Unit of Instruction Support: Essential Questions

How can we become clearer on what is being asked of us and reflect in a
manner that brings about deeper understanding for us and our students?

Recently during a building collaboration, we were looking at a teacher-designed unit of instruction, analyzing it compared to the scoring rubric.  This simple activity assisted the teaching staff in understanding expectations of unit design, and highlighted for many the clear differences in our understanding of essential and guiding questions. These conversations left me wondering over the weekend.  How can we become clearer on what is being asked of us and reflect in a manner that brings about deeper understanding for us and our students?  As I was reflecting I began drawing from my earlier experiences with Grant Wiggins and Jay McTighe.  Several years ago we had been focusing on essential questions and enduring understandings as a district.  I remember what Wiggins and McTighe were proposing seemed to be a  far reaching goal that was more of a theory than something that could be put into practice in every subject, throughout the day, on a daily bases.  Essential questions serve as “doorways to understanding”.  Teachers should use them to probe deeper into student thinking and understanding.  Students should be provided them in creating understanding and inquiry in their work and learning. 

Essential questions:

• Signal that inquiry is a key goal of education;
• Make it more likely that the unit will be intellectually engaging;
• Help clarify and prioritize standards;
• Provide transparency for students (Where are we going with all this?);
• Encourage and model metacognition;
• Provide opportunities for intra- and interdisciplinary connections;
• Support meaningful differentiation.

Good essential questions have seven key characteristics:

• They are open-ended; there isn't a single, final, correct answer.
• They are thought-provoking and intellectually engaging, often sparking discussion and debate.
• They call for higher-order thinking - analysis, inference, evaluation, and prediction.
• They point toward important, transferable ideas within (and sometimes across) disciplines.
• They raise additional questions and encourage further inquiry.
• They require support and justification, not just an answer.
• They beg to be revisited over time.

 All questions are not created equal.  As we design our questioning, one has to have a clear understanding of when questions are essential, and when our questions are not essential.  Three kinds of questions are useful in teaching and student learning but are NOT essential:

• Questions that LEAD – They point to a single, correct answer – for example, Which letters in the alphabet are vowels?
• Questions that GUIDE – These are a little more robust than leading questions, but they
  still point students toward previously targeted knowledge and skills – for example, Can you state Newton’s 2nd Law in your own words?
• Questions that HOOK – At the beginning of a lesson or unit, a teacher uses these to grab students’ attention and provoke wonder – for example, a science teacher in an Alaskan village asked students, Are we drinking the same water as our ancestors?

Anyone that has worked with Wiggins, in person or through his written works, can tell you about his love of sports. His love for sports is continually highlighted in analogies that he uses to bring the theories of enduring understandings and essential questions into relevant classroom practice.  As a mother of two boys, Wiggin's connection to his children’s sports leaves me continually reflecting on school and education theories and practices on the sports field.  Sports is not about winning or losing, it is about setting, moving toward and reaching goals individually and with others.  Today, the Common Core Standards and the educational programming in our schools require the same thing. Students need to set, move toward and reach goals individually and with others.   The classroom’s culture determines the risks students are willing to take and the authenticity of their engagement. Effective questioning makes our teaching better, and creates an inquiry atmosphere in classrooms.

As you continue to work toward meeting your students’ needs please take the time to stop and reflect on how your questioning and linguistic choices have impacted learning and inquiry in your classroom.  Remember all questions are not created equal.

Additional Resources
Understanding by Design:  Essential Questions
iTeach |  Essential Questions

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Post by Johna Sutton | Elkhorn Instructional Coach