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Focus on Essential Questions

Focus on Essential Questions. Allison Zmuda, Facilitator zmuda@competentclassroom.com. Goal during this session. Identify, create and refine essential questions to focus a given unit Content focus Skill focus. Design Standards for Essential Questions.

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Focus on Essential Questions

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  1. Focus on Essential Questions Allison Zmuda, Facilitator zmuda@competentclassroom.com

  2. Goal during this session • Identify, create and refine essential questions to focus a given unit • Content focus • Skill focus

  3. Design Standards for Essential Questions • Frames and provokes thinking and dialogue • Promotes inquiry and exploration rather than straight-forward answers • Genuine, compelling questions that link the classroom to the outside world • Requires drawing on prior knowledge to challenge and/or develop thinking and create new knowledge

  4. Sample Skill Essential Questions • How do I say what I mean? • Why do people tell their stories? How do they tell them effectively? • How do I use my inferences to draw conclusions? Is my conclusion supported by evidence? • When does focusing on technique/method help? When does it get in the way? How do you make necessary adjustments? • How can I use what I’ve learned to create something new or to solve new problems? • How can I improve my performance?

  5. Sample Content Essential Questions SCIENCE • What makes objects move the way they do? • What does it mean to be alive? • How have human activities shaped local and global ecology? • How does a body repair itself?

  6. Sample Content Essential Questions PHYSICAL EDUCATION • Am I challenging myself today? What adjustments do I need to make? • How do I/we score? How do I/we prevent scoring from happening? • What is the other team doing right or wrong? How does that change how I/we play? • How does my understanding of the game enhance performance? • What makes an effective team?

  7. Sample Content Essential Questions SOCIAL STUDIES • Why do people have to get along? (K-3 version) How do people, communities, and states interact? (4-5 version) What obligations do nations have to each other? (6-12 version) • What makes NH special? (K-4 version) What makes New Hampshire a leader on the national stage? (5-12 version)

  8. Sample Skill Essential Questions • What do I already know? How can I use that to help me? Is there more that I need for this problem/task? • Is there a pattern here? If so (or not) what does that tell me? Can I use this information to make predictions/generalizations? • Does my answer/solution/conclusion make sense? What does it mean?What is the best way to explain it?

  9. Essential Questions vs. Factual Knowledge

  10. Final product: Content and Skill-based Essential Questions • What kinds of experiences inform and shape a poet's work? • How do I find what I’m looking for? How do I evaluate the usefulness and credibility of the source? • How does one's point of view influence what we write and the way we write?   • What makes a web page easy to use? What makes a page interesting and inviting?

  11. Final product: Content and Skill-based Essential Questions • What do legends and folktales reveal about human nature? • Who are the heroes in our lives? • How do effective second language readers overcome the challenge of understanding texts where many words, expressions, and structures are unfamiliar? • How do proficient speakers negotiate meaning? • How can I use my limited vocabulary and grammatical background effectively explain ideas in writing so that other people can comprehend my message?

  12. Final product: Content and Skill-based Essential Questions • How do stories explain the world around us? • How does purpose impact my writing?

  13. Final product: Content and Skill-based Essential Questions • What new challenges does this piece of music present? • What patterns are in the music? How does that help me to perform it? • How good is good enough? • What am I learning from seeing and listening to others?

  14. Need assistance? • Right now… • Will be stationed in the auditorium and outside in the hall • In between sessions… • zmuda@competentclassroom.com • Will give advice based on the SAU 70 design standards for Essential Questions

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