Crafting Essential Questions

Adapted from the work ofTraci Blanchard

North Cobb High School

Source: Understanding by Design by Jay McTighe & Grant Wiggins, © 2004

Goals

• What is an essential question?• How do I write effective ones?

An Essential Question is

• One that lies at the heart of a subject or a curriculum & promotes inquiry & uncoverage of a subject.

Essential Questions

• Have no simple “right” answer• Provoke & sustain inquiry• Address conceptual or philosophical foundations• Raise other important questions• Naturally & appropriately recur• Stimulate vital, ongoing rethinking

Examples

• What is a true friend?• To what extent does art reflect culture or shape it?• Is everything quantifiable?• To what extent is DNA destiny?• In what ways is algebra real and in what ways is it

unreal?• To what extent is US history a history of progress?

Examples

• Must heroes be flawless?• Who is entitled to own what?• Is the subjunctive necessary?• What makes writing worth reading?• Does practice makes perfect?• What is healthy eating? Healthy living?

What makes a question “essential”?

• Recurs throughout all our lives• Refers to core ideas & inquiries within a discipline• Helps students effectively inquire and make sense

of important but complex ideas, knowledge, know-how

• Engages a specific & diverse set of learners

Intent, not language, is the key:

• Why we pose the question• How students are to tackle it• What learning activities & assessments we expect

Types of Essential Questions

• Overarching: Frame courses and programs of study around truly big ideas

• Topical: Are unit specific but still promote inquiry(the tasks you are writing require topical essential

questions)

GOOD TEACHING USES BOTH!

Overarching Essential Questions

• More general, broader• Point beyond specific topics or skills• Promote transfer of understanding

Examples of Overarching EQ

• Can a fictional story be “true”?• How do a region’s geography, climate, and natural

resources affect the way people live and work?• How does technological change influence people’s

lives? Society?• How does what we measure influence how we

measure?

Examples of Overarching EQ

• How do we classify the things around us?• Do artists have a responsibility to their audience?

To society?• How does language shape culture?• Is pain necessary for progress in athletics?

Topical Essential Questions

• Unit specific - used to guide individual units• Promote inquiry• Resist simple answers• Require explanation & justification

These are the types of essential questions to be created for your task.

Examples of Topical EQ

• How might Congress have better protected minority rights in the 1950s & 1960s?

• Should we require DNA samples from every convicted criminal?

• Is Holden Caulfield a “phony”?

Examples of Topical EQ

• What is the value of place value?• What is electricity?• How do we hit with greatest power without losing

control?

Formative Questions• Meant to culminate in a fact or conclusion• No sustained inquiry or argument intended or

necessary• Underscores an important point we want students

to note• Lead students to examine their misconceptionsWe need these, too, BUT...

THEY CANNOT BE THE FOUNDATION OF OUR CURRICULAR DESIGN.

Where to start?

• Determine the “big ideas”– Common Core Georgia Performance Standards– Progressions

What are Big Ideas?

• Core concepts, principles, theories, & processes that should serve as the focal point of curricula, instruction & assessment.

Big Ideas

• Are important and enduring• Are not obvious• May be prone to misunderstanding• Prioritize content• Are transferable• Are the building material of understandings• Manifest in various ways within disciplines• Act as “conceptual velcro”

Finding Big Ideas

• Clarify Content Priorities– Worth being familiar with– Important to know and do– Big ideas & Enduring Understandings

Finding Big Ideas

• CCGPS– Draft implied or stated big ideas based on the

standards.• Critically analyze the Progressions and

Frameworks– Work “backward” to determine what big ideas and/or

EQ the documents address.

Big Ideas can be

• Concepts• Themes• Issues/Debates• Problems/Challenges• Processes• Theories• Paradoxes• Assumptions/Perspectives

From Big Idea to EQ

– Start with Big Idea– Answer questions related to Big Idea– Generate EQ & desired understandings

Making the Connection

Big Idea

Understanding

Essential Question

Standard(s) or Topic

Your task

• Create a minimum of TWO topical EQs for your task.

Example

• CCGPS: Represent real world and mathematical problems by graphing points in the first quadrant of the coordinate plane, and interpret coordinate values of points in the context of the situation.

• Overarching EQ:How can the coordinate system help us interpret real world situations?

• Topical EQ:How do coordinate grids help us organize information?

Want more?

• Understanding by Design by Jay McTighe & Grant Wiggins