Goals and essential questions set the direction for learning and identify the concepts, processes, and skills about which we want students to understand. Goals pertain to an entire course or unit, guide instructional decisions, and provide a framework for daily instruction. (Blythe 1998). This area includes references and articles that help teachers define their goals and use them as the foundation for their lesson plans and assessment.
Asking the Essential Questions: Curriculum Development
This link takes you to the Coalition for Essential Schools, where it is asked: What are the aims of a high school curriculum? Getting to a clear answer is the necessary first step in rethinking a school's curriculum. But to commit oneself, as Essential Schools do, to the idea that the goal of education is to get students to use their minds well is to take the deceptively simple first step in rethinking our entire system of education.
Creating Essential Questions
Essential Questions develop foundational understandings. They provide the fundamental organizing principles that bound an inquiry and guide the development of meaningful, authentic tasks.
Framing Essential Questions
This link has material that first appeared in a series of six articles published by Technology Connection commencing in May, 1995. The series outlined the seven stages required to complete a full research investigation using a model called the Research Cycle.
From Trivial Pursuit to Essential Questions
Sometimes we ask students to pursue answers to questions that are not worthy of much effort or attention. In this article by McKensie it says "When we limit students to trivial pursuit, we make a mockery of authentic research and deprive them of a chance to explore the tough issues, choices, dilemmas and questions that really matter."
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Helping Adult Learners Plan for Success
Although written to help adult learners, this article has some good advice for helping all learners plan for success.
Introduction to Electronic Portfolios
This presentation, which has been given in several national and international conferences, is one starting point for discussion about electronic portfolios such as the eFolio, by David Gibson.
Math Star Essential Questions
What is an essential question? 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.
Teaching for Understanding - Website at Harvard University
The Teaching for Understanding Framework includes four key ideas--based on the four questions: generative topics, understanding goals, performances of understanding, and ongoing assessment. This website provides information, examples and the steps for developing a unit of study using the TFU model.
The Personal Learning Planner: Collaboration through Online Learning and Publication
This paper discusses the online Personal Learning Planner (PLP) project underway at the National Institute of Community Innovations (NICI), one of the partners in the Teacher Education Network (TEN), a 2000 PT3 Catalyst grantee. The Web-based PLP provides a standards-linked portfolio space for both works in progress and demonstration collections of completed work, combined with structures to support mentorship and advising centered around the improvement of work.
Three Categories of Questions: Crucial Distinctions
It is essential when thinking critically to clearly distinguish three different kinds of questions: 1) Those with one right answer (factual questions fall into this category). What is the boiling point of lead? 2) Those with better or worse answers (well-reasoned or poorly reasoned answers).
Your Students' Learning Goals
Of course you have your teaching goals for the course. But what are your students' learning goals? The quality of work students will do in your course is based on their goals.
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