Designing Curriculum Through Essential Questions

To elaborate on the previous post of teaching in an information and technology-rich environment, and getting away from the lecture/text mentality, I thought it would be helpful to explain a bit on writing curriculum, starting with essential questions. An essential question is basically what you want the students to examine and learn from the unit being taught- the most important concepts from which students will derive the most meaning. It gives students the purpose of their learning and helps to focus tasks and projects on the essential learning. Many teachers begin a lesson or unit with an "objective:" students will learn the three branches of government as organized on the US Constitution. However, by focusing instruction beginning with an essential question, the teacher is instead provoking thought and encouraging investigation and inquiry from students. Imagine the difference beginning with "How is the Constitution the backbone structure of America?" rather than the previous objective. Which do you think a student would be more excited over: "Students will learn to recognize personal responsibility to their community," or "What do I owe my community...Or do I?" Essential questions can be simple and still be thought provoking. "What is snow?" "What flies?" can elicit questions from students such as "Is artificial snow still snow?" and responses such as time and ideas in addition to birds, butterflies, and squirrels (ever seen Rocky and Bullwinkle?!).

Tips for writing essential questions:
1. Each child should be able to understand the question
2. The language of the questions should be written in broad, organizational terms
3. The question should reflect your conceptual priorities (you are limited in time; this helps organize what you want students to think about, write about, speak about, and develop)
4. Each question should be distinct and substantial (it should cue students to the set of activities they will be examining)
5. Questions should not be repetitious
6. The questions should be realistic given the amount of time allocated for the unit or course
7. There should be a logical sequence to a set of essential questions
8. The questions should be posted in the classroom
(Above is summarized from Mapping the Big Picture: Integrating Curriculum and Assessment by Heidi Hayes Jacobs)

Let me give an example on how this works:
You check the science pacing guide and realize you are woefully behind and there is a school visit in two weeks. You have two weeks to teach the water cycle, so you check the text to see how many sections students will have to read each day to get the information. Oops. There's no way. Who designed these pacing guides anyway? They obviously aren't a classroom teacher! OK. Plan B. You check the formative to see what the students are expected to know after you teach the unit (No, this isn't cheating. It is important to know the priorities and expectations). Students will need to know about precipitation, evaporation, and condensation, aquifers, reservoirs, tanks and wells, percentages of different types of water... You could spend a few days on each topic and just "teach" each concept, but then there is no structure to the random activities or topics and students may not be able to relate them together. You need something to organize your tasks and get the kids excited about the topic so that you can get started right away. You look back at the objective written on your lesson plans: "students will know the three steps of the water cycle and the importance of water in our society." Hmmm... you're not sure this is what you thought of when contemplating getting the kids excited. But water has been in the news lately from the droughts in Georgia, to hurricane season, to tsunamis, to acid rain, heavy snows during the Green Bay-Seattle playoff game... You think it's interesting and important... Bingo! "Why is the water cycle important?" You now have your essential question.

You then spend a couple of days having the students explore a variety of resources to generate some background knowledge and develop curiosity. They watch a brainPOP cartoon on the water cycle, look at the non-fiction books you checked out from the library, view an overview of the water cycle from an excerpt of a video downloaded from Safari Montage, play some of the water cycle activities from the student section of the library website... Students then come up with questions of their own about the water cycle. You spend a few days doing some activities to answer their questions like creating models of an aquifer in a plastic cup with some aquarium gravel, sand and modeling clay, and taking them outside to simulate with their bodies water molecules getting through rocks, sand, and clay, and making a terrarium with some plants and a 2-litre bottle to show the water process and its effects on the plants without having to water them, and a Reader's Theatre version of the book A River Runs Wild. You incorporate the vocabulary from the text book into each of the activities so that students are familiar with the terms. During Readers Workshop, you find some leveled readers that PTA purchased, you bring in other genres like the periodical, Kids Discover- the issue on water, you find the newspaper articles on the drought in Georgia showing the photos of Lake Lanier (their primary water source) before and after... In Writers Workshop students write on the water cycle based on the genre being taught at the time. If it is report writing, students can write on the three stages of the water cycle of the effects of water pollution. If it is procedural writing, students can write on how to give plants water without having to actually water them (remember that terrarium activity?) or steps to reduce water consumption and save water. If it is persuasive writing, students can write on whether we should share water from our aquifer with Georgia or the importance or not of the melting of the polar ice caps. If it is narrative writing, students can write a story about a day they were caught in the rain or a retelling of Frosty the Snowman when he melted and came back to life. Students then can pick an activity for a summative assessment to answer the essential question: "Why is the water cycle important?" Some students create a poster, a few loved the Reader's Theatre activity and worked as a group to write their own play, one created a rap and performed it for the class, one created a comic strip using Comic Life on the Mac, some wrote a traditional report, one did a podcast, while still others created a power point.

Lo and behold, the school visit team stops by your room (of course) and they notice a class full of engaged students actively involved in the learning process. They are impressed, your students are happy, and life is good. The students don't even mind taking the formative assessment because they actually know and remember all the content!

I have many professional development books on inquiry, questioning, and curriculum if you would like to learn more. Just stop by your school library!