BDG0101 Essential Questions

DESCRIPTION: Teachers who earn the Essential Questions Micro-Credential create and use overarching unit questions that stimulate student curiosity by connecting the key inquiries of the subject matter to students’ lives.

EARNING THE MICRO-CREDENTIAL: To earn the Essential Questions Micro-Credential, teachers use their understanding of the subject matter to create intriguing questions that span several lessons and uncover important and timeless truths. The teacher will select a unit or series of related lessons and create an essential question that will be shared with students to arouse their curiosity and lead them to deeper understandings. Earners will write a 300- to 500-word description of the unit or lessons, the essential question, and a   description of how that question meets the seven defining characteristics developed by McTighe and Wiggins (2013, p. 3). Earners will also video-record themselves using the essential question to inspire learning within an actual lesson.

RESEARCH BASE: Essential questions were popularized by McTighe and Wiggins (2000) in their book Understanding by Design. Since the early 2010s, educators have been using essential questions to motivate students to dig deeply and connect learning to their lives.

BACKGROUND: The following are useful tools to better understand the topic.

McTighe & Wiggins (2013). Essential questions: Opening Doors to Student Understanding. Alexandria VA: ASCD. Chapter 1 Retrieved from

https://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=nQBRBAAAQBAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PP1&dq=essential+questions+in+classrooms
&ots=Eyj_t_3pII&sig=roruMMBnafTnRr1SNSWGh_LZt54#v=onepage&q=essential%20questions%20in%20classrooms&f=false

Wilhelm, J. (2012). Essential Questions. Scholastic Instructor. Holiday Issue. 24-27. Retrieved from https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ991956.pdf

Video: Overview of McTighe & Wiggins: https://youtu.be/lsx1tsuEm6k

MICRO-CREDENTIAL CRITERIA:

The essential questions micro-credential earner can do the following:

1. Stimulate student inquiry through essential questions.
2. Create essential questions that meet McTighe & Wiggins’ seven defining characteristics.
3. Connect the essential questions to students’ lives.

SKILL DEMONSTRATION:

Submit a written reflection

Create a written document of 300-500 words that includes the following:

1. The essential question.
2. A short description of the unit or series of lessons to which the essential question applies.
3. An explanation of how the essential question stimulates student inquiry and meets McTighe & Wiggins’ (2013, p. 3) seven defining characteristics.

 

Submit a lesson video

Keep in mind the following:

1. Include the teacher and students discussing the essential question.
2. Indicate the times for the key video footage.
3. Delete any irrelevant footage.
4. Obtain permission for students to be video recorded.

RUBRIC:

CLICK HERE for rubric

RESOURCES:

Books

McTighe & Wiggins (2013). Essential questions: Opening Doors to Student Understanding. Alexandria VA: ASCD.

McConnell, C. (2011). The essential questions handbook: Essential questions for the content areas. New York: Scholastic.

Articles

Wiggins, G. & Wilbur, D. (2015) How to make your questions essential. Educational Leadership. 73(1). 10-15. Retrieved from http://www.ascd.org/publications/educational-leadership/sept15/vol73/num01/How-to-Make-Your-Questions-Essential.aspx

Wilhelm, J. (2012). Essential Questions. Scholastic Instructor. Holiday Issue. 24-27. Retrieved from https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ991956.pdf

Lattimer, H. (2008). Challenging history: Essential questions in the social studies classroom. Social Education. 72(6). 326-329. Retrieved from http://gorospeg.tripod.com/pdf/EssentialQuestioningArticle.pdf

Learning-Focused website: https://learningfocused.com/essential-questions/

TeachThought (2019). A giant list of really good essential questions. Retrieved from TeachThought.com https://www.teachthought.com/pedagogy/examples-of-essential-questions/

McKenzie, J. (2005). Essential questions. The Question Mark. 1(5) Retrieved from http://questioning.org/mar05/essential.html

Videos

Essential Questions from Class Network: https://youtu.be/wfpeubJgX5s

What Are Essential Questions: https://youtu.be/NF0O-oCaUq4

Essential Questions from Massachusetts DESE: https://youtu.be/qwWoQju88tw

Essential Questions at the Primary & Secondary Levels from ACPS Talent Development: http://www.acpsk12.org/pl/acps-classrooms-in-focus/essential-questions/

Questioning from MLC Free Resources (20:19–28:14): https://vimeo.com/196143139

Martin Luther College Courses

EDU8509 Elements of Effective Instruction: 1-credit satellite course

(Contact meyerjd@mlc-wels.edu to schedule at a location near you.)