Essential Questions

or
Hooks
Essential Understanding:
The USDA Food Pyramid presents relative
guidelines for nutrition
Essential Questions :
What is the USDA Food Pyramid?
Better

Why is the USDA Pyramid just a relative guideline?

Best
Does a relative guideline mean that it changes? What
would make it change?
Essential Understanding
Dietary requirements vary for individuals based
upon age, activity level, weight and health.

Good Essential Questions:

What is healthy eating?
Could a healthy diet for one person be unhealthy for another?

If we know so much about diets and health, why do we

have so many health problems caused by diet?
 Essential Questions
YES
• Why can’t a fish live in the
desert?
• In what ways do effective
writers hook and hold their
readers?
• Who wins and who loses
when technologies change?
• How would life be different if
we couldn’t measure time?
By yourself, list 2 common characteristics of the “yes” examples that the “no”
examples do not have:
Jay McTighe and Grant Wiggins
NO
• How many legs does a spider
have? How does an elephant use
its trunk?
• What is foreshadowing? Can you
find an example in the story?
• What is the original meaning of
the term technology (from the
Greek root “techne”)?
• How many minutes in an hour?
How many hours in a day? How
many days in a year?
Essential Questions
• Math
– What is a number? Why do we have numbers? What if we didn’t have numbers?
– Can everything be quantified?
– What if we couldn’t measure time?
– How will I ever learn to multiply?
• Art
– What makes great art?
– Where do artists get their ideas?
– How does art reflect as well as shape culture?
• Foreign Language
– What distinguishes a fluent foreigner from a native speaker?
• Geography/ Social Studies
– What makes places unique and different?
– How does where we live influence how we live?
– What is the legacy of the ancient Egyptians?
– How does the physical environment of Japan impact its people?
– Which president of the US has the most disappointing legacy?
• Literature
– How do great writers hook and hold their readers?
– How do you “read between the lines”?
– Why do we punctuate? What if we didn’t have punctuation marks?
– Is the “pen mightier than the sword”?
• Science
– Does food that is good for you have to taste bad?
– In nature, do only the strong survive?
– What flies? How and why do things fly?
– How can I help prevent the spread of disease?
 Essential Questions are…
• Essential Understandings stated in question form 2-5
per unit.
• They serve to focus the students on Essential
Understandings
• They require multiple experiences and thinking between
the lines to uncover the answers.
• They often have multiple answers that require an
extended response or discussion. The answers have
degrees of sophistication rather than right and wrong
responses.
• They are engaging and transfer to other areas
• They lead to other “I wonder…” questions
Brainstorm 2 or 3 essential
questions that would lead the
students to the essential
understanding—ie:
“Successful writers have great control over
language and know how to create the desired
impact through choice and placement of
words.”
 Essential Question
What are the instructional
strategies that help increase
student retention and ability to
apply skills and content?

The stuff that makes

differentiation do-able.