Essential Questions are engaging, open-ended questions that educators use to spark student interest in learning the content of the unit about to commence. Even though plainly worded, they carry with them an underlying rigor. For students to respond to Essential Questions in a way that demonstrates genuine understanding requires more than superficial thought. Along with the “unwrapped” concepts and skills from the Essential Standards, educators use the Essential Questions throughout the unit to sharply focus curriculum, instruction, and assessment.

Essential Questions, like their accompanying Big Ideas, are “timeless essentials” to include in the creation of integrated units of study. Together, they characterize this reciprocal relationship between teaching and learning expressed here: Big Ideas are the students’ responses to the teacher’s Essential Questions.

Related Workshop:

COMPOSE BIG IDEAS AND CREATE ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS