Create differentiated version” button.

When you open a science or English/language arts lesson, just find the “Create differentiated version” button.

On the next screen, it’ll let you level up (or level down) the reading level of the assignment by up to two grade levels. Plus, you can reduce the number of questions quickly. Assign that variant to the students that need it most.

Free version vs. paid version

I knew you were going to ask about this! You can check out the full free vs. paid breakdown here, but here are some of the highlights of the free version of Wayground …

• Up to 20 resources in your library

• AI features like create, autograde and more

• Certain question types available

• All “create” types available

• Import from Google Drive

• “Create differentiated version” button

• Teacher-paced AND student-paced modes

• Live instruction data with Classroom Pulse

When you upgrade to the paid premium version, you’ll get …

• Unlimited resources in your library

• All 18 question types

• Analyze assessment data with Wayground AI

• Student audio and video responses

• Embed audio and video in resources

• Focus Mode to prevent browsing

• Longitudinal growth graphs of student progress

Ready to get started with Wayground?

• JOIN: If you aren’t using Wayground yet, you can create a free account at wayground.com.

• COURSES: Take a free online course to unlock the full power of Wayground here.

• ACTIVITIES: Check out this curated list of great pre-made Wayground activities you can use for free.

• SCHOOL/DISTRICT: And if your school wants info on getting a school/district license for everyone, they can request information here.

👋 How we can help

There are even more ways I can support you in the important work you do in education:

1. Read one of my six books about meaningful teaching with tech.

2. Take one of our online courses about practical and popular topics in education.

3. Bring me to your school, district or event to speak. I love working with educators!