Crafting Essential Questions
Traci Blanchard
North Cobb High School
Source: Understanding by Design
by Jay McTighe & Grant Wiggins, © 2004
Goals
What is an essential question?
How do I write effective ones?
An Essential Question is
One that lies at the heart of a subject
or a curriculum & promotes inquiry &
uncoverage of a subject.
Essential Questions
Have no simple “right” answer
Provoke & sustain inquiry
Address conceptual or philosophical
foundations
Raise other important questions
Naturally & appropriately recur
Stimulate vital, ongoing rethinking
Examples
What is a true friend?
To what extent does art reflect
culture or shape it?
Is everything quantifiable?
To what extent is DNA destiny?
In what ways is algebra real and in
what ways is it unreal?
To what extent is US history a history
of progress?
Examples
Must heroes be flawless?
Who is entitled to own what?
Is the subjunctive necessary?
What makes writing worth reading?
Does practice makes perfect?
What is healthy eating? Healthy
living?
What makes a question
“essential”?
Recurs throughout all our lives
Refers to core ideas & inquiries within
a discipline
Helps students effectively inquire and
make sense of important but complex
ideas, knowledge, know-how
Engages a specific & diverse set of
learners
Intent, not language, is the
key:
Why we pose the question
How students are to tackle it
What learning activities &
assessments we expect
Types of Essential Questions
Overarching: Frame courses and
programs of study around truly big
ideas
Topical: Are unit specific but still
promote inquiry
GOOD TEACHING USES BOTH!
Overarching Essential
Questions
More general, broader
Point beyond specific topics or skills
Promote transfer of understanding
One will be used as your pre & post
SIP writing prompt
Examples of Overarching EQ
Can a fictional story be “true”?
How do a region’s geography, climate,
and natural resources affect the way
people live and work?
How does technological change
influence people’s lives? Society?
How does what we measure influence
how we measure?
Examples of Overarching EQ
How do we classify the things around
us?
Do artists have a responsibility to
their audience? To society?
How does language shape culture?
Is pain necessary for progress in
athletics?
Topical Essential Questions
Unit specific - used to guide individual
units
Promote inquiry
Resist simple answers
Require explanation & justification
One per month will be your SIP
writing prompt
Examples of Topical EQ
How might Congress have better
protected minority rights in the 1950s
& 1960s?
Should we require DNA samples from
every convicted criminal?
Is Holden Caulfield a “phony”?
Examples of Topical EQ
What is the value of place value?
What is electricity?
How do we hit with greatest power
without losing control?
Leading Questions
Meant to culminate in a fact or
completely settled conclusion
No sustained inquiry or argument
intended or necessary
Underscores an important point we
want students to note
We need these, too, BUT...
THEY CANNOT BE THE FOUNDATION OF
OUR CURRICULAR DESIGN.
Where to start?
Determine the “big ideas”
Georgia Performance Standards
Course texts
What are Big Ideas?
Core concepts, principles, theories, &
processes that should serve as the
focal point of curricula, instruction &
assessment.
Big Ideas
Are important and enduring
Are not obvious
May be prone to misunderstanding
Prioritize content
Are transferable
Are the building material of
understandings
Manifest in various ways within
disciplines
Act as “conceptual velcro”
Finding Big Ideas
Clarify Content Priorities
Worth being familiar with
Important to know and do
Big ideas & Enduring Understandings
Finding Big Ideas
Unpack the GPS
Circle key nouns, adjectives, & verbs
Draft implied or stated big ideas based on
those key words.
Critically analyze the course text
Work “backward” to determine what big
ideas and/or EQ the text addresses
Big Ideas can be
Concepts
Themes
Issues/Debates
Problems/Challenges
Processes
Theories
Paradoxes
Assumptions/Perspectives
From Big Idea to EQ
Use p. 83, Identifying EQ &
Understandings
Start with Big Idea
Answer ?s related to Big Idea
Generate EQ & desired understandings
Making the Connection
Big Idea
Topic or
Content
Standard
Understanding
Essential Question
Your task
Collaboratively draft ONE overarching
EQ for your course
(Sept., Dec.)
Collaboratively draft TWO topical
(unit) EQs for your course
(Oct., Nov.)
Example
GPS: The learner will be able to read, respond to, and
critique historically and culturally significant works of
literature in order to understand their importance and
relationship to past and present cultures.
Overarching EQ:
Does literature primarily reflect culture or
shape it?
Topical EQ:
What does Romeo & Juliet teach us about
Shakespeare’s view of destiny? How does it
compare to yours?
Where to get more
information
Other training sessions--may be
department, planning period inservice, and/or Early Release or
Cluster Days
Understanding by Design
by Jay McTighe & Grant Wiggins