As we think about curriculum guides for our fourteen grade levels in ELA, we've come back again
and again to the question of how much structure we should provide for teachers. Engaging in this development process has pushed me back to the work of Grant Wiggins. Here are some of his thoughts on essential questions found at this web site:
What is an essential question? An essential question is – well, essential: important, vital, at the heart of the matter – the essence of the issue. Think of questions in your life that fit this definition – but don’t just yet think about it like a teacher; consider the question as a thoughtful adult. What kinds of questions come to mind? What is a question that any thoughtful and intellectually-alive person ponders and should keep pondering?
In Understanding by Design we remind readers that “essential” has a few different connotations:
One meaning of “essential” involves important questions that recur throughout one’s life.
Such questions are broad in scope and timeless by nature. They are
perpetually arguable – What is justice? Is art a matter of taste or
principles? How far should we tamper with our own biology and
chemistry? Is science compatible with religion? Is an author’s view
privileged in determining the meaning of a text? We may arrive at or be
helped to grasp understandings for these questions, but we soon learn
that answers to them are invariably provisional. In other words, we are
liable to change our minds in response to reflection and experience
concerning such questions as we go through life, and that such changes
of mind are not only expected but beneficial. A good education is
grounded in such life-long questions, even if we sometimes lose sight of
them while focusing on content mastery. The big-idea questions signal
that education is not just about learning “the answer” but about
learning how to learn.
. . .
A question is essential when it:
- causes genuine and relevant inquiry into the big ideas and core content;
- provokes deep thought, lively discussion, sustained inquiry, and new understanding as well as more questions;
- requires students to consider alternatives, weigh evidence, support their ideas, and justify their answers;
- stimulates vital, on-going rethinking of big ideas, assumptions, and prior lessons;
- sparks meaningful connections with prior learning and personal experiences;
- naturally recurs, creating opportunities for transfer to other situations and subjects.
| "What Is an Essential Question?" |
| Grant Wiggins |
| Nov 15, 2007 |
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