Questioning is the KEY for Success!

When Wiggins & McTygue launched a focus on Essential Questions, almost twenty years ago, they were ahead of the pack.  With the evolution of the Tech-dependent Millennial generation, EQ's are imperative for instruction.  The correct EQ will turn an assignment into a "discovery" to find the correct answer, using the vocabulary of the discipline!  The wrong assignment question will provide nothing more than a fact-fetching online session.

 EQ's can  transfer the learning responsibility into the student's hand and prevent the scenario pictured below. 

 

(Text from Sorry You're Lost, by Matt Blackstone) 

I'll be delivering PD on this Monday morning, in Missouri --for any educator attending MASL Conference, but most reading this will not be in Mark Twain territory for this event.  Listed below are a few sample EQ's which demonstrate how the right EQ can empower a student to learn.  These samples are 9 examples of the 99 Essential Questions found in our book, Rx for the Common Core, available via Libraries Unlimited.  (Use discount code: Q21520 for 20% off.)

EQ: Why do we need to be concerned about Plate Tectonics and your local plate.  

EQ: How is health and wellness defined by the technology of the time? 

EQ: How has the discovery of [your Chemical Element] changed the world?

EQ: How has the migration of people, changed the culture where they landed? 

EQ: How did Jim Crow cause the South to revert to a pre-Civil Way society?

EQ: How do animals think like scientists?

EQ: If you were living in Europe during the 1700's, would you have emigrated to America? 

EQ: How did scurvy impact sailing? 

EQ: Why is your digital footprint a real-world character reference? 

I'll be talking about EQ's, GQ's (Guiding Questions), TDQ's (Text-dependent Questions), and more, on Monday!  See you if you are in the area!  

Hooking the Somebodies...Via a Pronoun

We live in a day and age of somebodies.  Everyone wants to be extraordinary, famous, or extreme--and no one wants to be a nobody.  Nobody.  Nada.  And,  we're not talking about Theodore Geisel's dopey siblings that had to shovel the snow while Mom when shopping downtown. We are not talking "somebody has to, somebody you see.  So, she picked two somebodies:  Sally and Me."  They were the supply. But--we all love a good story, so we read on.

If we are teaching the somebody-wanna-be's, then they have to be in the center of our instruction.  Remember that next time you craft your assignments.  Feed their disease by placing a pronoun into your essential questions:  "If you were in charge of the United Nations, which countries would you recommend to take a look at our Bill of Rights in order to improve the quality of life for their citizens?"   Now that's synthesis with the self-centered  (7th grade) Millennial in mind.

Examine these EQ's for "short term research assignments" and see how critical the pronoun placement is to shifting the ownership of the endeavor to the student:

• Is your insect a "friend or foe?" (See Think Tank Library for this lesson plan!) 
• If you were to build a "Wall of fame for local history,"  who would you include? And why... ?
• If you were living during the 1700's in Europe, would you have chosen to immigrate to America?  Choose a European Country and examine your conditions and options.  Write me a letter (EBC- evidence-based claim) as to why you are emigrating or staying from a first-person point of view.   How will/won't you prepare?  We will hold an auction for boat tickets. 
• How big is your carbon footprint? 

Some may say we are feeding a self-centered disease, but it works.  This generation wants to see the "relevance" of the assignment.  A pronoun in your assignment EQ will help to transfer the ownership from a "teacher-centered" assignment to a student-centered learning adventure. It's only one small step in teaching the millennial that we should have in our "bag of tricks."

Internet @ 25: Prime of its' life or problems brewing?

The Internet is arguably about the most revolutionary tool invented (or which has evolved) in our lifetime.  At 25,  humans are no longer a fledgling, but ready to fly.  Is the Internet ready to fly?  Or, die...as we know it? 

Your students could examine the Infographic below, and use the essential questions to conduct a short term research assignment and build an evidence-based-claim.    The CCSS challenges instruction to spawn thinkers.  What better opportunity do we have than examining the information beast that our Millennials love? They might be surprised to find out people like me spent $3000.00  in 1980's  to purchase an IBM  XT with a 10 MG hard drive (which was not even connected to the Internet yet).  That's less than 30% of a flash drive which sells for about $20.00 now, and we carry that in our pocket.  

Essential Questions such as:

• Will you define the Internet, or be defined by it? 
• How has the Internet changed our society for the good or bad? 
• How will the future be impacted by further development of the Internet? 
• Is the Internet our friend or foe?  

will help your students think critically about a tool they use ubiquitously.  

Carpe Diem! -- Let us think! 

Instant Relevance for the Common Core--Movie Clips Gold Mine!

We are teaching a visually dominate, transliterate generation that would rather "hear" information than read it.  That is why technology serves their hyper-connection needs to provide engagement in your curriculum content. BUT -- technology without a purpose is almost useless.   

I was excited to stumble upon this wonderful visual movie fodder for "hooking" our students into curriculum content.  What a gold mine of "purpose!"   With the Common Core requiring educators to infuse "relevance" into our curriculum, this site will help to connect the transliterate learner to the content.  Once they are hooked, then the teachers will have an easier time getting them to dig deeper, research, investigate, discuss  debate, research to support their position and more.  

I love this clip below from  The Emperors Club.  We watched this movie last week because it was filmed locally (at the Emma Willard School and  Caumsette State Park... for all you New Yorker's...).  When Professor Hundert poses an essential question at the beginning of the film, I thought, "How poignant for a biography unit!"   You could pose this same essential question as he does, and instantly infuse CC relevance into your unit.  

Thanks to this site, we don't have to carefully craft "fair use" clips from movies to inspire our students to think.   Wingclips.com has done this for us and even indexed them by topic.   Thank you! 

 
http://www.wingclips.com/movie-clips/the-emperors-club/how-will-history-remember-you?play=1

Essential Questions for Common Core biography units:

• What legacy did this person leave?   What legacy will you leave? 
• How would history have been impacted, if this person did not walk the earth? 
• Conquest without contribution is worthless.   What did your person contribute to the world that made the world a better place?  Or, for notoriety-- How did you person ruin the lives of his countrymen or negatively impact the world? 
•  How will reading this book and studying this person help you become wiser, smarter, happier, richer or more successful?