Capital High School
Essential Questions
- Essential questions organize and set the focus of the lesson.
- Most important! Essential questions are tools to help
teachers gather evidence of learning.
- Essential questions should be posted in the classroom.
- There is only one essential questions in a lesson. There may be several
key questions under the essential question, but only one essential question.
- Planning should be by the topic, concept or skill, not by the day. There
might be 1-3 lessons per week, but rarely 4 or 5 lessons per week. Therefore,
there will not be an essential question everyday.\
- Vary by:
- Scope: Overarching vs. Topical
- Purpose: Uncover vs. Guide
- Type: Techinicall vs. Philosophical
- Sequence lesson essential questions so they "naturally" lead from one to
another. Group major themes / concepts of a unit under connecting questions
so that there are 2-6 essential questions per unit.
- Allocate time for students to answer these essential questions!