Essential Questions

What question is the right question?



Created by,
Gayle Cantrell
Barbara Bray


Curriculum Info  Meet the Authors


Bray, Barbara. questions.jpg


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Introduction

The essential question is the driving question behind an inquiry-based lesson. It should connect the identified concepts and provide the framework for student investigation. Essential questions should do the following:

  • Have no one right answer
  • Involve thinking, not just answering
  • Help students make connections to past experience
  • Require students to make decisions or to develop plans of action
  • Make connections to past experiences
  • Not be “What is...?” questions
  • Lie at the boundary of what is known and not known
  • Be intriguing, mysterious and motivating
  • Require students to think at the higher levels of Bloom’s Taxonomy
  • Have answers that students cannot simply look up and find (students must apply research to construct original answers).

Check out the online resources that look at essential questions and strategies to help aid development of essential questions.

Ask
    •Asking the Essential Questions
    •Curriculum Development: Asking the Essential Question
    •WebQuest: Asking the Right Question
Define
    •Essential Questions
    •Research Papers
Asking Essential Questions and Good Supporting Questions Makes the Effort More Than a Game of Fact Chasing
    •Teacher Developed Essential Questions
Templates, Brainstorming using Inspiration, Samples
    •Integrating Web Resources - Essential Questions
    •The Importance of Essential Questions
Develop
    •Developing Essential Questions
    •Writing Essential Questions
    •WebQuest on Essential Questions
    •Lesson Planning to Develop Higher Order Skills
    •Reaching Reluctant Readers
Online presentation on using essential questions to engage students

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Last updated: April 30 2007, 8:59 am
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