Chapter 5: Essential Questions: Doorways to Understanding

1. Chapter 5: Essential Questions: Doorways to Understanding Interpreted by Dr. Rich Hawkins and Dr. Deborah De LucaPresented By:Laura Mastrogiovanni

2. Essential Questions Given particular subject matter or a particular concept, it is easy to ask trivial questions…It is also easy to ask impossibly difficult questions. The trick is to find medium questions that can be answered and that take you somewhere. ~ Jerome Bruner 1960

3. Essential Questions If the goal is to help students make good sense and use of what they learn, then the design and resultant teaching must explicitly focus on the big ideas that connect and bring meaning to all the discrete facts and skills

4. Essential Questions The best questions serve not only to promote understanding of the content of a unit on a particular topic; they also spark connections and promote transfer of ideas from one setting to others. We call such questions “essential”

5. “Understanding is always fluid, transformable into a new theory.” • What we want students to be able to do is to take information and skills and apply them in new situations rather than “spewing back the particular fact, concepts, or problem sets that were taught.”

6. Essential Questions: • Are arguable ~ and important to argue about • Are at the hear of the subject • Recur ~ and should recur ~ in professional work, adult life, as well as in classroom inquiry • Raise more questions ~ provoking and sustaining engaged inquiry • Often raise important conceptual of philosophical issues • Can provide organizing purpose for meaningful & connected learning

7. An Essential Question: • is a provocative question designed to engage student interest and guide inquiry into the important ideas in a field of study. • does not have one “right” answer • is intended to stimulate discussion and rethinking over time • raises other important questions • When using more than one, essential questions can be differentiated to meet student needs.

8. Essential Questions The six criteria make clear what the aim must be for the question t be deemed essential: The goal must be robust and revealing inquiry, leading to deeper understandings and new questions.

9. Essential Questions Essential questions can be framed around 4 categories of big idea relevant to effective skill learning: Key Concepts Purpose and Values Strategy and Tactics Context of Use~ page 113

10. Example: • Topic – Martin Luther King • What events and people influenced MLK to become a leader in Civil Rights? • How did MLK change the world today? • What techniques did MLK use to persuade the world that his ideas were important? • How did MLK’s leadership and philosophies influence the US position?

11. Two Types of Essential Questions: • Over-Arching – Point beyond a unit to a larger, transferable idea. May link a topic to other topics and subjects. Ex: What in Shakespeare’s plays make them “classic” literature? • Topical – can be answered by uncovering a unit’s content. They stay within the bounds of the topic. They can be answered as a result of in-depth inquiry. Ex: After reading Merchant of Venice, answer the question: Is Shakespeare prejudice? • Let’s review page 115

12. Three types of knowledge • Good to know; knowledge worth being familiar with; covered in class • Essential, important to know; uncovered in class • Enduring knowledge; has understanding beyond the classroom; student come to the realization

13. Grade 4 Unit: Electricity; Reports Knowledge worth being familiar with; facts covered in class Vocabulary: protons, electrons, friction, volts, etc. Lightning facts A circuit is a continuous loop of energy and motion. Parts of a circuit How has electricity changed the world? How is electricity an energy source in my world? How is electricity helpful and harmful? Static electricity is caused by friction/ transfer of electrons 3 types of circuits: simple; series; parallel Make up of a molecule Schematics Enduring knowledge: These have value beyond the classroom. Student come to the realization. There are different energy sources and they all produce electricity Knowledge and skills important to know. These are uncovered in class.

14. Grade 8 Unit: Role of Government Reports/ Persuasive Knowledge worth being familiar with; facts covered in class Vocabulary: self-interest, government, democracy, law, etc. Federal/ state/ local Why national parks were created Enduring knowledge: These have value beyond the classroom. Student come to the realization. Whose job is it to solve America’s problems? Choose a national park – Whose job is it to preserve this park? Names and locations of national parks How a law Is made? The enduring knowledge question may embed the facts learned in the other parts of the circle. What is the difference between government and committed group? length of terms of office Knowledge and skills important to know. These are uncovered in class. Background – growth of industrialism

15. High School Unit: Holocaust: Reports/Persuasive/ Project Knowledge and skills important to know. These are uncovered in class. Nazi philosophy; fascism; totalitarian government; racism; anti-Semitism Leaders Courage to Care: Warsaw Ghetto; Denmark; Avenue of the Just Enduring knowledge: These have value beyond the classroom. Student come to the realization. Progression of laws How do individuals, groups, towns, and countries make a difference? How can we make a difference? Difference between bias, prejudice, discrimination Events The enduring knowledge question may embed the facts learned in the other parts of the circle. Preparing for obedience: propaganda, role of education, indoctrination of people Knowledge and skills important to know. These are uncovered in class.

16. Essential ~ Asked to be argued Designed to “uncover” new ideas, views, lines of argument Set up inquiry, heading to new understandings Leading ~ Asked as a reminder, to prompt recall Designed to “cover” knowledge Point to a single, straightforward fact - a rhetorical question Essential vs. Leading Questions used in teaching (Stage 3)

17. Essential Questions & Six Facets of Understanding Let’s look at page 120 to put it all together Explain Self Knowledge Interpret UNDERSTANDING Empathize Apply Perspective

18. Bloom’s Taxonomy Creating Generating new ideas, products, or ways of viewing things Designing, constructing, planning, producing, inventing Evaluating Justifying a decision or course of action Checking, hypothesizing, critiquing, experimenting, judging Analyzing Breaking information into parts to explore understandings and relationships Comparing, organizing, deconstructing, interrogating, finding Applying Using information in another familiar situation Implementing, carrying out, using, executing Understanding Explaining ideas or concepts Interpreting, summarizing, paraphrasing, classifying, explaining Remembering Recalling information Recognizing, listing, describing, retrieving, naming, finding