Lesson 2: Developing Essnetial Questions
Lesson 2: Developing Essential Questions
Goals: To introduce the learner to essential questions, explain how they tie into big ideas, and have the learner practice forming essential questions.
Introduction: An essential question is a question that has no right or wrong answer that helps the learner to think deeper about the concept of the lesson. Essential questions are utilized to lead students to a higher level of thinking about universal topics, and creates opportunities for them to form opinions and have important discussions about these topics.
A question is essential when it:
- causes a genuine investigation of the big idea
- provokes more questions and relevant discussions around the big idea
- there is no right or wrong answer and requires the students to consider other possible answers
- causes students to re-think big ideas and challenge their pre-conceived notions of the topic
- sparks meaningful connections with prior learning and personal experiences
- creates opportunities to connect to other situations and subject
The difference between essential questions and leading questions are that they are not factual and the teacher is not looking for a certain answer. Essential questions are crucial to big idea art education because students must form their own opinions and connections about a big idea in order to fully understand it. Using essential questions allows for the students to form a deeper understanding of the big idea that is presented to them and will help them to come up with a wider range of meaningful ideas for their work.
Task: Complete the attached reading about identifying essential questions and how to create an essential question. Once you complete the reading, open the attached document to practice identifying essential questions and creating your own.
File:Essential Questions Worksheet.pdf
File:LP Resource Bid Ideas McTighe-Wiggins Essential Questions (1).pdf