How to pick students fairly in class

Why pick students at random?

Picking students at random gives every student the same chance of being called, so participation stops depending on who raises a hand. With hands up, only volunteers answer. A random draw turns each question into a question for the whole room, because any name can come up next.

A wheel also makes the method visible. Students watch the draw happen on the screen, so the choice plainly comes from the wheel and not from the teacher. That visibility matters most in the first weeks, while the class learns the routine.

How to set up a class wheel

To set up a class wheel, paste the class list, turn on Elimination mode and save the wheel under the class name. The setup takes 4 steps:

1. Paste the names into the Entries box, one per line. To load a roster file instead, press Import file and choose a CSV, Excel (.xlsx) or text file; the first column becomes the names.
2. Open Customize and turn on Elimination mode. Each picked name sits out for the rest of the round.
3. Set "Countdown after each pick" to the time a student gets to answer, such as 30 seconds.
4. Press Save and name the wheel after the class, such as "Period 3 Biology". Each class keeps its own saved list in this browser.

The random name picker opens in No repeats mode. Its classroom panel also offers Keep names, Last one standing, a timer after each pick and spoken names, which start switched off.

Keep names, no repeats or last one standing

Use No repeats or Last one standing when every student should get a turn. Keep names suits quick checks where anyone may be asked again, even twice in a row.

Keep names has a hidden cost. With 25 students and 25 independent spins, each student has about a 36% chance of never being called, because (24 ÷ 25)²⁵ ≈ 0.36. On average, that leaves 9 students without a turn, even though every single spin is fair.

Last one standing uses Elimination mode, which never changes your list. The Results tab shows who is out, in order. Bring back last returns the most recent name to the round, and Start a new round puts every name back in.

The name picker for classrooms sets each mode with one button and starts in No repeats. It also counts who has been picked, and Restore full class list puts every name back in one click.

Give think time before you name anyone

Ask the question first, wait at least 3 seconds, then spin. Every student prepares an answer, because nobody knows whose name will come up. If you spin first, only the named student has a reason to think.

The 3-second figure comes from wait-time research. A 1994 ERIC Digest by Robert J. Stahl summarizes Mary Budd Rowe's 1972 finding. In typical classrooms, the silences after teacher questions and after student answers rarely lasted more than 1.5 seconds. The digest puts the typical pause after a question at 0.7 to 1.4 seconds. For students a teacher sees as slow, it is often shorter than 0.7 seconds.

When the silence lasted at least 3 seconds, the digest lists 4 changes in students:

• Their answers grew longer and were more often correct.
• "I don't know" and no-answer responses dropped.
• More students volunteered appropriate answers.
• Their scores on achievement tests tended to rise.

Wait again after a student answers. The digest calls this post-student response wait-time: 3 or more seconds of silence that lets other students think about the answer and decide whether to respond.

The spin adds think time too. With a 5-second spin, a 3-second pause becomes 8 seconds before any name appears. Set the spin time in Customize, anywhere from 1 to 60 seconds.

Timer lengths for common tasks

Set the countdown after each pick to fit the task, from 10 seconds for recall to several minutes for board work. The lengths in this table are starting points, not rules.

"Countdown after each pick" offers 10 seconds to 5 minutes and starts by itself when you close the result popup. The Timer button runs a separate countdown whenever you press start, with presets from 15 seconds to 5 minutes. A chime plays when time runs out, unless sounds are muted.

Stahl's digest makes the same point about task time: the silence a class needs runs from a few seconds to 2 minutes or more, depending on the task.

Use the wheel on a projector or board

Press Full screen so only the wheel and the Spin button fill the display. The rest of the page, including any ads, disappears until you press Esc or Exit full screen.

On a touchscreen board, tap the wheel or the Spin button. From a laptop, press Space or Ctrl + Enter (⌘ + Enter on a Mac). On iPhone, Full screen fills the browser window instead, because iPhone browsers can't make part of a page full screen.

Make cold calling inclusive

Random calling stays fair when every student knows the rules in advance and has a respectful way to pass. 6 habits help:

1. Explain the routine first. Tell the class that any name can come up, that everyone gets think time and that passing is allowed.
2. Offer a pass or a lifeline. A student can pass or ask a classmate for help. Press Bring back last in the Results tab to return that student to the round for a later question.
3. Hide names instead of deleting them. Hide absent students in the "Weights, colors & images" table. Hidden names stay on your list but leave the wheel until you show them again.
4. Keep every weight at 1. Weights change a student's odds, and the weights table shows each chance as a percentage. Equal weights keep the draw equal.
5. Check name pronunciation. Read aloud uses your browser's speech voices and prefers one that runs on the device. Some browsers only offer an online voice service. Any voice can mispronounce names, so test the list before class.
6. Start with low-stakes questions. Use the wheel for opinions, predictions and recaps before graded answers. Pair talk before the spin lets the named student share a pair's idea instead of a solo answer.

Keep student names private

Wheel Spinning has no accounts and does not upload your lists. Autosave, named saves and the results history live in this browser's storage, on this device only. If you turn on read aloud, some browsers send the spoken names to their own voice service.

• Shared computers: delete your saved classes in the Save dialog and clear the history in the Results tab when you finish. Clearing this site's data in the browser removes everything at once.
• Share links: a share link carries the whole list inside the link itself. Anyone who has the link can read every name, so send class wheels only through school channels.
• Fewer details: first names or initials are enough for calling on students. Full names and student ID numbers are rarely needed on a projected wheel.
• No names at all: the random number wheel picks seat or roster numbers, so no names appear on the screen.

Check your school's rules on student data before you enter full names into any website. This guide explains how the wheel stores data; it is not advice on any privacy law.

Is random calling fair to students?

Yes, when every student has the same chance and the class knows the routine. Each pick is drawn with the browser's crypto.getRandomValues before the wheel turns, so neither the teacher nor the spin speed can change it. Fairness also depends on the practice around the draw: think time, a way to pass and no repeats until everyone has had a turn.

The randomness test page runs 10,000 picks on a list you paste in and compares the counts with the expected share.

Questions teachers ask