essential questions

ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS

Source: ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS McTighe, J. & Wiggins, G. (2013). Essential questions. ASCD:

Alexandria, VA.

The WHAT, WHY, and HOW of

Zhanna Preston, Ed.D.

• What is an essential question?

• Why is essential questioning a critical strategy in today’s classroom?

• How do we come up with good essential questions for our students? (Criteria for Essential Questions).

The WHAT, WHY, and HOW of Essential Questions

Questioning as a Strategy

Arguably the most timeless fundamental strategy used by the great masters, such as Confucius,

Socrates, Aristotle, and Descartes to provoke learners.

What Makes a Question Essential?

Essential Questions

• How do the arts shape, as well as reflect, a culture?

• What do effective problem solvers do when they get stuck?

• How strong is the scientific evidence?

• Is there ever a “just” war?• How can I sound more like a native

speaker?• Who is a true friend?

Non-Essential Questions

• What common artistic symbols were used by the Incas and the

Mayans?• What steps did you follow to get

your answer?• What is a variable in scientific

investigations?• What key event sparked the World

War I?• What are commons Spanish

colloquialisms?• Who is Maggie’s best friend in the

story?

What are the distinguishing characteristics of the ones labeled “essential” compared to those labeled “ Non-essential?” Divide into groups of four. Discuss and share out.

Social Studies_______________________________________________________________?

Mathematics_______________________________________________________________?

Language Arts_______________________________________________________________?

Science_______________________________________________________________?

Arts_______________________________________________________________?

World Languages _______________________________________________________________?

What Makes a Question Essential?ExamplesIn your groups develop

your own examples for each subject.

In your groups of four develop a list of characteristics that make a question an essential

question.

What Makes a Question Essential?Defining Characteristics of Essential Questions

1. Open-ended (do not have a single, final, and correct answer).2. Thought-provoking and intellectually engaging (often sparking

discussion and debate).3. Calling for higher-order thinking (analysis, inference, evaluation,

prediction/cannot be effectively answered by recall alone).4. Pointing toward important, transferrable ideas within (and

sometimes) across disciplines.5. Raising additional questions and sparks further inquiry.6. Requiring support and justification, not just an answer.7. Recurring over time; that is, the question can and should be

revisited again and again.



Circle the essential questions below. Justify your answer by naming at least one characteristic of essential questions.

1. In what year was the Battle of Hastings fought?2. How do effective writers hook and hold their

readers?3. Is biology destiny?

4. Onomatopoeia – what’s up with that?5. What are examples of animals adapting to their

environment?6. What are the limits of arithmetic?

The Three Connotations of

Essential QuestionsImportant and Timeless (arise

naturally throughout life).

What is justice?

Elemental and Foundational (reflect

key inquiries w/n a discipline).

To what extent are current

weather patterns unusual?

Vital and Necessary for personal

understanding (helps the student make

sense of the seemingly isolated facts/ideas).

What models best describe a business cycle?

What…?

Who…?

When…?

Why…?

In what ways…?

How…?

Essential and Non-Essential Questions

Don’t assume that the non-essential questions always start with:

Don’t assume that the essential questions always start with:

Usually, but not always…

In your groups of four develop:

o Two essential questions that start with What, Who, and When.

o Two non-essential questions that start with Why, In What Ways, and How.


o Essential questions that start with What, Who, and When: o What defines success?

o When is a good time to enroll in a doctoral program?

o Non-essential questions that start with Why, In What Ways, and How:o Why did World War II start?

o How did John get from his house to the dorm?


What is the intent of the

question?

Topical Versus Overarching Essential Questions

Questions offering relevance and transferability over disciplines

That demand transfer beyond the particular topic

Overarching Essential

Questions

Questions are not perpetually open and unanswerable

Questions that help students to come to understandings around a specific topic

Topical Essential

Questions

In your groups of four develop:

o Develop two topical essential questions.

o Develop two overarching essential questions.

Topical Versus Overarching Essential Questions

Three Types of Non-Essential Questions

Asked to interest the student in a new topic

Many spark curiosity, questions, or debate

Often framed in engaging “kid language”

Asked once or twice, but not revisited

Asked to be answeredHave a “correct” answer

Support recall and information finding

Asked once or until the answer is given

Require no (or minimal) support

Asked to encourage and guide exploration of a topic

Point toward desired knowledge and skill (but not

necessarily to a single answer)

May be asked over time / throughout a unit

Generally require some explanation and support

HOOK LEAD GUIDE

Teaching without Essential Questions

• Assignments, test questions that require recall of information without connections across disciplines, no need to refer to a mental framework, or no need to prioritize knowledge are less likely to be stored in long-term memory.

• “Teaching by mentioning” only works for the brightest and most advanced students.

• Students have difficulty with tackling unfamiliar or novel tasks.

Designing Essential Questions

• We can develop Essential Questions by unpacking the standards

Designing Essential Questions

Anchor /Content Standards

Related Essential Questions

ELA: Read closely to determine what the text says explicitly and to make logical inferences from it; cites specific textual evidence when writing or speaking to support conclusions drawn from the text.

Math: Understand addition as putting together and adding to, and understand subtraction as taking apart and taking from.

NGSS: Plan and carry out investigations to identify the effect forces have on object’s shape and orientation.

In groups of four:- Review the

standards in the left column below and underline the key words

- In the right column write down one-three essential questions that help students understand the standards.

Designing Essential QuestionsAnchor /Content

StandardsRelated Essential Questions

ELA: Read closely to determine what the text says explicitly and to make logical inferences from it; cites specific textual evidence when writing or speaking to support conclusions drawn from the text.

o What logical inferences can I draw, based on what is in the text?

o What specific evidence in the text supports my ideas?

Math: Understand addition as putting together and adding to, and understand subtraction as taking apart and taking from.

o What whole can be made from these parts?

o What’s left?o What should be taken away?

NGSS: Plan and carry out investigations to identify the effect forces have on object’s shape and orientation.

o Why did this move that way?o Why is this shaped that way?o What district forces caused

that effect?

Standard Topical Essential Question Overarching Essential Question

DANCEUnderstanding dance as a way to create and communicate meaning (National Art Education Association, 1994)

What ideas and feelings can we express through dance? How can motion convey emotion?

How do artists best express what they think and feel? How does the medium influence the message?

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.8.8Delineate and evaluate the argument and specific claims in a text, assessing whether the reasoning is sound and the evidence is relevant and sufficient; recognize when irrelevant evidence is introduced.

Designing Essential QuestionsIndividually develop topical and overarching essential questions for the ELA standard

below:

http://www.corestandards.org/ELA-Literacy/RI/8/8/

Essential Questions and Skills

• Some teachers see their ultimate goal as teaching specific skills

• It is as important to teach ideas and strategy as it is to a specific skill

• Important ideas and strategy underlie all skill mastery• Essential questions are key in teaching ideas and

strategy• Essential questions are key to teaching the ultimate

goal of skill teaching – fluent and flexible performance

Skill or Strategy?

Essential Questions And Skill Learning

Essential Questions

Key ConceptsHow does torque affect power and control?

Purpose and Value What is the true value of a good caddy?

Strategy and TacticsHow can an effective strategy, such as keeping your eye on the ball, affect the last two holes?

Content of UseWhen should we swing softly?


Criteria1. Is it open-ended (do not have a single, final, and correct answer)?

2. Is it thought-provoking and intellectually engaging (often sparking discussion or debate)? 3. Does it call for higher-order thinking (analysis, inference, evaluation, prediction/cannot be effectively answered by recall along?4. Is it pointing toward important, transferrable ideas within (and sometimes) across disciplines?5. Does it raise additional questions and sparks further inquiry?

6. Does it require support and justification, not just an answer?

7. Recurring over time; that is, the question can and should

Essential Questions: 4-Phase ImplementationPhase What to do Goal

1 Introduce a question designed to cause inquiry.

Ensure that the Essential Question is thought-provoking relevant to both students and the content of the current unit or course, and explorable via text, a research project, a lab, a problem, and issue, or a simulation in which the question comes to life.

2 Elicit varied responses and question those responses.

Use questioning techniques and protocols as necessary to elicit the widest possible array of different plausible, yet imperfect answers to the question. Also probe the original question in light of the different takes on it that are implied in the varied student answers and due to inherent ambiguity in the words of the question.

3 Introduce and explore new perspectives.

Bring new text, data, or phenomena to the inquiry, designed to deliberately extend inquiry or call into question tentative conclusions reached thus far. Elicit and compare new answers to previous answers looking for possible connections and inconsistencies to probe.

4 Reach tentative closure. Ask students to generalize their findings, new insights, and remaining (or newly raised) questions into provisional understandings about both content and process.

Essential Questions:Four Strategies

WAIT TIME

Socratic Seminar

Using Essential Questions with Staff and ColleaguesTopic Question

Mission To what extent does our team/school/district share a common mission?To what extent do our policies, priorities, and actions honor our mission?

Teaching/Learning Beliefs

What educational beliefs about teaching and learning do we hold? Are all those beliefs supported by research, best practice, and our own experience? To what extent do our beliefs align with our actions?

Standards Who would people know that we are a “standards-based” school/classroom?

Curriculum Is our curriculum truly planned backward from our long-term goals and priorities? (UbD)

Assessment Are we assessing everything we value or only those things that are most easily tested and graded?

Instruction To what extent does our instruction reflect research and best practices?

Professional Development

To what extent is our PD results oriented?To what extent is our PD differentiated?

Change process To what extent are various initiatives seen as connected and coherent as opposed to “add-ons?”

Policy and Structures

What is a culture of continuous improvement? To what extent do we have one?

Culture of Inquiry

Organization Educators

EXPECTATIONS

STRUCTURES

PEDAGOGIES PURPOSEFUL PERCEPTIVE

PERSISTENT

Any Questions?

Only Essential Questions will be answered…