Today’s Objectives
1. To identify the Big Ideas for the content
2. To identify the Essential Knowledge and Skills for the ES in music or the visual arts
3. To develop an understanding of what students are expected to Know and be Able to Do
Identifying the Big Ideas
Content Blast: The “Big Ideas” within a curriculum standard define what
the student should know and be able to do to master the standard, by
breaking it down into small bytes of learning (primary concept)s that help
to organize the content. Big ideas refer to the major concepts, themes,
issues, debates, processes, assumptions, or perspectives that are
connected and which should be fully understood when the standard has
been mastered. Big ideas guide the teacher and the student to discover
what is essential and universal about the curriculum content
Why Should the Big Ideas be identified? When you take the time to
identify Big Ideas, you will connect important facts, skills, or concepts into
a larger framework or learning. In Identifying the Big Ideas, you are
dividing the standard into smaller concepts to make learning more
manageable to grasp so that when each idea is learned, the pieces can be
re-connected for broader understanding of the full standard.
Steps to Identifying the Big Ideas
Practice-Identifying the Big Ideas
Write your standard/domain in the space below. Underline key phrases and concepts in the standard/domain.
Review the key phrases and concepts that you underlined above.
Identify the Big Ideas in the space below, using sentence and/or bulleted format.
Make any notes that you need to help you further understand what is required for students to know and be able to do.
Repeat this chart on the additional copies available at the front
of the room for the other standards you were assigned.
Checklist before sharing/discussing with your classmates.
1. The standard/domain is analyzed for key concepts
Yes___No___
2. Major concepts and phrases in the standard are underlined
Yes___No___
3. The Big Idea(s) is written for each standard/domain
Yes___ No___
4. The Big Idea(s) are written in sentence and/or bulleted format Yes___ No___
5. Additional notes for clarity may be included
Yes___ No___
Writing Essential and Key Questions
Content blast: Essential and Key Questions “form the infrastructure of the content that you will be teaching and
learning.” (Understanding by Design, P.48). Essential and Key Questions go to the heart of a discipline or content area
to give teachers and students cues about how to inquire into the essential meanings and understandings.
The ACS Common Core team has discussed how teachers will all be expected to have the daily Essential and Key
questions on display in their room for each lesson. You have probably heard of these as Learning Targets. This is
what they were called on the November 2nd NC FALCON training.
Researchers differentiate between Essential Questions and Key Questions by targeting the Essential Question at the
Standard level and the Key Questions at the Clarifying Objective level. Therefore, when you address the broader
Essential Question you will also be addressing the standard. Similarly, when you answer the Key Questions, you will
also be addressing each of the objectives. This model suggests that you will have two to five Key Questions.
How are Essential Questions and Key Questions related? Both Essential Questions and Key Questions are intended to
assist your students to probe more deeply into the meaning of the standard and the elements. You should insure that
both types of questions ask provocative, high level question to challenge the students to examine the standards and
elements for a deeper more meaningful learning experience. Essential Questions should spark inquiry and spur debate
and discussion. Essential Questions also spur other questions that we call Key Questions. Key Questions should organize
and target the learning by focusing on the elements.
Why is writing the Essential Question and the Key Questions important? Essential Questions stimulate the learner to
consistently rethink Big Ideas, assumptions and prior knowledge. Your Essential Questions should lead to other important
questions and should be designed to challenge your students’ thinking about the overall concept. Essential Questions
organize the learning for your students and focus instruction on key issues. A question demands an answer. Your
Essential Question should be focused to question the overarching concept of the standard. Your Key Questions should ask
questions that will cause your students to clearly focus on each aspect of the clarifying objectives.
Essential Questions

Targeting the
Essential Standard

Broader

Should create
curiosity and foster
discussion

Question based on
the overarching
theme


Key Questions
Intended to make
students think and
analyze their learning.

Targeting the
Clarifying Objectives

More Specific

Should help students
organize their learning
towards a specific goal

Questions are based
on focusing on each of
the aspects of the
lesson
Should spur other
questions
What do Essential Questions and Key Questions have
to do with unpacking standards? You will link the
Enduring Understanding and the Essential Question to
help the learner “discover” the answer to the Essential
Question. This will help students learn the standard.
Your Essential Questions should be open-ended and
should use language appropriate to the students. Key
Questions should be sequenced so that learning flows
through the process of answering the questions. Insure
that students address each of the elements linked to the
standards to a Key Question to insure that the students
will learn the content within the standard and the
elements.
Essential Question Criteria
1. Easy for students to understand
2. Worded in broad terms
3. Logical sequence
4. Posted in classroom
5. Based on your teaching objectives
What are some examples of Essential Questions?
Art
1. Why is art necessary?
2. How do people express themselves
through art today?
3. How has art changed through time?
4. What choices must a painter make
before beginning a work?
Foreign Language
1. How is Spanish/French like and
unlike English?
2. In what ways would learning a
foreign language be beneficial?
Science
1. How do chemicals benefit society?
2. Are animals essential for man’s
survival? Explain.
3. Does South Carolina have reason to
fear a natural disaster? Which ones
or Why not?
4. What must a scientist do in order
to research something?
Math
1. When should I multiply? When
can’t I multiply? When is
multiplication most useful? Can
multiplication make things smaller?
2. How is geometry used in the real
world?
3. What is the role of geometry in
advertising, architecture, or fabric
design?
4. How would you explain,
demonstrate, or draw the ________
process?
Social Studies
1. How have ancient Greeks affected
our society?
2. Why would the Europeans want to
come to the colonies?
3. Why did your textbook include
_____ in this chapter?
4. How does the economy of a society
depend on the geography of the
region?
Language Arts
1. Why read?
2. What is the connection between
reading and writing?
3. Do stories need a beginning,
middle, and end? Why?
4. What does the “Bernstein Bears”
teach us about life?
Technology
1. How can the computer be used as a
tool?
2. How would our culture be different
without computers?
3. What process would you use to
write a letter using Microsoft Word?
4. What are your top ten priorities
when producing a news video?
Physical Education
1. Why should you spend time
stretching before and after an athletic
event?
2. What are the top three rules in
basketball? Why?
3. How can advertising affect a teen’s
choices?
Writing Essential and Key Questions
Practice-Writing Essential and Key Questions
Write at least one open-ended Essential Question that applies to your entire standard.
Write at least one Key Question to apply to each of the clarifying objectives for your standard.
You may write additional questions for some clarifying objectives.
State some of the important differences between Essential Question and the Key Questions for your standard and
the clarifying objectives.
Repeat this chart on additional copies for the other standards you were assigned.
Checklist before sharing/discussing with your classmates.
1. The question applies to the standard in its entirety
Yes___No___
2. The Key Questions apply to the clarifying objective of the standard (rather than the
standard as a whole)
Yes___No___
Now you need to ask some basic questions in order to possible revise it.
These will also assist in generating lessons to lead students toward the answer.
1. What should the student have learned prior to the lesson? ________________________________________
2. What will the student need to know in order to answer the question? _______________________________
3. What strategies will actively engage the student as they work toward the answer? ____________________
4. How will you know that the students are learning the information? _________________________________
5. How will the students demonstrate their final answer to the question?_______________________________
Identifying Knowledge and Skills
Describe, in a sentence or a few bullets, what this standard expects a student to KNOW.
Describe, in a sentence or a few bullets, what this standard expects a student to be able to DO.
List ideas of lessons, units, projects, assessments, etc. that could be applied to this standard.
Repeat this chart on additional copies for
the other standards you were assigned.