Essential Questions
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Introduction: Essential questions can be used to focus the unit study. They remind students of the understanding they are trying to reach.
Essential Questions:
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Have no obvious right answer. |
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Raise other important questions and often cross subject-area boundaries. |
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Address the philosophical or conceptual foundations of a discipline. |
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Recur naturally. |
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Are framed to provoke and sustain student interest. |
Directions: Use the following template to write essential questions that focus on each of the six facets of understanding (Wiggins and McTighe)
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Explanation: Sophisticated explanations and theories that proviae knowledgeable accounts of events; action, and ideas. |
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Interpretation: Interpretations, narratives; and franslations that proviae meaning. |
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Application: The ability to use knowledge effectively in new situations and diverse contexts. |
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Perspective: Critical and insightful viewpoints. |
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Empathy: The ability to identify with another person's feelings and woridview. |
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Self-knowledge: Wisdom to know one's ignorance and how one's patterns of thought and action inform as well as prejudice understanding. |
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| Example | Non-Example |
| How does the structure of an organism help it to function and keep the organism alive? | How many legs do spiders have? |
| How do political decisions made in Mexico influence our lives in the United States? | What are three major cities in Brazil? |
| Is civil disobedience always wrong? | Name one rule in our community that monitors behaviors of teenagers? |
| How would our lives be different without technology? | What is the definition of technology? |
Compare the questions in each column. The questions on the left are examples of essential questions, while those on the right are not. What are some characteristics you see that the essential questions have in common?
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Adapted from Understanding by Design Institute, Grant Wiggins and Jay McTigne |
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