The Essential Question

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The Essential Question
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What is it?

• Essential something inherent, needed, basic.
• Question an expression of inquiry that requires
  or invites an informative reply.
• Inquiry a close examination of a matter for
  information or truth

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Characteristics of an Essential Question

• Has no right or wrong answer
• May start with how, why or which
• Is open ended cannot be answered with a yes
  or a no
• Leads us to ask other questions
• Requires us to analyze information and make our
  own judgments, conclusions or decisions
• Deals with issues of great importance to us as
  human beings, citizens, and/or individuals
• Challenges us to make connections between what we
  learn in various subjects and larger world issues

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Subsidiary Question

• Subsidiary questions support and help answer
  Essential Questions
• Subsidiary questions uncover the who, what,
  where, when, why, which, and how of Essential
  Questions

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The Process of Developing an Essential Question
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Where do I start?
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Step 1

• Consider what you know and what you need to know
  about a topic

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Step 1

• Ask and answer the who, what, where, why and how
  questions about your topic.
• You must be informed before you begin to
  formulate your essential question

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Step 1

• As you research, ask yourself the following
  questions
• Does this topic arouse my natural curiosity?
• If so, what does it make me wonder about?
• Why is this topic an important one to explore?
• What connections can I make between the topic and
  my life?

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Step 1

• Practical considerations
• Can this question be adequately answered in the
  amount of time given?
• Can I access published information that will help
  me answer this question?
• Where do I begin to look for information?
• Has this research been done before? If so, how
  can I investigate it from a different angle to
  make it my own?

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Now that Ive done some research what next?
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Step 2

• Narrow your focus
• Example 1
• Civil Rights gt Civil Rights Leaders gt Malcolm X gt
  Extremisms gt
• Example 2
• Westward Expansion gt Mexican American War gt
  Manifest Destiny as Justification

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OK now what?
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Step 3

• Create an essential question

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Step 3

• Heres how using Example 1
• Civil Rights gt Civil Rights Leaders gt Malcolm X
  gt Extremisms gt
• Preliminary question
• Was Malcolm Xs militant approach justified?
• Essential question
• To what extent was Malcolm Xs militant approach
  harmful or helpful to achieving the goal of the
  civil rights movement?

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Step 3

• Heres how using Example 2
• Westward Expansion gt Mexican American War gt
  Manifest Destiny as Justification
• Preliminary question(s)
• Are Americans morally superior?
• To what extent has our foreign policy in Latin
  America bee driven by our belief in our moral
  superiority?
• Essential question
• To what extent did our foreign policy in the
  Mexican American War and our intervention in
  Haiti reflect our belief in our moral superiority?

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Step 3

• What makes these essential questions?
• To what extent was Malcolm Xs militant approach
  harmful or helpful to achieving the goal of the
  civil rights movement?
• To what extent did our foreign policy in the
  Mexican American War and our intervention in
  Haiti reflect our belief in our moral
  superiority?
• They require you to
• create new knowledge
• compare and contrast
• and form a judgment.

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Next step?
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Step 4

• Continue creating more focused questions
  (subsidiary questions) that will guide you
  through your research and help you develop an
  answer to your essential question.
• These questions should be more focused and
  directly related to your essential question.

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And finally?
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Step 5

• Formulate an answer to your essential question
  based upon your research.

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Sources

• http//www.fairfield.k12.ct.us/ludlowehs/cludloweh
  s22/essential_question.htm
• http//www-personal.umich.edu/krajcik/DQ.html
• Websters II New Riverside University Dictionary
• Photos found through Google images