{"id":101,"date":"2013-12-04T19:54:25","date_gmt":"2013-12-04T19:54:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cohort21.com\/jenbibby\/?p=101"},"modified":"2013-12-06T16:21:42","modified_gmt":"2013-12-06T16:21:42","slug":"who-should-ask-the-essential-question","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cohort21.com\/jenniferkelly\/2013\/12\/04\/who-should-ask-the-essential-question\/","title":{"rendered":"Revised: Who should ask the (Essential) question?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Do you provide your students with essential questions before launching into a new unit of study? Do you always create the questions, or do you allow students to come with and explore the questions themselves?<\/p>\n

When I began teaching in the independent school system ten years ago, I was introduced to Understanding by Design<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0during my first August PD session, and since then I apply this concept to every course and unit I plan and teach. In the early years I remember lamenting over the exemplars we were provided with, which always neatly presented a science or history course from its initial Essential Questions, to the final task learning outcomes, and finally down to the daily teaching & assessment strategies, and possible differentiation models. I had a hard time connecting with these content-rich courses, when I felt I essentially had carte blanche<\/em> to determine my course content but needed to frame my students’ learning around skills acquisition in communication (speaking, reading, writing and listening) in French.<\/p>\n

I was excited when I came across the following American concept of language learning, called the 5 C’s of Communication:\u00a0\"Actfl<\/a><\/p>\n

It helped shape a general set of essential questions which I consider every time I plan a new unit of study:<\/p>\n

\"Screen
\n<\/a>*Adapted from the 5 C\u2019s of Foreign Language Learning (AASLT)<\/b><\/p>\n

Here is a snapshot of the specific essential questions I recently shared on my gr. 12 LMS page related to our current theme\/unit of study (Culture and the Great Upheaval):<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\"Screen<\/a><\/p>\n

I came across this\u00a0blogpost<\/a>\u00a0<\/strong>claiming that when teachers develop the essential questions for their courses, they do not guarantee that all students will engage as much in their learning as if they had been asked to come up with the essential questions themselves. It reminded my of my Action Plan from last year, when I sought to personalize student learning by having them design their final task for a unit that asked them to consider the above essential questions in relation to the course curriculum. This is a peek at how a google moderator voting session turned out with a Grade 10 French class last year:<\/p>\n

\"Screen<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Now I’m starting to ask myself: should I be throwing it out there to students to not only attempt to answer an essential question or two through the course of a unit, but to actually consider the theme I’ve chosen and create the questions themselves? Perhaps throw up a few leading questions on Moderator and see where it goes? I sometimes feel a great deal of responsibility for the direction I’m leading students, since our curriculum (yet<\/em> to be revised and promising for the past 3 years to provide more guidance in this area!!!) dictates that we provide a variety of opportunities and ways for students to practice their communication skills, but no specific guidance on the content through which we teach these skills.<\/span><\/p>\n

I can’t help but think that the majority of my grade 12 students, who are so concerned lately with their university applications and marks, will demand that I provide them with a list of specific questions and the precise learning path to take towards the final evaluation. Has anyone taken this leap? Can you give me some examples, and let me know how it turned out? I’m embarking on a Modern Art unit to coincide with the AGO exhibition<\/a> and it seems like the right time to try something avant-garde<\/em> (… for me!)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Do you provide your students with essential questions before launching into a new unit of study? Do you always create the questions, or do you allow students to come with and explore the questions themselves? When I began teaching in the independent school system ten years ago, I was introduced to Understanding by Design\u00a0during my … Continue reading “Revised: Who should ask the (Essential) question?”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":23,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wds_primary_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[36,32,20,34,35],"class_list":["post-101","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-backwards-planning","tag-communication","tag-essential-questions","tag-moderator","tag-understanding-by-design"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cohort21.com\/jenniferkelly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cohort21.com\/jenniferkelly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cohort21.com\/jenniferkelly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cohort21.com\/jenniferkelly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/23"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cohort21.com\/jenniferkelly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=101"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/cohort21.com\/jenniferkelly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cohort21.com\/jenniferkelly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=101"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cohort21.com\/jenniferkelly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=101"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cohort21.com\/jenniferkelly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=101"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}