By Clay Shumate
Would you rather questions are two-choice prompts that force a decision and a reason. In a grades 6–12 classroom they make fast bell ringers, discussion warm-ups and brain breaks, because every student can answer and nobody can be “wrong.” Below are 105 clean, school-appropriate would you rather questions for students, sorted into six sets, plus a five-minute routine that keeps the fun from turning into chaos.
The questions are the easy part. The routine is what makes a would you rather game worth the class time: students commit in writing, pick a side, and defend it with a reason. That is the same skill a Socratic seminar asks for, practiced in five low-stakes minutes.
Key Takeaways
- 105 questions in six sets: icebreakers, history and social studies, academic and thinking, funny, middle school, and high school.
- Every question is classroom-safe. Nothing about appearance, family money, religion, politics or anything a student could not answer in front of the whole room.
- Write before you talk. Thirty seconds of silent writing first is what turns a would you rather game into a thinking routine.
- Reasons win, not volume. Grade the reason, never the choice.
- Free printable cards. All 105 questions come as cut-apart PDF cards, with no email required.
Why use would you rather questions in class?
Because every student can answer one, the first minute of class starts with everyone in the conversation instead of the same five hands. There is no background knowledge needed and no right answer to fear. That makes these questions especially useful in the first weeks of school, with new students, and with classes that are slow to talk.
They also teach something real. To answer well, a student has to make a choice, give a reason, and listen to someone who chose the other side. Those are the core moves of argument writing and discussion in every subject. A would you rather question is a low-stakes place to practice them before the stakes go up.
Finally, they are a classroom management tool. A short, predictable opener gives students something to do the moment they walk in, which is the same idea behind good bell ringer ideas and classroom routines. When the routine is the same every day, the start of class runs itself.
How to use would you rather questions as bell ringers
Run the same four steps every time: write, move, defend, pivot. The whole thing takes about five minutes once students know it.
- Write first. Post the question as students walk in. They write their pick and one reason in a notebook or on a sticky note. Thirty seconds of silence. This step keeps quieter students from just copying the loudest opinion.
- Move. One side of the room for option A, the other for option B. No middle. Movement wakes up a sleepy first period and makes the vote visible.
- Defend. Call on two students from each side for one reason each. If you use cold calling, the written answer from step one means nobody is caught empty-handed.
- Pivot. Ask, “Did anyone hear a reason that almost changed your mind?” Then connect it to the lesson and move on.
Stop at five minutes. A bell ringer that eats fifteen minutes stops being a bell ringer, and students learn they can stretch it.
Using them for class discussion
For a longer discussion, pick a question from the history or thinking sets and ask students to argue the side they did not choose. This is harder than it sounds, and it is one of the best quick exercises for argument writing. Other variations that work well in grades 6–12:
- Reason ranking. Collect five reasons on the board. Students rank them from strongest to weakest and explain the top one.
- Evidence round. For a history question, students must use one fact from the unit to support their choice.
- Write-around. Each student writes a reason, passes the paper, and the next student responds to it in writing.
- Exit ticket version. Use a question that connects to the day’s lesson as the last thing students answer before they leave.
Keeping it under control: classroom management tips
The noise comes from unclear rules, not from the questions. Set these four norms once and post them:
- Pick one. “Both” and “neither” are not answers. The point is to commit.
- Give a reason you could say to a judge. “Because it’s cool” is a start, not an answer.
- Disagree with the reason, never the person. This is where a fun activity can turn into a lesson in respect in the classroom.
- One pass per week. Students may pass once. It lowers anxiety without letting anyone opt out every day.
Use a consistent signal to end the movement and bring the room back. If you need one, our post on classroom attention getters has several that work with teenagers. And keep the questions fair: skip any prompt that would make a student reveal something about their family, money, body or beliefs. Every question on this list was written with that rule in mind.
Free download: 105 would you rather question cards
Fifteen pages. Page 1 is the five-minute routine and classroom norms. The rest are 105 cut-apart cards, eight per page, labeled by set and numbered to match this article. Print on card stock and keep a stack by the door.
Free. No email address required. Built for grades 6–12.
The questions below are numbered straight through, 1 to 105, so the cards and this page match.
Icebreaker would you rather questions
Use these in the first weeks, after a long break, or any time a new student joins. They are low-stakes, so every student can answer without knowing anything.
- Would you rather be able to talk to animals or speak every human language?
- Would you rather have a rewind button or a pause button for your life?
- Would you rather live in a big city or in the middle of the countryside?
- Would you rather be the best player on a losing team or a bench player on a championship team?
- Would you rather read the book or watch the movie first?
- Would you rather have summer all year or winter all year?
- Would you rather be famous for something you made or for something you did?
- Would you rather explore the deep ocean or outer space?
- Would you rather always know the answer or always ask the best question?
- Would you rather have a personal chef or a personal driver?
- Would you rather wake up at sunrise every day or stay up until 2 a.m. every night?
- Would you rather be able to fly or be invisible?
- Would you rather know how to play every instrument or speak every language?
- Would you rather have one best friend or ten good friends?
- Would you rather be really good at one thing or pretty good at everything?
- Would you rather never have homework again or never have a test again?
- Would you rather live without music or without movies?
- Would you rather plan every detail of a trip or show up and figure it out?
- Would you rather be the oldest sibling or the youngest?
- Would you rather have a free week off school now or an extra week of summer later?
History and social studies would you rather questions
These do double duty as a hook. The reasons students give about living in Rome or signing the Constitution tell you what they already think about the period before you teach it. See our history project ideas for unit ideas they lead into.
- Would you rather meet a famous person from the past or a famous person from 100 years in the future?
- Would you rather live in ancient Rome or ancient Egypt?
- Would you rather sail with Magellan or ride with the Pony Express?
- Would you rather sign the Declaration of Independence or help write the Constitution?
- Would you rather be a medieval knight or a medieval merchant?
- Would you rather travel the Silk Road or cross the Atlantic on the Mayflower?
- Would you rather witness the first Moon landing or the fall of the Berlin Wall?
- Would you rather be a scribe in ancient Egypt or a printer right after Gutenberg?
- Would you rather live through the Renaissance or the Industrial Revolution?
- Would you rather be president for one year or a Supreme Court justice for twenty?
- Would you rather be an explorer who finds a new land or a scientist who finds a new cure?
- Would you rather live without electricity or without running water?
- Would you rather visit the Library of Alexandria or the Great Wall while it was being built?
- Would you rather be a newspaper reporter during the American Revolution or the Civil Rights Movement?
- Would you rather have dinner with Benjamin Franklin or with Harriet Tubman?
- Would you rather lead an army or lead a debate in Congress?
- Would you rather live in a monarchy with a fair king or a democracy with an unpopular leader?
- Would you rather be a pioneer on the Oregon Trail or a worker building the transcontinental railroad?
- Would you rather be the first person to fly with the Wright brothers or the first to ride a car with Henry Ford?
- Would you rather know the full history of your town or the full history of your family?
- Would you rather have a vote on every law or elect someone you trust to vote for you?
- Would you rather be an inventor in the 1800s or an astronaut in the 1960s?
- Would you rather live in a castle with no heat or a log cabin with a fireplace?
- Would you rather read a diary from a teenager in 1776 or a letter from a soldier in 1944?
- Would you rather be remembered in history books or remembered by everyone in your town?
Academic and thinking would you rather questions
These are about learning itself. They make good openers before a test, a project launch or a feedback conversation, because students end up talking about how they work best.
- Would you rather solve a hard problem alone or an easy problem in a group?
- Would you rather write a five-page essay or give a five-minute speech?
- Would you rather learn by reading or learn by doing?
- Would you rather know a little about everything or everything about one subject?
- Would you rather be graded on effort or graded on results?
- Would you rather take one big final exam or ten small quizzes?
- Would you rather have a teacher who is strict and fair or relaxed and unpredictable?
- Would you rather discover a new planet or a new species of animal?
- Would you rather be able to remember everything you read or understand everything you hear?
- Would you rather argue the side you agree with or the side you disagree with?
- Would you rather build a robot or write a novel?
- Would you rather have unlimited books or unlimited internet?
- Would you rather fix a problem fast or fix it perfectly?
- Would you rather be the person with the idea or the person who makes it happen?
- Would you rather get honest feedback that stings or kind feedback that is vague?
- Would you rather study with music or in total silence?
- Would you rather have a class with no grades or a class with no deadlines?
- Would you rather be able to predict the weather perfectly or predict the stock market perfectly?
- Would you rather lose your phone for a week or lose your voice for a week?
- Would you rather make a mistake in front of the class or never try at all?
Funny would you rather questions (still classroom-safe)
Save these for Fridays, the day before a break, or the class that needs a reset. They are silly on purpose, but every one is clean enough to read aloud with an administrator in the room.
- Would you rather have spaghetti for hair or sweat maple syrup?
- Would you rather talk like a pirate for a day or sing everything you say?
- Would you rather have a pet dinosaur the size of a cat or a cat the size of a dinosaur?
- Would you rather only be able to whisper or only be able to shout?
- Would you rather have hands for feet or feet for hands?
- Would you rather wear socks that are always wet or shoes that are always one size too small?
- Would you rather sneeze glitter or hiccup bubbles?
- Would you rather have a rewind button for embarrassing moments or a mute button for annoying people?
- Would you rather ride a giant chicken to school or a tiny horse?
- Would you rather eat only pizza for a year or never eat pizza again?
- Would you rather have a nose that glows when you lie or ears that wiggle when you are nervous?
- Would you rather be a superhero with a useless power or a villain with an amazing one?
- Would you rather have a theme song play every time you walk in or a laugh track play after every joke you make?
- Would you rather live in a house made of candy or a house made of LEGO?
- Would you rather have a talking backpack or a talking locker?
- Would you rather fight one horse-sized duck or one hundred duck-sized horses?
- Would you rather have to hop everywhere or crab-walk everywhere?
- Would you rather lose all your eyebrows or have one giant eyebrow?
- Would you rather swap lives with your pet for a day or with your teacher for a day?
- Would you rather have a cloud that follows you and rains or a sun that follows you and makes you sweat?
Would you rather questions for middle school
Middle schoolers want to talk about their world: lunch, seats, field trips and friends. These keep the question close to that world.
- Would you rather have recess back or have a longer lunch?
- Would you rather be the class president or the yearbook photographer?
- Would you rather go on a field trip to a museum or to a science center?
- Would you rather sit wherever you want or have the teacher pick the perfect seat for you?
- Would you rather have a pet hamster in class or a fish tank?
- Would you rather be on the school play crew or in the school play?
- Would you rather have gym every day or art every day?
- Would you rather write with a pencil forever or a pen forever?
- Would you rather be able to skip one class a week or leave school an hour early on Fridays?
- Would you rather do a group project with your best friend or with the smartest person in class?
Would you rather questions for high school
High schoolers are starting to make real decisions about work, school and money. These questions take those decisions seriously without asking anyone to share anything private.
- Would you rather go to college right after graduation or take a gap year to work and travel?
- Would you rather have a job you love that pays okay or a job you tolerate that pays a lot?
- Would you rather learn a trade or earn a four-year degree?
- Would you rather have your first car be brand new and boring or old and awesome?
- Would you rather live close to home after high school or move across the country?
- Would you rather start your own business or work your way up at a big company?
- Would you rather have a great reputation or a great bank account?
- Would you rather know your future career now or figure it out as you go?
- Would you rather run for city council at 18 or vote in your first presidential election?
- Would you rather be the team captain or the player who scores the most?
How to write your own would you rather questions
A good classroom would you rather question has two choices that are close enough to split the room. If 28 out of 30 students pick the same side, there is nothing to discuss. A few tests before you use a new one:
- Is it a real tradeoff? Both choices should have a good side and a cost.
- Can every student answer it? No question should depend on having money, a certain family, or a certain experience.
- Could you read it aloud with the principal in the room? If not, cut it.
- Does it connect to something? The best ones lead into the lesson. “Would you rather live in a monarchy with a fair king or a democracy with an unpopular leader?” is a two-week civics unit in one sentence.
Students can write them too. Having a class write would you rather questions about a unit is a quick review activity that shows you what they think the big tradeoffs were. It pairs well with classroom review games at the end of a unit.
Frequently Asked Questions
What are good would you rather questions for students?
Good would you rather questions for students offer two choices that are close enough to split the class, can be answered by every student, and are clean enough to read aloud in any classroom. Examples include: Would you rather be able to talk to animals or speak every human language? Would you rather live in ancient Rome or ancient Egypt? Would you rather learn by reading or learn by doing?
How do you play the would you rather game in a classroom?
Post the question, give students thirty seconds to write their choice and one reason, have them move to one side of the room for each option, then call on two students per side to share a reason. End by asking if anyone heard a reason that almost changed their mind. The whole routine takes about five minutes.
Are would you rather questions good bell ringers?
Yes. They work as bell ringers because every student can answer without background knowledge, they get students writing and talking in the first minute, and they practice the core skill of making a claim and supporting it with a reason. Keep them to about five minutes so they stay a warm-up.
How do you keep would you rather discussions from getting out of hand?
Set a few norms and post them: pick one side, give a real reason, disagree with the reason and not the person, and allow one pass per week. Use the same signal every time to end movement and bring the room back. Most of the noise comes from unclear rules, not from the questions.
Can would you rather questions be used for history class?
Yes. History would you rather questions make strong hooks, such as asking whether students would rather sign the Declaration of Independence or help write the Constitution. The reasons students give show what they already believe about a period, and you can require them to support their choice with one fact from the unit.
Are these would you rather questions appropriate for middle school?
Yes. Every question on this list is clean and school-appropriate, and none asks students to share anything about their appearance, family, money, religion or politics. There is also a set written specifically for middle school students and another for high school students.
Is there a printable version of these questions?
Yes. All of the questions are available as free printable cut-apart cards in a PDF, labeled by set and numbered to match this article. It downloads directly with no email or sign-up.