Classroom Spotlight: Purposeful Practice in Santa Ana USD

From middle school classrooms to video game competitions, the core of Kevin Le’s career is as a coach. 

After seven years as a Santa Ana USD math teacher and esports advisor, the CUE Emerging Teacher of the Year winner started the 2023-2024 school year as a Dashboard Instructional Coach. 

Le’s new role gives him the opportunity to work with teachers and students at Willard Intermediate School to effectively implement technology and data-driven instructional practices that support the community in their learning journeys.

Challenges to Solve

Purposeful practice to help promote progress

To help address learning loss he witnessed in his classroom, Le searched for the best solution to review course material, strengthen content foundation, and motivate students to consistently raise scores.

“Procedural practice is extremely needed,” Le said, “especially for students in the age of the pandemic who are dealing with knowledge gaps and more. There are so many standards to cover, intervention skills, classroom management…And as teachers, how do we begin to address all of that when we always feel pressed for time, energy, and resources?”

Quizizz-Powered Solution

A meaningful, equitable, data-driven assessment platform

As a classroom teacher, Le loved Quizizz because it gave him the ability to do quick, data-driven reviews with strong engagement, equity, and results. As an instructional coach, Le looks forward to helping other teachers implement technology like Quizizz in their own classrooms for more meaningful learning experiences. 

Additionally, with his favorite pastime and talent being the exciting world of esports, it’s no surprise the competitive, growth-oriented nature of Quizizz is so appealing.

^{Le’s 5 favorite features on Quizizz for results-driven review:}

1. _{Canvas LMS integration: quick rostering and grade sync}
2. _{Synchronous & asynchronous options: equitable opportunities for completion}
3. _{UDL-friendly tools: student choice, representation, and accessibility}
4. _{Mastery Peak & more: engagement and classroom management}
5. _{Quick & detailed data: student-centered debriefs, discourse, and learning from mistakes}

Quick and seamless routines

Starting the period with Quizizz and ‘The Fast and The Curious’ EduProtocol, Le said, helps immediately address common misconceptions, offer interventions, and plan future instruction. To facilitate, students repeat a practice activity or Quiz over a five-day period, or until they achieve the desired mastery metric. Using Quizizz Reports is key to making this process individualized for every learner.

“Using Quizizz with EduProtocols is a really big component of what I advocated to a lot of the first-year teachers I mentored last year,” he said. “My suggestion was, let that be your opening activity because it creates a super easy procedure to set up at the beginning of class.”

Academic conversations and coaching

With a daily Quizizz routine established, students become more comfortable owning mistakes, discussing wrong answers with classmates, and receiving help from the teacher. 

“I saw a lot of the learning activities in my class as opportunities to coach the students,” Le said. “Like if math is a sport, then I'm your coach and I'm trying to prepare you for the big games. And so when I give you feedback in the moment, it's not something to make you feel bad, it's something you can improve on. This was extremely helpful for instruction.”

Students find comradery in rising to the challenge of the higher academic rigor, Le added. They like knowing that mistakes are part of the learning process, and helping each other figure out how to do better each day.

Equity and accessibility

Another benefit Le found from using Quizizz in his math classes is how well represented all students can feel on the platform. Regardless of why a student may be struggling that day, Quizizz offers retakes, asynchronous options, SEL-related activities, and various chances to offer individual choice.

“Our students have so many things going on at home,” Le said. “There are so many factors they can't control, but when they come to our classrooms, we need to offer a safe, clear environment that gives students agency. We want to actually create opportunities for students to assess themselves and see where they can improve, which really builds that growth mindset for the long term.”

Altogether, these factors contribute to even stronger student motivation, confidence, and investment in learning.

Growth-Based Results

Student motivation to incrementally raise their scores from as low as 20% to as high as 90% and above by the end of the week.

With his classes fully invested in the process of gradual growth and achievement, Le said his students—regardless of starting with little to no evidence of mastery—all ended up with passing percentages by the end of the week. 

Mastery looks different for everyone, he added, but all three periods of his math classes habitually scored above 70 percent, with the majority in the 80s and 90s. The results resonate well with Le’s favorite saying: ‘practice makes progress’.

“At the end of the day,” Le said, “my hope is that other educators realize, we get to be here for a certain number of hours per year with our students. And if we can use that time to create meaningful learning experiences and make our classroom a place they want to be, and if Quizizz is just one way we could express that, then let's do it.”

Looking to level up your teaching like Kevin Le? Check out the Quizizz-powered professional development resources on Quizizz University, and/or learn more about Quizizz for Schools and Districts.