"Questions that probe for deeper meaning and set the stage for further questioning foster the development of critical thinking skills and higher order capabilities such as problem-solving and understanding complex systems. A good essential question is the principle component of designing inquiry-based learning."~ Math Star
"Essential Questions develop foundational understandings. They provide the fundamental organizing principles that bound an inquiry and guide the development of meaningful, authentic tasks." ~ Galileo Educational Network
As you craft your long-term-plan for the year ahead it is easy to follow the guides in your book and teach according to a predetermined sequence of topics like: short stories in September, plays in October, non-fiction in November, memoirs in December, etc... and your assessment of whether each section was understood and taught correctly will probably align with end-of-chapter tests that measure vocabulary retention and reading comprehension. But what life skills will your students learn from this process?
Imagine that yours is the last class your students will ever take. Will they learn things from these units of study that prepare them for the world post-school? They could, and they should, but planning for that kind of learning is more complicated than simply following the guide in a text book. This is where essential questions come in.
Think about what you want your students to really take away from what you are teaching and turn that into a question. For example - if you want them to learn that words are a tool for creating social change your question might be: "How can words impact history?" And then, your unit on non-fiction literature should involve stories and articles whose findings have caused major shifts in policy - the content you teach opens students up to myriad answers to the essential question.
Essential questions are not secreted away in your plan book, they're on your bulletin board, on the chalkboard, in your students' notes. They are a public declaration of the fact that it's okay not to know all the answers - but it's essential to learn how to find them. They guide your instruction and they show students that there is a connectivity between things they are learning.
Some schools and teachers develop a single essential question that guides instruction throughout the entire year. Our question above could fit that bill. In a literature class all the texts - stories, poems, plays, etc. - could be analyzed from the perspective of their potential or actual impact on history.
The older your students get, the more aware they become of the connections or lack thereof between what they learn in school and the "real world." At times you may find they even challenge you on the purpose of learning specific subject matter at all. This happens especially often if the content is difficult to learn. Essential questions guide you in making sure there's always a purpose to what you teach and they empower students to become actively engaged in the process of seeking answers rather than passively waiting for them to be spoon-fed.
