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"Essential questions are, ask Grant Wiggins defines, “‘essential’ in the sense of signaling genuine, important and necessarily-ongoing inquiries.” These are grapple-worthy, substantive questions that not only require wrestling with, but are worth wrestling with–that could lead students to some critical insight in a 40/40/40-rule sense of the term." 
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Beth Dichter's insight:
Submrge is a website that has the tag line “Deeper Thinking About Games and Education.” It is divided into a number of sections including Games, Activities and Links. What makes this site unique is the information it provides on each game. “Each game page includes important information for teachers, like benefits of play, educational issues for discussion, easily accessible game information, and activities related to the game on Submrge.” In addition to this information there is also a page for each game that includes “important information on the level and subject, but also the activity’s relationship to Bloom’s Taxonomy, Common Core Standards, 21st Century Skills, and the H.E.A.T. Framework. If you are wondering what HEAT Framework stands for think of Higher Order Thinking, Engaged Learning, Authentic Connections and Technology Use. This page also provides a list of learning styles and the games I checked included an Essential Question, The Links section has resources in the following areas: * More on Games as Text * Advice on Games in the Classroom * General Games Collections (many content-specific) If you use games in your classroom, or are considering doing so, this website will provide additional resources that may provide you with new ideas.
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"Teachers regularly pose questions to their students, but the purpose and form of these questions can vary widely. This book is about a particular kind of question—one we call "essential." So, what makes a question "essential"? Let us begin by engaging you in a bit of inquiry using the following concept-attainment exercise to examine the characteristics of an essential question. The exercise has three parts, as explained in the next several paragraphs."
Beth Dichter's insight:
Wiggins and McTighe have a new book out, "Essential Questions: Opening Doors to Student Understanding." ASCD has Chapter 1 available on their website at no cost. This chapter explores "What Makes an Essential Question." Learn more about: * Look through essential questions based on subject area including history social studies, mathematics, language arts, science, arts, and world language * Learn the seven defining characteristics of essential questions This first chapter is rich in content and will help you in understanding the value of essential questions and how to create them for your class. As we move into Common Core this is a critical area that will help guide our classes and it is a great resource to have at our fingertips.
EduClick_España's comment,
June 27, 2013 9:13 AM
as an assessment addict, i just love this post;) Thank you so much and congrats!
Louise Robinson-Lay's comment,
June 27, 2013 5:47 PM
Thanks for your comment. It is a useful article :)
EduClick_España's curator insight,
December 8, 2014 12:09 PM
"Teachers regularly pose questions to their students, but the purpose and form of these questions can vary widely. This book is about a particular kind of question—one we call "essential." So, what makes a question "essential"? Let us begin by engaging you in a bit of inquiry using the following concept-attainment exercise to examine the characteristics of an essential question. The exercise has three parts, as explained in the next several paragraphs."
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"Having essential questions drive curriculum and learning has become core to many educators' instructional practices. Grant Wiggins, in his work on Understanding By Design, describes an essential quetion as: A meaning of “essential” involves important questions that recur throughout one’s life. Such questions are broad in scope and timeless by nature. They are perpetually arguable – What is justice? Is art a matter of taste or principles? How far should we tamper with our own biology and chemistry? Is science compatible with religion? Is an author’s view privileged in determining the meaning of a text? We may arrive at or be helped to grasp understandings for these questions, but we soon learn that answers to them are invariably provisional..."
Beth Dichter's insight:
Why should we teach students to develop their own essential questions? Perhaps because they may be able to develop questions that are engaging and of interest to them. In addition there is information on how to help students generate their own essential questions (additional information in the post): * Begin a New Unit with Students Developing Questions * Create a Taxonomy of Questions * Ask Students to Create Questions as Homework She also shares information on the QFT (Question Formulation Technique) which has six steps, beginning with "Teacher Design a Question Focus" and immediately moves to "Students Produce Questions" and then to "Students Improve Question" and finishes with "Students Reflect on What they have Learned." For more information (and steps 4 and 5) check out the post!
Patrice Bucci's curator insight,
September 29, 2013 7:00 PM
So true... I cringe when I am in classrooms with the packaged program "essential question" of the week on the board...and very often those "essential questions" lack cognitive clarity for the students 
Mary Reilley Clark's curator insight,
January 8, 2014 1:33 PM
A great summary of why questioning still matters. We've been talking about metacognition a lot this year in the library. Learning how to develop questions is a large part of learning how you learn and think. 
Stacey Jackowski's curator insight,
February 19, 2014 8:20 PM
This quote is so true. Learning how to ask essential questions is a skill that we can carry with us for the rest of our lives and facilitates a lifetime of learning.
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Beth Dichter's insight:
This post from Grant Wiggins explores how Essential Questions are used in classrooms, and provides strategies to help teachers use them so that they become part of student work. Wiggins states "the aim is to use the question to frame specific activities, to provide perspective and focus, to prioritize the course, and to signal to students that, eventually, THEY must – on their own – pose this and other key questions." A number of examples are provided as is a more detailed description of an essential question. This description states that an essential question has seven parts. The shorthand version is below. 1. Open ended 2. Thought provoking and intellectually challengine 3. Higher order thinking 4. Important, transferable ideas 5. Raises additional questions 6. Requires support and justification 7. Recurs over time If you are using essential questions, or plan to in the future this post is a great resource!
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Grant Wiggins discusses how he has "become a big believer in the power of crowd-sourcing ideas via social medium..." He starts this post by sharing an twitter experience, where he asked "Who has a great essential question that works really well with kids?" and proceeds to share approximately 15 questions that were shared. Wiggins continues to share some additional experiences in this post as well as a link to a video.
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"...in practice, curriculum maps are almost always not the “living, breathing” documents experts like Heidi Jacobs Hayes promote. They are instead very dead things—lifeless prisons of content to be covered, and boxes to be highlighted...For a curriculum map—or any planned learning experiences—to be vital—and vitally useful—they must be adaptive and circular rather than rigid and linear. ...they must encourage students to continue their pursuit of understanding and self-knowledge."
Beth Dichter's insight:
What can you do to help extend the learning process, to keep it going in your classroom? This post provides "six strategies to help keep the learning going in your classroom." Below are two. * At the end of an activity, project, lesson, or unit ask simple questions: So? So what? What now? What have you learned? Why is that important? What makes sense to do next in light of this progression? * Promote self-directed learning using frameworks that teach students to access, evaluate, and use information in real-time, rather than simply “doing assignments.” Click through to the post to read four more strategies.
Sue J Wilson's curator insight,
November 25, 2013 10:32 AM
"...in practice, curriculum maps are almost always not the “living, breathing” documents experts like Heidi Jacobs Hayes promote. They are instead very dead things—lifeless prisons of content to be covered, and boxes to be highlighted...For a curriculum map—or any planned learning experiences—to be vital—and vitally useful—they must be adaptive and circular rather than rigid and linear. ...they must encourage students to continue their pursuit of understanding and self-knowledge." 
Roberta Orlando's curator insight,
November 26, 2013 9:01 AM
Interesting food for thought...worth reading ;)
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Here are three ways for teachers to prepare to design learning experiences that encourage higher order thinking through the use of technology as a tool for learning.
Beth Dichter's insight:
We know students love to use technology, so how about using technology as a tool to encourage higher order thinking? This post explores three ways you might choose to do this. * Develop a digital tool kit. Go out and find some great tools that will help students use higher order thinking skills. Given them a test drive first, and then create a digital playlist and some digital guides to help students learn how to use them. * Design flexible learning experiences. "Grab your toolkit, embrace Essential Questions, then build lessons around them." And for information on Essential Questions you may want to check out Chapter 1 of the book "Essential Questions: Opening Doors to Student Understanding from ASCD at http://www.ascd.org/publications/books/109004/chapters/What-Makes-a-Question-Essential¢.aspx. * Get out of the way and let students create.
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"What does it mean to read? What does it mean to think? What does it mean to solve problems? What should you be doing in your head when you translate the Spanish? In sum, what is meant to be going on inside that black box called the mind and what is actually going on in their minds? These are our Essential Questions as teachers. It is the continual addressing of these questions that moves us from the ranks of the naïve and ok teachers to skilled professionals. We move from being “teachers” to coaches of learning."
Beth Dichter's insight:
If one goal of essential questions is to get our students to think a question we must ask is how do we go about teaching them do this. This post by Grant Wiggins explores ways to help students learn the necessary skills. Examples are provided and he also shares a book, "When Kids Can’t Read What Teachers Can Do" that provides resources.
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Quoting from the post: I mean, when was the last time you stumbled across a middle schooler who LOVED -- all caps on purpose -- ANY handout that had to do with school? But it's true: My students -- who I surveyed last week in an attempt to gather some feedback about the unit overview sheets that my learning team developed together -- really dig the tool that we're using to give them opportunities to reflect on what they're learning.
Beth Dichter's insight:
Bill Ferriter suggests a different way to share objectives with students through the use of an Overview Sheet. What is an Overview Sheet. Ferriter states it is a "one-page handout that includes a list of every objective that students need to master written in student-friendly language. The handout also includes unit vocabulary and a few essential questions designed to spark thinking and start conversations." An example of one is provided in the post (which you may download and you see part of in the image) as is a download where he shares students thoughts on self assessments. This may be something you would like to try with your students.
Sue Ann's curator insight,
May 29, 2013 4:13 PM
I loved the Unit Overview sheets, and how students rate their mastery of the objectives. 
LeeAnn LaSota's curator insight,
July 20, 2014 9:06 PM
This may not be tech, but it fits perfectly for the new interactive text books!
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An updated and revised look at the three components of digital differentiation by Susan Oxnevad. Each is a ThingLink image, so as you scroll over the image links articles, slideshows, tools and more will be available.
Arthur JACQUEMIN's curator insight,
February 12, 2013 4:41 AM
Quelques schémas et explications bien sentis...
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Technology is a tool that can be used to help teachers facilitate learning experiences that address the diverse learning needs of all students and help them develop 21st Century Skills. At it's most basic level, digital tools can be used to help students find, understand and use information...The goal is to design student-driven learning experiences that are fueled by standards-based Essential Questions and facilicated by digital tools to provide students with flexible learning paths.
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If you are looking for a long list of essential questions this post may be just what you are looking for. There are over 100 essential questions divided into 20 categories. Some of the categories include:
* Social Justice
* Culture: Values, Beliefs & Rituals
* Constructing Identities
* Heroes and "She-roes"
* Nature in the Balance
* Our View of the World and Ourselves
Have fun exploring this extensive list. Be aware that the focus is Humanities and the Arts. If you find it useful and would like to see more that promote STEM inquiry make sure to leave a message in the comment section at te@chthought.