Question Spinner
Spin a wheel of question stems like Why, How, What If, and Compare to launch deeper class discussion. Edit the stems to fit any lesson, then let the wheel choose one at random.
Built by the AbraCalc team
How to play
- Review the eight default question stems, or edit the stems box to match your lesson.
- Tap Update stems to rebuild the wheel with your changes.
- Tap Spin for a Prompt and watch the wheel land on one stem.
- Read the stem aloud with your topic and let a student complete the thought.
Question Spinner turns a plain wheel into a discussion-starting machine by filling it with question stems instead of names — prompts like "Why do you think...?", "What if...?", and "Compare... to..." that push students past yes-or-no answers. Eight higher-order stems are loaded by default, ready to use the moment the page opens, but the stems box underneath is fully editable so a teacher can swap in stems matched to a specific unit, reading, or Bloom's taxonomy level. Tap Spin for a Prompt and the wheel spins down to land on one stem, displayed in large text above the wheel so the whole class can read it. Pair the stem with whatever topic is on the board and ask a student to complete the sentence out loud. The wheel works with as few as one stem or as many as a class can type in, and it runs completely offline with no accounts or setup.
Frequently asked questions
- Can I write my own question stems instead of using the defaults?
- Yes — edit the stems textarea with one stem per line and tap Update stems to rebuild the wheel; you can always tap Reset to defaults to bring back the original eight higher-order stems.
- Is the spin actually random, or does it favor certain stems?
- Every spin uses a cryptographically strong random number to choose the winning wheel slice, so each stem has an equal chance no matter its position on the wheel or how recently it was picked.
- How many question stems can the wheel hold?
- The wheel works with as few as a single stem, which will win every spin, up to as many stems as you can type in — the wheel automatically resizes its slices to fit whatever list you provide.