To Write an Essential Question [S1 E15]
Today, Marie and I stepped into a raw, vulnerable space: writing an essential question LIVE! Marie is stepping into a brand new course, American Lit, and was ready to sit down and figure out her first essential question for the year.
WHY ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS?
Essential questions are, for us, the single most important structural component to a unit. A solid, interesting, and engaging essential question:
sets the tone for the unit
creates meaning for students for the duration of the unit
helps create a conceptual flow to units throughout the year
establishes a line of inquiry for the unit
THE LIVE WORKSHOP
So here’s what Marie brought with her to our episode recording:
While this might look like the handy work of a serial killer, it’s actually a critical first step in defining your EQ. Knowing the texts, themes, and skills that your unit needs to highlight is how we get to the meat in writing an essential question.
The Question We Wrote
After lots of back and forth, we settled on this question:
If there are always multiple sides to a story, then what is truth?
With this question, we saw so many opportunities to create relevant, teen-centered activities (there are always multiple sides to a break-up story, that’s for sure!) and engaging ways to assess the ways in which they grow in their understanding of this question. The question is versatile across Marie’s potential texts, it covers the main rhetorical and analytical skills that the unit needs to address, and, most importantly, it’s something we can see kids genuinely caring about and even talking about outside of class. WIN.
Links from the episode:
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