Sample Essential Questions and Enduring Understandings
for English Core Learning Goals
Goal 1 Reading, Reviewing and Responding to Texts
The student will demonstrate the ability to respond to a text by employing personal experiences
and critical analysis.
Essential Questions:
Enduring Understandings:
 What lies beneath the surface of this
 Reading for meaning often requires
text, and how can I uncover it?
imagining conversation with and
questioning the author.
 How much must a text relate to me and
my experience to be worth reading?
 Great literature provides rich and
timeless insights into key themes,
 What is the best approach to reading any
dilemmas, and challenges we face.
new book?
 Good readers use many strategies that
 What should I do if I am not
work, and they quickly try another one
understanding the text or not getting the
when the one they are using doesn’t
point?
work.
 Good readers are never afraid or
embarrassed to admit when they don’t
understand. Asking questions – of a text,
of a teacher, or another reader – is what
all good readers do.
Goal 2 Composing in a Variety of Modes
The student will demonstrate the ability to compose in a variety of modes by developing content,
employing specific forms, and selecting language appropriate for a particular audience and
purpose.
Essential Questions:
Enduring Understandings:
 What approach to the text makes the
 Though there are as many ways to write
most sense, in light of purpose and
as there are writers, some approaches are
audience? Which other principles should
more efficient and effective than others.
guide my writing?
 It isn’t good writing if it doesn’t achieve
its purpose with its intended audience.
 Where do ideas for writing come from?
How methodical or intuitive should I be
 Writing is not simply a method of
in my writing?
sharing information and ideas that are
 What do good writers do? How do
already clear to a writer; instead, it can
effective writers hook and hold their
be a process through which the writer
readers?
clarifies, organizes, and develops his/her
own thoughts.
 Why write? What can only writing
enable?
Stefani N. Miller, Wicomico County Public Schools, 2007
Goal 3 Controlling Language
The student will demonstrate the ability to control language by applying the conventions of
Standard English in writing and speaking.
Essential Questions:
Enduring Understandings:
 How can I use my knowledge of the
 Writers who communicate effectively make
choices about grammatical and mechanical
structure of language to write more
rules of writing based on the purpose.
effectively?
 Most of the time, you obey the rules to
 When is it crucial to follow all the rules
better communicate; sometimes you
of grammar and when is it ok—maybe
deliberately break the rules to better
even desirable—to break the rules?
communicate. The secret is to know
 How can I help readers understand what
what the rules are, when to obey them,
I’ve written?
and when it is okay to break them.
 When we write, we use conventions of
language (capitalization, punctuation,
correct spelling, etc.) to help others
understand what we have written.
Goal 4 Evaluating the Content, Organization, and Language Use of Texts
The student will demonstrate the ability to evaluate the content, organization, and language use of
texts.
Essential Questions:
Enduring Understandings:
 Is this an effective piece of text?
 The author of an effective piece of text
achieves his or her purpose with the
 How does how the author writes affect
intended audience.
my analysis and interpretation (my
understanding) of text?
 As readers analyze and evaluate the
author’s use of language, they
 What can I understand about the
understand how word choice enhances
message in this text through the writer’s
the effectiveness of the text.
choice of language?
 Authors reveal the message of the text
through the careful use of language. By
paying close attention to tone, diction,
transitions, etc., the reader better
understand the author and text.
Stefani N. Miller, Wicomico County Public Schools, 2007