1. Overarching vs. Topical EU’s & EQ’s
Professional Development Workshop:
EU’s & EQ’s
Session 3

2. “Education is an itch, not a scratch.”
Enduring Understandings for the workshop: Participants will come to understand that…
“Education is an itch, not a scratch.”
Content and skills are the means while understanding is the end.
By anchoring our courses/units with EU’s and EQ’s, we guide students in uncovering and constructing meaning that they can transfer to new settings, issues, and problems.

3. What do I want my students to understand at the end of the year? Why?
ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS for the workshop: Participants will keep considering…
What do I want my students to understand at the end of the year? Why?
How can I craft learning goals to be relevant and meaningful for students, within and beyond my classroom?

4. Learning Outcomes for the Workshop:
Determine learning priorities for one course by identifying and articulating overarching (yearlong) and topical (unit-level) EU’s and EQ’s.
Document EU’s and EQ’s for at least one unit, to be shared with colleagues on May 20th.

5. Recap : Applying the Facets of Understanding
Last session, we began to test one EU for its depth with this prompt:
When students have truly understood my EU, they will be able to …
Explain …
Interpret …
Apply …
Take perspectives of…
Empathize with…
Show self-knowledge in …
invite
*When an EU is rich and complex, it lends itself to all 6 facets!
Adam models exercise with BAD vs. GOOD example
e.g. Texas defeated Mexico and won independence in 1836.
THEN model with actual EU from the unit.
Model with my EU:
To have power means to have voice, agency, and independence. Literature is a vehicle through which individuals– especially those who’ve been historically silenced– can become empowered by telling their stories.
Explanation- explain how a particular novel we’ve read characterizes a historically oppressed voice that “takes back” power and identity through storytelling
Interpretation – make inferences about the attitude of a narrator or writer by interpreting tone, character, point of view in a text. Analyze and interpret how a post-colonial text conveys untold stories/perspectives on a situation.
Application- construct (thru writing or some other form) a personal narrative about a situation/moment in which you’ve felt oppressed, and reflect on the process of telling this story
Perspective- make arguments or retell an event from perspectives of different characters represented in a text, using evidence. Discuss what each perspective focuses on, what each perspective might be missing. Consider how readers of different backgrounds (cultural, economic) might interpret and create stories differently, how storytelling by individuals can give advantage/power to certain groups, or disadvantage/misrepresent certain groups.
Empathy- research and speak on behalf of a person/ group of people who have less power than you
Self-knowledge- reflect on our own power and privilege– or lack thereof– and how it affects the way we read text and the world.

6. EU’s & EQ’s: Flip Sides of the Same Coin
Enduring Understandings
The geography, climate, and natural resources of a region influence the economy and lifestyle of the people living there.
Statistical analysis and data display often reveal patterns. Patterns enable prediction.
People have different dietary needs based on age, activity level, weight, and various health considerations.
Essential Questions
How does where you live influence how you live?
What will happen next? How sure are you?
How can a diet that is “healthy” for one person be unhealthy for another?
EQ’s point toward important transferable ideas that are worth understanding, even as they provide a means for exploring those ideas.

7. Understanding Enduring Understandings
EU’s are inferences, drawn from the experience of experts, stated as a specific and useful generalization. NOT a fact.
EU’s refer to big ideas having enduring value beyond the classroom. EU’s are CONCEPTS, not skills.
EU’s involve abstract, counterintuitive, easily misunderstood ideas
EU’s are complex, best acquired by “uncovering” (not merely covering) and “doing” (constructed by student + experience)
EU’s summarize important strategic principles that reside at the heart of a discipline.
#4- co-constructed by student + experience/experimentation/exploration
#5- requires metacognitive monitoring/awareness, ability to judge which skills to use and when (example of strategic principle: analyzing patterns, making and testing hypotheses)
* One other: should be a full sentence/statement p
Example: correlation does not ensure causality
Non-example: sunlight facilitates photosynthesis

8. EU’s and the importance of phrasing
IS a complete sentence that includes a concept:
Is NOT a verb phrase that involves action:
To analyze and appreciate how species change over time.
The process of evolution drives the diversity and unity of life.

9. EU’s and the Importance of Phrasing: Tips
Phrasing that asks students to “do something” points at discrete skills, NOT understandings:
Students will appreciate, identify, analyze, evaluate, etc.
Discrete skills are important and facilitate EU’s, but are not in themselves “understandings”
A simple prompt that effectively frames an understanding:
By the end of this year/unit, students will understand THAT… [finish the sentence]

10. Understanding Essential Questions
EQ’s involve open-ended questions that recur throughout our lives
EQ’s point toward intra- and inter-disciplinary ideas
EQ’s require higher-order thinking (e.g. analysis, inference, evaluation, prediction, yes/no)
EQ’s will hook students and engage a diverse set of learners
EQ’s will spark further inquiry
*Direct participants to HO on EQ’s versus other kinds of questions

11. EU’s & EQ’s: Overarching vs. Topical
The EQ’s we pose to our students can differ in terms of scope from “yearlong broad” to “unit specific”
Overarching EQ: To what extent is DNA destiny?
Topical EQ: Should we require DNA samples from every convicted criminal?
The EU’s we impart to our students can differ in terms of scope from “yearlong broad” to “unit specific”
Overarching EU: Democracy requires a courageous, not just free, press.
Topical EU: Watergate was a major constitutional crisis, not a mere burglary or shenanigans between parties.
Direct participants to HO w/ sample EU’s & EQ’s, read aloud a couple of examples
(p.113-9)
(p )

12. EU’s & EQ’s: Overarching vs. Topical
(across many units)
Topical
(for one unit)
make no mention of specific content of a unit
Themes apply to multiple units in a course.
Transcend particular subject matter
Point toward broader, transferable understandings that cut across and beyond unit topics.
May mention specific content/or skill focus of a unit
Themes apply to one unit in a course.
Point toward big ideas elicited by a specific topic
*pass out handout w/ examples (from UBD book)

13. EQ’s from Crystal’s AP Lit
Over-Arching Essential Questions
What good is a novel? Why read it?
How many ways can I read a text?
How does a writer’s design of a text build its meaning?
Topical Essential Questions [Morrison’s Beloved Unit]
How do we confront what haunts us? How does memory affect identity?
How can style evoke feeling?

14. EU’s from Crystal’s AP Lit
Over-Arching Enduring Understandings
“Literature is the question minus the answer.” Literature challenges us to think about what we believe, what we care about, and what kind of human beings we want to be.
A writer’s techniques impact the meaning of a text. Examining how smaller elements contribute to whole can allow us to better understand and appreciate the complexity and beauty of a work.
Topical Enduring Understandings
We must confront our personal demons—past misdeeds, trauma, fears—in order to move forward in life. By facing and making sense of the past, we may gain the ability to forgive, take action, and ultimately find peace and freedom.
Morrison’s design of Beloved—from the eponymous Beloved to the fractured narrative style—imitates the psychological trauma faced by victims of systemic oppression, as well as the potential for redemption and reconciliation.
Extra: Interpretation of literature runs on a spectrum. Good critical readers can make valid, supported arguments for diverse and creative interpretations based on evidence. There is no one “right answer.” However, convincing interpretations require corroboration of evidence as well as attention to layers of meaning and ambiguity.

15. EQ’s from Adam’s US History
Over-Arching Essential Questions
What is the meaning of America? What does it mean to be a “good” American?
How is America’s history a story of Political Idealism? Realpolitik? Capitalism?
How are “histories” actually arguments being made by historians? What does Siler’s history reveal, conceal, and leave unexplored?
Topical Essential Questions [unit on Defining America]
How does the Nolan Chart inform the American political experience past and present?
How do you ideologically self-identify? How do you politically affiliate?
How do the ambiguities and specifics of the US Constitution shape your world and the world of those around you?

16. EQ’s from Adam’s US History
Over-Arching Enduring Understandings
“The powerful play goes on, and you may contribute a verse.” – Walt Whitman
“It’s the economy, stupid.” – James Carville
“I know that I know nothing (for certain).” – Socrates
Topical Enduring Understandings
Most individuals politically self-identify as conservative, liberal, libertarian or communist depending upon their ideological tolerance of government regulation of economic liberties and personal liberties.
There is no canonical understanding of how “best” to interpret the sometimes vague and sometimes specific US Constitution; generally speaking, conservative judges tend to interpret the document narrowly exercising judicial restraint while liberal judges interpret the document more broadly exercising judicial activism.

17. Final Thoughts
Goal for May 20th: Overarching EU’s/EQ’s for one course + Topical EU’s/EQ’s for one unit
Our 3/25 session (next week) will focus on crafting overarching EU’s & EQ’s
Our 4/22 session will focus on crafting topical EU’s and EQ’s
or talk to Crystal & Adam for support. 