Essential Questions Book Study, Part 1

I’m facilitating a blog book study this summer on “Essential Questions: Opening Doors to Student Understanding” by Jay McTighe and Grant Wiggins.  This book has opened my eyes to the power of essential questions.  Not only are they a crucial part of any unit of instruction, but they are an integral part of creating collaborative inquiry in your classroom.

Here are some thoughts on the first two chapters of the book:

Chapter 1 and 2

These first two chapters are packed full of exciting information. It has really added to my thinking of what questions should we be asking in class as well as on assessments.  But more importantly, what is the intent behind my questions.  Thinking about my intent in asking a question is something I think I have given a little bit of thought, but it has not been something I have done explicitly when planning which questions I will ask in a lesson.  Having the characteristics of EQs (essential questions) will help me to make sure I actually have EQs.  The information on the various types of nonessential questions also helped to identify questions that I thought were essential but are in reality a leading, guiding, or a question that hooks the students.

The reasons the author gives to use essential questions were very thought provoking for me.  The big take aways for me were using EQs to make a unit intellectually engaging and providing transparency for students.  I completely agree that we have to make sure to structure our units so students will find them interesting, thought provoking, and worth their time.  It really struck a chord with me that we as adults sit in PD or a class and want to know why is this important to me, will I be able to take this and use it in my classroom right now, and is this worth my time.  Our students want to know the same things.