Essential Questions Sandy Stuart-Bayer Lee’s Summit High School

Essential Questions Are arguable-and important to argue about. Are at the heart of the subject. Recur--and should recur--in professional work, adult life, as well as in the classroom. Raise more questions—”parent” questions that produce more questions. Often raise important issues. Can provide a purpose for learning.

Essential Questions Are provocative, enticing, and engagingly framed. Are higher-order, in Bloom's sense: they are always matters of analysis, synthesis, and evaluative judgment. You must “go beyond” the information given.Bloom's Or, in BPA terms, they are Proficient and Advanced, never Basic.BPA terms Answers to essential questions cannot be found. They must be invented.

Essential vs. leading Q’s Essential –Asked to be argued –Designed to “uncover” new ideas, views, lines of argument –Set up inquiry, heading to new understandings. Leading –Asked as a reminder, to prompt recall –Designed to “cover” knowledge –Point to a single, straightforward fact- a rhetorical question

Essential Questions Essential questions often begin with.. –Why? –Which? –How? –What if? Why do things happen the way they do? Which do I select? How could things be made better? Which is best? What if this happened?

Essential Questions Should require one of the following thought processes: –Requires developing a plan or course of action OR –Requires making a decision

Essential Questions Examples: Must a story have a moral? A beginning, middle, and end? Heroes and villains? Is Russia becoming more or less democratic since Brezhnev came into power? Is geometry more like map-making and using a map, or inventing and playing games like chess? Were theorems invented or discovered? Is prejudice more a view of race or class? What makes a family a community? Do statistics always lie?

Essential Questions Examples continued Are some aspects of another language and culture not understandable by people from other cultures? Is gravity a fact or a theory? Is evolution a scientific law or a theory? In what ways are animals human, and in what way are humans animals? Do mathematical models conceal as much as they reveal? (From Understanding by Design: Curriculum and Assessment, pp )

Related or Supporting Questions These are the smaller questions that must be answered in order to answer the big, essential question. They provide background and guide the work. They tend to be more topic and subject- specific.

Questioning For additional information on the importance of questioning and the different types of questions see: –Jamie McKenzie’s Questioning Toolbox orhttp://fno.org/nov97/toolkit.html –The Question IS the Answer orhttp://fno.org/oct97/question.html –UnderstandingbyDesign PowerpointUnderstandingbyDesign Powerpoint

But my teacher wants a thesis statement... If your research assignment is required to have a thesis statement, essential questions will help you develop it. Take a look at this presentation on thesis statements from essential questions. thesis statements

To Learn More about Thesis Statements Purdue OWL’s Thesis or QuestionThesis or Question Joyce Valenza’s “What is a Thesis?”What is a Thesis Indiana University’s “How to Write a Thesis Statement”“How to Write a Thesis Statement”

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