• What do you want the kids to know to be able to understand about the world around them when they’re 42 and remember back to the whole point of what they learned in this unit?
• Deliberately framed as a full sentence (that is a statement, not a question)– “Students will understand THAT…”
• Implicitly answer the question, “Why do we have to learn this?”
• Transferable beyond the classroom
• At the heart of the discipline
• They summarize the key meanings, inferences, and importance of the ‘content’
• Stated in student-friendly terms
• They are not completely obvious
• They are concise
• Require “uncoverage” because they are not “facts” to the novice, but unobvious inferences drawn from facts - counter-intuitive & easily misunderstood
• Through the knowledge and skills, they come to understand the understandings.
• Some questions for reflection (all will likely not be simultaneously true)
o Do they have many layers and nuances, not obvious to the naïve or inexperienced person?
o Can they yield great depth and breadth of insight into the subject?
o Do you have to dig deep to really understand its subtle meanings and implications even if anyone can have a surface grasp of it?
o Are they prone to misunderstanding as well as disagreement?
o Do they reflect the core ideas as judged by experts?
Friday, May 16, 2008
Essential Questions
• The content you teach allows students to be able to answer your essential questions, but the content itself is not a direct answer to any essential question
• They stimulate interest and thought, get the students interested in what they will be learning
• They make you want to have a conversation
• They force the students to have to engage/manipulate the knowledge and skills in order to be able to answer the essential questions
• They have no direct, obvious “right” answers
• They sometimes have more than one possible answer
• They may stimulate debate
• They may stimulate philosophical perspective taking
• They raise other important questions, often across subject areas
• They address the conceptual foundations of the discipline
• They challenge thinking at higher levels (Bloom’s Taxonomy)
• Use questions as a way for students to develop and deepen their understanding of something
• Use to clarify misconceptions and challenge something that is assumed is true
• Don’t be afraid to go outside of the content when framing questions (e.g. Who is more wrong, the man who beats his wife or his neighbor that knows it happens, but does nothing?)
• They stimulate interest and thought, get the students interested in what they will be learning
• They make you want to have a conversation
• They force the students to have to engage/manipulate the knowledge and skills in order to be able to answer the essential questions
• They have no direct, obvious “right” answers
• They sometimes have more than one possible answer
• They may stimulate debate
• They may stimulate philosophical perspective taking
• They raise other important questions, often across subject areas
• They address the conceptual foundations of the discipline
• They challenge thinking at higher levels (Bloom’s Taxonomy)
• Use questions as a way for students to develop and deepen their understanding of something
• Use to clarify misconceptions and challenge something that is assumed is true
• Don’t be afraid to go outside of the content when framing questions (e.g. Who is more wrong, the man who beats his wife or his neighbor that knows it happens, but does nothing?)
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