At the moment I am struggling with the concept of Essential Questions, what they are and what they aren’t. This is a term that is used in many different ways by many different people in a variety of circles. When looking at the essential question from an inquiry or research point of view, this is the question that is narrowed and refined to point the researcher in the direction of learning. We have heard this term again and again in the experience at Newark Museum, and often the learning stations are filled with these kinds of essential questions.
But the Wiggins and McTigue concept of Essential Questions (with a capital EQ) is a bit different. From the work that I have done with Grant Wiggins as part of the Task Force for Clarifying the New Jersey Core Content Standards, the work of selecting Essential Questions was long, tedious, and controversial. A team of us from around the state needed to decide on what we believe the Essential Questions for Language Arts should be. Essential Questions by Wiggins and McTigue are seen as “doorways to understanding” and push to the heart, or the essence, of learning. These questions are not just topical, looking for an answer that remains simplistic in its answering, but rather has many layers, can be continuously explored, year after year.
Some examples of these kinds of Essential Questions in writing are (Wiggins 2007):
v Why write? What if writing didn’t exist? Why share personal experiences in writing? How is written language different from spoken language?
v What makes writing worth reading?
v What makes writing flow?
v How do effective writers hook and hold their readers?
v Why am I writing? For whom? What am I trying to achieve through my writing? Who will read my writing? What will work best for my audience?
These questions practically beg to be investigated. They are created to uncover ideas, create meaning and inquiry to bring students to new understandings. Furthermore, these Essential Questions come from what Wiggins and McTigue call Big Ideas: a conceptual lens for prioritizing content which act as an organizer for connecting important facts, skills, and actions. Examples of Big Ideas are: writing as self expression or writing to persuade.
While these definitions are clear, actually creating Essential Questions to begin a unit of study is quite challenging. I just need to live with and try out the questions, grapple with their validity, revise, and move from there.
Resources:
Grant Wiggins, Powerpoint Presentation at the NJ Task Force for Clarifying the Core Curriculum Content Standards, 2007.
Wiggins, G. & McTighe, J. (2005). Understanding by Design 2nd ed. ASCD: Alexandria, VA [ISBN 1-4166-0035-3].
3 comments:
That is interesting. A bit different then I saw big questions. I almost feel like those are too big. I mean they are great questions, but honestly I am not sure if those would help me prepare better classes.
In that sense, EQs in UBD and in Inquiry projects are very similar. They need to be grappled with if they are to be really good. And, even EQs in inquiry projects start out much more like those in UBD. Just keep the bigger concepts in mind: What is worth learning? What defines the heart of a problem or a discipline?
I am so impressed by this whole blog. I found these questions to be very helpful in trying to understand where I want to go with my own unit plan. Thanks for posting them!
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