ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS:THE BIG IDEAS

EDMU523

ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS

BLOOM'S TAXONOMYUNDERSTANDING BY DESIGNBACKWARDS DESIGNDEPTH OF KNOWLEDGE (DOK)

Thinking Levels

Ask students to demonstrate:

Knowledge - recall information in original form

Comprehension - show understanding

Application - use learning in a new situation

Analysis - show s/he can see relationships

Synthesis - combine and integrate parts of prior knowledge into a product, plan, or proposal that is new

Evaluation - assess and criticize on basis of standards and criteria

Remembering

Understanding

Applying

Analyzing

Evaluating

Creating• Creating – designing, constructing, planning,

producing, inventing, devising, making

• Evaluating – checking, hypothesizing, critiquing, experimenting, judging, testing, detecting, monitoring

• Analyzing – comparing, organizing, deconstructing, attributing, outlining, finding, structuring, integrating

• Applying – implementing, carrying out, using, executing

• Understanding – interpreting, summarizing, inferring, paraphrasing, classifying, comparing, explaining, exemplifying

• Remembering – recognizing, listing, describing, identifying, retrieving, naming, locating, finding

Bloom’s Revised Taxonomy

Essential Questions: EQs

Spark our curiosity and sense of wonder

Desire to understand

Something that matters to us

Answers to EQs can NOT be found

Students must construct own answers

Make their own meaning from information they have gathered

Create insight

Essential Questions

Answering such questions may take a lifetime!

Answers may only be tentative

Information gathering may take place outside of formal learning environments

Engage students in real life applied problem solving

EQs lend themselves to multidisciplinary investigations.

Ideal Essential Questions

Framed by students themselves

Best to start with subsidiary questions that might help support the main question

Formulate categories of related questions

“What else do we need to know?

State suppositions Hypothesizing and Predicting

Thought process helps provide a basis for construction of meaning.

Understanding by Design

What are the big ideas? Core concepts

Focusing themes

On-going debates/issues

Insightful perspectives

Illuminating paradox/problem

Organizing theory

Overarching principle

Underlying assumption

What’s the evidence?

How do we get there?

Represent a big idea having enduring value beyond the

classroom

Reside at the heart of the discipline (involve “doing” the subject)

Uncover abstract misunderstood

ideas

Engaging Students

Enduring Understanding

Understanding by Design

Desired Results: What will the student learn?

Acceptable Evidence: How will you design an assessment that accurately determines if the student learned what he/she was supposed to learn?

Lesson Planning: How do you design a lesson that results in student learning?

Identify desired results

Determine acceptable

evidence

Plan learning experiences and

instruction

Understanding by Design

Will this lesson lead to enduring understanding?

Worth being familiar

with

Important to know

and do

Enduring

Understanding

Understanding by Design

Performance tasks and projects

Open-ended

Complex

Authentic

Summative Culminating Activity

Project

Product or Publication

Performance or Presentation

Exhibition

Performance tasks and projects need

assessments that are more authentic than

traditional quizzes and tests.

Curriculum Planningfor Enduring Understandings

How will you engage your students in this topic?

How do you hook them in with your “anticipatory set”?

How will you motivate students to think critically and explore essential questions?

How will you move beyond “recall” to problem solving?

How will your lessons result in “enduring understanding” of key issues in society?

What will students do, create, or present to express their knowledge and understanding?

Common Core State StandardsEnglish Language Arts, Math, History,

Visual/Performing Arts

Students need to be ready for college, workforce, and life in a technological society. They need the ability to:

Gather, comprehend, evaluate, synthesize, and report on information and ideas.

Conduct original research in order to answer questions or solve problems.

Analyze and create a high volume and extensive range of print and nonprint texts in media forms old and new.

Research to Build and Express Knowledge

Gather relevant information from multiple authoritative print and digital sources, using advanced searches effectively.

Assess the strengths and limitations of each source in terms of the task, purpose, and audience.

Integrate and evaluate content presented in diverse formats and media, including visually and quantitatively, as well as in words.

Visuals and Technology

Interpret information presented visually, orally, or quantitatively (e.g., in charts, graphs, diagrams, time lines, animations, or interactive elements on Web pages)

Translate quantitative or technical information expressed in words in a text into visual form (e.g., a table or chart) and translate information expressed visually or mathematically (e.g., in an equation) into words.

Take advantage of technology’s capacity to link to other information and to display information flexibly and dynamically.

Digital Media Production

Make strategic use of digital media (e.g., textual, graphical, audio, visual, and interactive elements) in presentations to enhance understanding of findings, reasoning, and evidence and to add interest.

Use technology, including the Internet, to produce, publish, and update individual or shared writing products

Webb’s

Depth of

Knowledge

DOK Levels 1 & 2: Common Core State Standards (CCSS)

Recall and Reproduction: Level 1

DOK 1 requires recall of information, such as a fact,

definition, or term, or performance of a simple process

or procedure.

Skills and Concepts: Level 2

DOK 2 includes the engagement of some mental

processing beyond recalling or reproducing a response.

Items require students to make some decisions as to

how to approach the question or problem.

DOK Levels 3 & 4: CCSS

Strategic Thinking: Level 3

DOK 3 requires deep understanding as exhibited

through planning, using evidence, and more demanding

cognitive reasoning. The cognitive demands at Level 3

are complex and abstract.

Extended Thinking: Level 4

DOK 4 requires high cognitive demand and is very complex.

Students are expected to make connections – relate ideas

within the content or among content areas – and have to

select or devise one approach among many alternatives on

how to solve the problem.

Assessments: Entry Level, Progress Monitoring and Summative

How will you know that students learned what you expected them to learn?

What types of assessment might be most reliable in determining student understanding or level of proficiency?

What skills do your students need to develop in order to build knowledge of the content?

What kinds of activities will result in students being able to develop those skills and express their knowledge and understanding?

DOK Level 1 Social StudiesRecall &Reproduction

DOK Level 2 SocialStudies:Skills &ConceptsBasicReasoning

DOK Level 3 Social Studies:StrategicThinking/ComplexReasoning

DOK Level 4 Social Studies:Extending Thinking/ Reasoning

DOK Level 4 Social Studies:Extending Thinking/ ReasoningContinued

DOK Question StemsDOK 1: Recall - Reproduction DOK 2: Skills and Concepts

Can you recall______?

When did ____ happen?

Who was ____?

How can you recognize____?

What is____?

How can you find the meaning of____?

Can you recall____?

Can you select____?

How would you write___?

What might you include on a list about___?

Who discovered___?

What is the formula for___?

Can you identify___?

How would you describe___?

Can you explain how ____ affected ____?

How would you apply what you learned to develop ____?

How would you compare ____? Contrast_____?

How would you classify____?

How are____ alike? Different?

How would you classify the type of____?

What can you say about____?

How would you summarize____?

How would you summarize___?

What steps are needed to edit___?

When would you use an outline to ___?

How would you estimate___?

How could you organize___?

What would you use to classify___?

What do you notice about___?

DOK Question StemsDOK 3: Strategic Thinking DOK 4: Extended Thinking

How is ____ related to ____?

What conclusions can you draw _____?

How would you adapt____to create a different____?

How would you test____?

Can you predict the outcome if____?

What is the best answer? Why?

What conclusion can be drawn from these three texts?

What is your interpretation of this text? Support your rationale.

How would you describe the sequence of____?

What facts would you select to support____?

Can you elaborate on the reason____?

What would happen if___?

Can you formulate a theory for___?

How would you test___?

Can you elaborate on the reason___?

Write a thesis, drawing conclusions from multiple sources.

Design and conduct an experiment.

Gather information to develop alternative explanations for the results of an experiment.

Write a research paper on a topic.

Apply information from one text to another text to develop a persuasive argument.

What information can you gather to support your idea about___?

DOK 4 would most likely be the writing of a research paper or applying information from one text to another text to develop a persuasive argument.

DOK 4 requires time for extended thinking.