1. “Great minds ask great questions.”
ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS
“Great minds ask great questions.”
How to Think Like Leonardo de Vinci
by Michael J. Gelb

2. Getting Started
You have sixty seconds to discuss two questions with someone else in the room. When signaled, switch partners and discuss two more questions. Continue until you have made a decision about each question. You and your partners do not have to agree.
Tell them to put the questions aside for now.

3. Review of Unit Backward Design
STAGE ONE: DESIRED RESULTS Established Goals: Understandings: Essential Questions: Knowledge (Students will know) Skills (SWBAT) STAGE TWO: ASSESSMENT EVIDENCE STAGE THREE: LEARNING ACTIVITIES/ACTION PLAN
Ask, why are essential questions important?

4. Why are essential questions important?
Create genuine and relevant inquiry into a big idea or core content
Provoke deep thought, lively discussion, sustained inquiry, new understanding and more questions

5. Three Major Types of Essential Questions:
ONE Important questions that recur throughout one’s life. Example: Is science compatible with religion? What is justice?
However there can be some ambiguity.

6. Take two minutes and write a “Type one” question.
Important questions that recur throughout one’s life.

7. TWO Key inquiries within a discipline Example: Is any history capable of escaping the perspective of its writers?

8. Within Various Disciplines
Literature: Can fiction reveal truth? Math: When is the correct answer not the best solution? History: Is conflict between nations inevitable? Foreign Language: What distinguishes a fluent foreigner from a native speaker?

9. Health: What is healthful living
Health: What is healthful living? Geography: How does where we live influence how we live? P.E.: Is pain necessary for progress in athletics? (“No pain, no gain.”) Science: How are “form” and “function” related in biology?

10. Take two minutes and write a “Type two” question.
2) A key inquiry within a discipline.

11. THREE Questions that help students make sense of complicated ideas, knowledge and findings. Example: In what ways does light act like waves?

12. EXAMPLES NO
YES
What are the three branches of government and what does each do?
What is cloning?
What types of energy sources are common in homes?
How are the three branches of government dependent upon one another?
Why is cloning controversial?
Can an individual family make a real difference in terms of energy conservation?

13. Misconceptions
An essential question does not have a straightforward factual answer. Do not confuse what is essential to you, in your role as a teacher, and what is essential for student inquiry and making meaning of facts.

14. Take two minutes and write a “Type Three” question.
3) A question that helps students make sense of complicated ideas, knowledge and findings – that lead to discovery.

15. "What people think of as the moment of discovery is really the discovery of the question." - Jonas Salk

16. SUMMARY: ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS…
Are arguable and important to argue about.
Recur--and should recur--in professional work, adult life, as well as in the classroom inquiry.
Raise more questions-provoking and sustaining engaged inquiry.
Can provide purpose for learning.
Example: How did the reallocation of land after the Civil War impact the political arena?
Example: How do authors’ use figurative language to create lasting impressions?
use E.Q.s to organize programs, courses, and units of study.
“less is more”
edit to make them “kid friendly”
post the questions

17. ‘Millions saw the apple fall, but Newton was the one
who asked why.’
- Bernard Mannes Baruch
Go back and discuss the original work sheel.

19. Next Steps
Now work with others in your discipline to build new essential questions and refine old ones.