This year, I am teaching a course I haven’t taught in about fifteen years. So as I considered how I to plan for this class, I have given a lot of thought to the essential questions for lesson plans that I create for this course.
What is the Essential Question in a Lesson Plan?
An essential question is a big idea question that cannot be answer in one word. Ideally, it should be a question that has many answers and one where answers might change as the idea grows and develops.
According to the book Essential Questions by Grant Wiggins and Jay McTighe, these are questions that are
- Open ended
- Thought provoking
- Require higher order thinking
- Point toward bigger, transferable ideas
- Raise additional question
- Require justification
- Recur over time
How to Write Essential Questions for Lesson Plans in High School English
Whenever we start to plan for units and a course, we need to begin with the end in mind. You must consider tests or requirements your district may have for the course you are teaching.
Then you can start to think about big overarching topics. These can be turned into big idea questions that can become the essential questions for lesson plans throughout the year.
Additionally, you may wish to consider the overarching skills you need to address.
When writing an essential question, it helps to begin with “What,” “How” and “To What extent” because these starters naturally lead to open ended questions that cannot be answered in one or two words.
A question like “To what extent is technology dangerous?” can fuel a full class discussion for an entire period. Without doing research or reading an anchor text, students will have opinions on both sides of this argument. It will require them to defend their ideas and use higher order thinking. This question will raise additional questions and we can return to it over time.
The same is true of a questions like:
What roles do memories have in the development of relationships?
What is a hero?
How can teens influence change?
Essential Questions for Lesson Plans in English 12
So, my new class is an on-level English 12 class and one section many have some students with IEPs who receive consultant teacher services.
So here are the things that I thought about with the end in mind:
- Students in this course may or may not be headed to two or four-year colleges. Some may be headed to the military, for a gap year or directly into the workforce.
- Our district requires all students complete a reflection of self portfolio and presentation at the end of the year.
- Students need guidance in adulting
- They are entering a world of unprecedented technological advances that they need to be able to navigate.
To determine the essential questions for the lesson plans that will be the foundations of my unit plans, I took a blank sheet of paper and divided it into four quadrants (one for each quarter of the school year). If your year is not divided into quarters you may wish to divide the paper in half or in sixths.
For each quarter, I noted either a theme to address or a big skill. From there, I worked on writing essential questions to guide the rest of the unit.
Essential Questions for Lesson Plans in Quarter 1
For the first quarter, I determined that I wanted to address the elephant in the educational room: AI. And, I always begin the year (even in my AP® classes) with inferencing. Additionally, one of the books available for us to use in English 12 in our district is Feed by M.T. Anderson.
With those three things in mind, I knew that my essential question would have to revolve around the idea of technology. While I like the question above about the dangers of technology, I also wanted to make this hit a little closer to my students’ lives.
So the question I decided on is “Where do we, as humans and individuals, belong in the changing world of technology?”
This question begins with “where” which means that it cannot be answered in one word and can examined through multiple lenses. It certainly will raise additional questions and will be transferable to their lives beyond high school English and beyond high school.
Essential Questions for Lesson Plans in Quarter 2
In the second quarter, I hope to focus on the skills related to research. And again, I want this work to feel connected to my students’ own experiences.
In asking the question, How can students influence change? They can consider their own roles in advocating for changes in their own community. Again, this question has lots of answers and transcends the English classroom.
Our project will be writing research based arguments to invoke changes in our school. Students will identify a problem in our own school or school district and then research options for change. Then present these through argumentative letters to the appropriate district leaders.
Essential Questions for Lesson Plans in Quarter 3 and Quarter 4
In quarter 3, I want to be looking ahead to quarter 4 because that is when students will complete our district’s required portfolio and presentation which is a reflection of self.
The theme of identity for quarter 4 is based on the essential questions of the project: Who are you? How has your past influenced your experience? What are your plans for the future?
Focusing on the self is a skill that students, especially seniors, it seems, really struggle to do. So I thought before going inward, it might make sense to look at relationships in general through the lens of values.
We are going to use “In what ways to a person’s values shape their relationships?” to focus the essential questions for lesson plans in this quarter. This will give us an opportunity to select literature tailored to the students in these classes (hybrid literature circles?). Additionally, it will allow us to begin to turn toward the self through questions about what they value.
Using Essential Questions for Lesson Planning
These essential questions will then guide selection of texts as well as the discussion that we have throughout the units. I generally begin a unit with a hook that is connected to the essential question. For more on what that looks like, check out my post on Short Stories about Coming of Age which outlines a hybrid short story book club unit guided by essential questions for lesson plans.
Additional Resources:
11 Ideas for Teaching Inference in High School English
