Today I am posting about a product that technically would never had made it on this blog if I didn’t break some rules sometimes. First of all, it’s a tool for making worksheets. Yuck. I know worksheets are a necessary evil sometimes, but they are way, way overused to give students busy work. Secondly, to get the most out of this tool, you will need to pay for a subscription. I try to recommend free tools because I know teachers pay for too much already out of their pockets.
However…
This subscription ($35.99 for a year) is a great deal for all of the features you will get – the features that also make this the most powerful digital “worksheet creator” I’ve seen. If you don’t believe me, try the 14 day trial.
In many ways, Wizer is comparable to a Google Form on steroids. In both of these, the teacher can create questions, push it out to students, and receive grades and reports on their responses. But here are the ways that it’s different:
- It currently interfaces with Google Classroom, Edmodo, and Microsoft, so you have two more option than you do with a Google Form.
- You can design the worksheet to look much more visually appealing.
- You can use any of the teacher-created Wizer worksheets to tweak to use as your own. Or, if you like inventing the wheel, make your own from scratch.
- There are over 10 different question types you can use, including: Drawing, Fill in the Blanks, Label an Image, Sorting, Open Questions.
- You can record (audio or video) instructions as well as text.
- Students can respond using audio or text.
- Students can design their own worksheets.
Here is an example of a worksheet for Tuck Everlasting that I found in the Wizer Community. You can see what the Teacher Dashboard looks like below.
Now I think you’ll admit that those are pretty good options. But the one that’s the game-changer, the one that made me decide to blog about Wizer, the one that is an incredible deal for $35.99/year is the option to differentiate within your worksheet.
With “The Awesome Plan,” teachers can create Learner Profiles for each of their students based on ability, interest, preferred learning mode, whatever you want. You can create rules based on those categories. Then, when you create a worksheet, you can use alternate questions for different Differentiated Instruction groups. For example, do you want to have Fill-In-the Blank questions? Some students may need a word bank, and others may not. If you have all of your Learner Profiles done, you can just select with a couple of clicks who gets the word bank and who doesn’t. Do you have some students who can answer open-ended questions, and others who need multiple choice? Assign alternate questions! You can see a quick video example embedded below.
Initially, you will have to do some work to get your Learner Profiles in order. But imagine the simplicity of creating assessments once you’ve got your information loaded. If you’ve got students who have their own devices, this tool could make your life much easier – without sacrificing the engagement of your learners.
If you are someone who has used Wizer, please share your feedback!
