Essential+Questions


 * Essential questions are “important questions that recur throughout all our lives.” They are “broad in scope and timeless by nature.”
 * Essential questions refer to “core ideas and inquiries within a discipline.” They “point to the core of big ideas in a subject and to the frontiers of technical knowledge. They are historically important and alive in the field.”
 * Essential questions help “students effectively inquire and make sense of important but complicated ideas, knowledge, and know-how — a bridge to findings that experts may believe are settled but learners do not yet grasp or see as valuable.”
 * Essential questions “will most engage a specific and diverse set of learners.” They “hook and hold the attention of //your// students.”
 * Essential questions addresses the "heart of the discipline" being studied. Essential disciplinary knowledge will be required to answer it.
 * Essential questions honors students "reality principle." It addresses their point of view and need for an inquiry to be interesting and relevant in their terms.
 * Essential questions may lead to new questions asked by the students.

[|K-5 Examples of Essential Questions] [|6-12 Examples of Essential Questions] [|PE Big Ideas and Essential Questions] [|UBD Links] Click on Essential Questions for examples of essential questions.

[|Inquiry Based Learning Engages Students] An Interview with Jeffrey Wilhelm [|Using Inquiry in Language Arts] An Interview with Jeffrey Wilhelm