Create Discursive Questions from Text
Generates 2 to 5 open-ended questions about a text, each with the expected response and topics you should look for in the student's answer.
Updated on
What is it for
Questions that students answer by writing. They work for written production, for comprehension, and for starting conversation in the next lesson — things that multiple choice can't measure.
The tool delivers, along with each question, the expected response and a list of topics that should appear. This is what transforms "grading 20 essays" into "checking if the three points are there".
How to use
- Add the tool to your exercise.
- Paste the text in the Text field (up to 1,000 characters).
- Choose the Level from A1 to C2 — at A2 questions ask for explicit information; at C1 they ask for inference and opinion.
- Choose the Number of Questions: 2, 3, 4, or 5.
- Click Abracadabra ✨.
On your side, below the questions, the Expected Responses section appears. The student sees only the question and the text box.
Try it
Write anything in the fields and submit. Since grading open text is your job, the feedback here is placeholder — this is what the student sees in the activity.
How did remote work change the way teams communicate?
Why do people disagree about working from home?
What does a hybrid routine look like, according to the text?
Answer and submit: the marking happens right here, with no credits spent.
This is what the teacher filled in to generate the exercise above.
- Text
- Remote work changed the way teams talk to each other. Instead of hallway chats, people rely on short written updates and a couple of video calls per week. Some workers say they focus better at home; others miss the small talk that made the office feel alive. Most companies ended up with a hybrid routine: two or three fixed days together, the rest wherever each person works best.
- Level
- B1
- Number of Questions
- 3
Tips
Note: discursive questions don't have automatic scoring. To grade them, set the exercise to After teacher review in the Assign modal — without it the grading panel doesn't even appear on the results screen.
Tip: two or three questions per block. Five open questions become a 40-minute task, and students answer the last ones in a rush.
Tip: use the expected response as a criterion, not as an answer key. If the student reached the topics another way, they got it right.
Tip: combine with Create ABCD Questions from Text in the same exercise: ABCD ensures they read it, discursive shows if they understood it.
Cost in credits
10 credits per generation, 2 to 5 questions. Grading and commenting don't cost credits.