Guiding Questions
FEATURES OF ESSENTIAL UNIT AND LESSON GUIDING QUESTIONS (Posted on May 9th, by HOPE Foundation in Book Excerpt, Effective Instruction.)
Distinguishing Features
Unit Guiding Questions…
Distinguishing Features
Unit Guiding Questions…
- Are written in general terms with no proper nouns
- Include present tense verbs and no form of the verb to be.
- Include at least one concept or maybe two that form a relationship.
- Begins with why or how.
- Cannot be answered with a list or finite response; these questions are more provocative and engaging than the straightforward, factually based lesson guiding question.
- Can foster transference and connections as students relate the questions to other units of study, other text, the world, or personally.
- Are featured prominently on poster board or chart paper in the classroom and kept up all unit long
- Daily Guiding Questions...
- Can be written to elicit factual information specific to a unit of study, so references to characters, titles of books, or particular settings are fair game.
- Include at least one skill or concept for each question.
- Begin with any type of question beginning is okay: who, what, where, when, why/how, is, does…
- Are foundational as they serve to support the unit question; when teachers conduct lessons associated with all the lesson guiding questions, students should be prepared to demonstrate understanding of the overarching, associated essential unit question.
- Are posted individually as the lesson objective for the day(s) on the whiteboard, SMARTboard, or easel.