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Peabody TeachFor teachers and grown-ups

Writing prompts wheel: spin for a topic

Fourteen story starters and personal topics that every student can write about, with no right answer and no wrong one.

Tap, flick or press Space

14 entries

Hide a note behind a slice with a bar: cat | a small furry pet. It shows after the spin. Start a line with an emoji to draw it big. Two columns pasted from a spreadsheet work too.

After a spin

Anyone can come up again. Repeats are fine.

Who's away today?

Tap anyone who is away. Their slice is hatched and skipped today only; at midnight they are back. Nobody is deleted.

Drag the wheel round and let go to flick it. Your flick sets the show. The draw is already fair: your browser's secure random generator picks the winner before the wheel moves.

The contents travel inside the link after the # sign, which browsers never send to any server. Anyone you give the link to can read them.

Space spin, or stop sooner · R new round · M sound on or off · F full screen · Esc leave it

Your edits are saved in this browser only, and never sent anywhere. Turns and away marks never go into a link.

How to use it

  1. The wheel already holds 14 entries for “Writing prompts wheel”. Edit, add or delete lines in the box and it redraws; your changes stay in this browser.
  2. Tap the wheel, press Space, or drag it and let go to flick it. The winner is drawn first with your browser's secure random generator; the pegs, the clicks and the big reveal only show it.
  3. Choose Fade the winner or Remove the winner to use every entry once, or Keep everyone in for repeats. “Original list” brings back the starting entries, and Print makes a paper spinner of the list.

Ideas for class

  • Ten-minute freewrite: spin, set a timer for ten minutes, and tell students to keep the pencil moving.
  • Let students spin twice and choose the prompt they prefer, which takes away the “I have nothing to say” problem.
  • Share-out: two volunteers read their first sentence only, so the sharing stays short.
  • Use it for a narrative unit: a prompt like “A door appears in my classroom” can become a full story over a week.
  • Mix genres: turn a topic into a poem, a letter, a comic or a list, and ask which form fits best.

Related

Questions

Are the prompts safe for every student?

They are personal but easy to answer with something made up. Always tell students they can write about an imagined version instead of a real one.

How do I use it for older students?

Add a line of structure: a first sentence that starts in the middle of the action, one sentence of dialogue, or a specific word count.

Can I add my own prompts?

Yes. Type your own lines in the box, and they are saved in this browser for next time.

Nothing you do here is sent to us. Names, lists and settings stay in this browser. No sign-in, no ads.