Ask Essential Questions

Standards describe what students know and are able to do. Performance indicators describe the evidence for achieving a standard.

Objectives: should be phrased in terms of student learning: e.g. students will be able to demonstrate, explain, apply, interpret, etc.

Essential Questions: Derive from the six facets of understanding defined by Wiggins and McTighe, authors of Understanding by Design. (ASCD, 1998; 2nd expanded edition, 2005.) Essential questions

address the philosophical or conceptual foundations of a discipline

recur naturally throughout one's learning

raise other important questions, often across subject-area boundaries

have no one obvious right answer

are framed to provoke and sustain student interest

Some sites that explore essential questions:

Big Questions: exploring a big idea through essential questions. See also Spartanburg (SC) SD 3 and Writing Essential Questions.

For the Best Answers, Ask Tough Questions by Joyce Valenza.

Themes & Essential Questions
What types of questions did you ask today? Ask your students to generate questions, too.

Standards Addressed: Explore state and national standards for your content area. See also ISTE NETS and Information Literacy Standards.

Assessment:
Rubrics are a great way to help students see what they are expected to know and be able to do. Kathy Schrock's collection of assessment and rubric information includes rubrics for student-created web pages, PowerPoint presentations, video productions, oral presentations, portfolios, and graphic organizers as well as links to other  rubric sites. Use rubistar to customize your rubrics from a template.

Links collected by Janet Murray
Last updated August, 2007.