Objectives:
- To understand the purpose of an essential question.
- To identify characteristics of a rigorous essential question.
- To create essential questions that promote cognitive learning.
Introduction to Essential Questions
Directions: as you watch the video reflect on how the teacher introduces the essential question to the class.
Connection to Thinking Skills Curriculum
An essential question is a tool for promoting Thinking Skills and deeper learning within the classroom. As a reminder the five tenants of Thinking Skills are: describing, forming analogies, similarities and differences, classifying, and sequencing. An essential question challenges students to practice the five Thinking Skills tenants through analyzing complex and open-ended questions.
What is an Essential Question?
Examples of Essential Questions:
- Who is hungry and what are the effects of hunger?
- Who gets power and why?
- What is a good relationship?
- Why do organisms die?
Be Careful!
- Many essential questions are open-ended, but not all open-ended questions are essential.
- Some essential questions are phrased as if they were yes/no but in effect meet the criteria of “essential questions”
- It is the purpose of the question that matters, not its phrasing.
- Some essential questions are “guiding” – initially “open” to many plausible interpretations and answers, but they eventually end in an understanding.
(McTighe, J., & Wiggins, G. (2013). Essential Questions: Opening Doors to Student Understanding (F First Edition). ASCD.)
Exercise: Create Your Own Essential Questions!
Let’s apply what you just learned to make your own essential questions.
