Using Essential Questions to Apprentice Students in History

Why use essential questions to frame learning?

·       Invites the learner to construct knowledge rather than just remember facts.

·       Helps the learner organize their thinking as they read, write, speak, listen, reason, research, and solve problems in history.

·       Mirrors the work of the discipline:  members of a discipline do not merely study what other members of the discipline have learned, they actively investigate questions and create new knowledge.

·       Supports the development of self-management of learning:  students learn what questions to ask and when to ask them.

Where do I find essential questions?  How do I develop them?

1.      The standards describe what students should know and be able to do:

·       Identify major conceptual areas which students repeatedly study.

·       Work with teachers and students to develop a list of questions you ask about each type of concept.

·       Identify the skills, processes, and habits that students are to perform.

·       Work with students to develop questions to ask yourself when enacting each major skill/process.

Sets of questions that build and sustain the routines and daily practices within the discipline.  These questions support learning content and habits of thinking.