Essential Question, Sub-Question Tutorial
This is a question-first course, focusing on essential questions (EQs). Entrepreneur Warren Berger calls these
“beautiful questions” in his book A More Beautiful Question: The Power of Inquiry to Spark Breakthrough Ideas.
To that end, Berger adds that essential questions can’t be answered with a simple Google search as there isn’t
any single, objective answer. They are more nebulous than that and pull their answers from literature (and art,
generally), research, current events, personal experiences. Express them in ways that could capture that all!
Yet, Google trivia is what we discuss too often in school (and even sometimes desire for ease of quick-grading
for instructors and the seeming comfort of certainty for students). Jamie McKenzie, writing for Education
Technology Journal, laments the same:
Some call such questions essential questions because they call upon our best thinking and touch
upon those matters that define what it means to be human. They are
questions that help us to make meaning out of the events and
circumstances of our lives.
There is a huge difference between knowledge on the one hand and
understanding or insight on the other hand.
Schools often engage students in collecting answers, in accumulating
information. But essential questions require that students spend time
pondering the meaning and importance of information.
Essential questions are questions that resonate within our hearts and
our souls. They are central to our lives. Most important thought during our lives will center on such
essential questions.
So, essential questions are not intended to gather trivia; they end with some more meaningful insight that
invigorates us in the thinking involved. I like to say of EQs that they are the sort of questions that people haggle
about deep into the evening, that explore life amid the ambiance of the wee hours! As an article from
FromNowOn says, “Essential questions spark our curiosity and sense of wonder. They derive from some deep
wish to understand some thing which matters to us.”
With all of that said, we don’t just answer any essential question, out right. We roll it around in our mouths a little
bit, consider its textures and tastes, before we
swallow an answer and speak to its nourishment.
To be more literal, the question itself may need
some breaking down, may need to be clarified,
narrowed, or even revised before answering. We
do this by considering subquestions (SQs) This
work later shapes our essay thesis statements.
The following are some SQ types to be considered as we address the overall EQ of a given LP. Yet, there are
certainly others to consider that may not have been considered before. I hope so. As a fellow “questionologist”
(Berger), I love to learn new ways to think on essential questions, new ways to realize their beauty!
Potential Sub-Question Types - If there are other ways to question the question that are not listed below, try
it out in our Essential Question, Sub-question Work as the list below does not account for all possibility.
General Subquestions:
● Most obviously, a type of sub-question to ask is “What are some potential answers to the EQ to choose
from?” These “answers” will ultimately shape the thesis of an LP’s final project essays. Pick a smart,
original answer to defend of the many possibilities (Unique/fascinating women’s sports experiences
●
●
might be notions like cooperation trumping competition, lack of female role models in media, the
assumption that women just accept opposite-sex coaches (men usually have male coaches), etc.
Do similarities or differences inform. If we are looking at differences (e.g. uniqueness sets women apart
from other men), we might ask for areas of similarity as a means of taking those issues (similarities) off
the board. If we are looking for similarity (e.g. universal says the issue is true across groups), we
might ask for areas of difference as a means of taking those issues (differences) off the board.
What is the conventional response to the EQ that we might defy to learn something new (e.g. While most
jump to the conclusion that “X” is true, is it always, and what potential answers does traditional
thinking ignore? “X”? Or, “X”?)?
Discussion-Narrowing Subquestions (Narrowed discussion is a good thing, many times, and leads to good
thesis statements). The novel studied, research, or another LP might prompt this narrowing:
● Does any term within the essential question need defining/clarifying before answering it, need nailing
down to a particular meaning/use if more than one of either is possible (e.g. By “X” do you mean…)?
● Might we find out a potential answer by asking if answers vary by the identity/role/persona or some other
category providing those answers (e.g. Would “X” and “Y” answer this differently?)? Or, might we
tease out a potential answer by asking if answers vary by historical period, region, or some other
distinction (e.g. Was the answer different in the past compared to now?)? Is the EQ flawed in some
way? Is there better terminology that might be used (e.g. “Might we frame the EQ as dealing in “Y”
instead of “X”)? Is there an assumption at work that shouldn’t be (e.g. In asking it that way, are we
wrongly assuming…)? Is the question leading (e.g. Does “X” unfairly favor…)?
Final Note: Another natural subquestion to ask is “Who else has addressed the issue (and yielding what answers) and of these,
who addressed it best?” That said, at this stage, we will not address this subquestion type as it built into our course LP process
Ultimately, This Is YOUR “EQ, Sub-Question Work”:
As part of the “EQ, Subquestion Work”
assignment, you will do one of the following at
some point during the Learning Plan on the
given EQ’s Google Slides presentation. There is
benefit to doing so right at the start of the LP
(forming a hypothesis to be tested via critical
thinking) but also benefit in questioning/
answering along the way (demonstrating organic
learning). More on that later in this tutorial.
● Construct a sub-question that aids exploration of the essential question, proposing potential answers.
● Offer a substantive response, with quoted evidence, to one of the sub-questions, validating one of the
original answers or proposing another.
Criteria for successful subquestion construction go as follows:
___ A subquestion is written in a general way (not just a book!) and that “questions the question,” leads to exploration of
the essential question so as to clarify it and/or offer a way it could be answered (see the “subquestion possibilities”)
___ One (or more) reasonable responses are provided that illustrate what insight the question is aimed at
___ The subquestion is cleanly placed on the EQ presentation: proofread, in Arial 8pt. font, not overlapping other text on
the slide, and signed with your name in parentheses
Criteria for substantive response to subquestions go as follows:
___ A response is substantive when it starts with a single, clear statement of an answer (defending an answer proposed
as a potential response along with the original subquestion or a providing a new answer heretofore not considered)
___ A response is substantive when it supports an answer with detailed support (from a literary, reference, cultural, or
personal “text”), support that is then explained in a way that makes its connection to the original answer clear
___ The response is cleanly placed under the subquestion, itself, on the EQ presentation: proofread [including quotation
punctuation], in Arial 8pt. Font (not overlapping other slide text), and signed by name in parentheses
Of What Value Is The Work?
Ultimately (as you will see in a sample to follow), these will shape our final project essays for the course. There
is no “right” answer to any of the overall essential questions or their related subquestions. In the end, as a thesis
for a final project essay, you just need to support one defensible answer that your study leads to, and that
answer, if well-supported, can differ from someone else’s but still be just as worthy. See a thesis writing tutorial:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1NUguHtyaBw5goW4UgR0fRzITC8Lt2erUJaks1b9q_2g/edit?usp=sharing
For this class, part of that support will be done via reading of sports literature. Literature is inherently tied to
essential questions: “The greatest novels, the greatest plays, the greatest songs and the greatest paintings all
explore essential questions in some manner” (Berger). As I myself,, say, “A book, itself, isn’t a question to be
answered; instead, it’s a powerful aid in working toward answers to the meaningful questions that trouble our
everyday lives.” That’s what literature is supposed to make us do! Think! In analyzing a novel for what it says,
through its characters’ lives, about a question we wonder on ourselves, we bring home, to our own reality, some
insight of value. Life’s the thing, not a single book.
We will also bring some traditional research to bear in answering the essential questions, studying reference
materials, perhaps interviewing, and considering pop culture.
While studying the text at hand and doing that traditional research, your first impulse answer to EQs/
sub-questions may prove wrong, need revising. Do not resist this! There’s pleasure in that change, a sense of
becoming better, wiser than we first were. In fact, as FromNowOn states, “Marty and Jacqueline Brooks' 1993
ASCD publication In Search of Understanding: the Case for Constructivist Classrooms makes a great primer
describing this student thought process. The Brooks stress the importance of students stating suppositions early
in the planning process. The research team is speculating. ‘What do you suppose? Why do you suppose? How
do you suppose?’ Heeding their intuition and checking their previous experience or knowledge base, students list
their best guesses, their hunches, their conjectures. These are shots in the dark. Research then brings light to
the subject. Information proves illuminating. Students revise their guesswork. They reconstruct meaning.”
Ultimately, while these EQs and their sub-questions serve as starting point for all of our thinking, they also
represent its “ending,” but only of sorts. I say “ending” as the final project essays sum up an LP’s study, but as
these questions are ongoing and change with history and personal experiences that shape our opinions,
hopefully you continue to think on them after the completion of our course! Per McKenzie, “Answering such
questions may take a lifetime, and even then, the answers may only be tentative ones. This kind of research, like
good writing, should proceed over the course of several weeks, with much of the information gathering taking
place outside of formally scheduled class hours.” That “outside” work is life.
Works Cited
Berger, Warren. A More Beautiful Question: the Power of Inquiry to Spark Breakthrough Ideas. Bloomsbury,
2016.
From Now On, From Now On: The Educational Technology Journal, Sept. 1996,
www.fno.org/sept96/questions.html.
McKenzie, Jaimie. “From Trivial Pursuit to Essential Questions and Standards-Based Learning.” From Now On,
From Now On: The Educational Technology Journal, Feb. 2001, www.fno.org/feb0