Sharpen your EQ
What is an essential question? Questions that probe for deeper meaning and set the stage for further questioning foster the development of critical thinking skills and higher order capabilities such as problem-solving and understanding complex systems. A good essential question is the principle component of designing inquiry-based learning.
What constitutes a good essential question? In general, the best essential questions center around major issues, problems, concerns, interests, or themes relevant to students’ lives and to their communities. Good essential questions are open-ended, non-judgmental, meaningful and purposeful with emotive force and intellectual bite, and invite an exploration of ideas. Good essential questions encourage collaboration amongst students, teachers, and the community and integrate technology to support the learning process.
How do we write good essential questions? First, consider the focus of the unit or lesson activity. Ideas for a good essential question may stem from your students’ particular interests in a topic (e.g. What makes a video game good?), community resources (How does pollution impact the Rio Grande River?), local curriculum expectations (e.g. Who was a great New Mexican leader?), or a topic suggested by the standards themselves (e.g. Where do waves come from?). Then, examine the theme or concept in the curriculum that must be addressed and brainstorm questions that you or the students believe would cause them to think about the concept without dictating the direction or outcome of their thinking (e.g. “Why is fighting bad?” contains its own answer, namely that fighting is bad). Finally, utilize the six typical queries that newspaper articles address: Who? What? Where? When? Why? and How? and add the word “good” in front of the theme or concept.
http://mathstar.nmsu.edu/exploration1/unit/content_questions.html
Once you have decided your group’s essential question, post it here on behalf of your group (one post per group). Once someone has established their group’s question, no other group can use that same question. Be creative!
This is a great blog post, Brandi. I have bookmarked it and sent it through my feed because it deserves to be read! Anyone who has to work with essential questions should read this!