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"The best questions for stimulating student thinking are the ones that cannot be answered
easily. In fact, the best questions often have no answer—at least, no one “correct” answer.
Such questions are called essential questions, and they are at the heart of every discipline."
McConnell, C. (2011). The essential questions handbook. Scholastic.

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"Any unit of study in any curriculum includes multiple facts, skills, and understandings. At
the heart of a unit will be the most important learnings that students should remember
in a year—and in a lifetime. These critical insights that students need to retain after they
have forgotten smaller details are the “enduring understandings.” They are core statements,
generalizations about the big ideas. They are the important understandings that will anchor a
unit of study. "
McConnell, C. (2011). The essential questions handbook. Scholastic.

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"-Focus on the overarching concepts that matter most
-Have lasting value
-Are at the heart of a discipline
-Can transfer to new situations
-Relate to the real world"
McConnell, C. (2011). The essential questions handbook. Scholastic.

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"Essential questions require students to:
-Explore, explain, and analyze
-Interpret
-Examine from several points of view
-Synthesize
-Apply understandings to new situations".
McConnell, C. (2011). The essential questions handbook. Scholastic.

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"Each lesson planning guide—
-Centers learning around “big-picture” content worth remembering for life
-Provides focus and direction to attain mastery of key standards
-Gives students a reason to engage, inquire, research, and question
-Supplies authentic reasons for students to sharpen their literacy skills
-Helps students relate important ideas to their own lives
-Leads students to connect understandings across the curriculum
-Ensures that students practice analyzing, synthesizing, and evaluating
-Establishes learning goals that use time well
-Enables students to transfer learning to new situations and contexts"
McConnell, C. (2011). The essential questions handbook. Scholastic.

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"Tips for Planning:
-Choose the big ideas that fit your curriculum needs.
-Choose two to five essential questions that best fit your unit plan and your students’ needs.
-Design concrete exploratory activities for each question.
-Decide ahead what assessments and performance tasks you will use that directly link to the essential questions.
-Post the essential questions in the classroom.
-Encourage students to bring in any sort of evidence, stories, etc.,
that helps them connect the questions to their own lives."
McConnell, C. (2011). The essential questions handbook. Scholastic.

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"Students can use these questions to guide their thinking about the works of fiction they are reading.

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"Students can use these questions to guide their thinking about the works of fiction they are reading.

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• How is fiction like life?
• Why do people create fiction?
• How does the author make the characters come to life?
• Why do main characters face problems?
• Why do characters change?
• How does conflict lead to change?
• How does the setting influence the characters and the plot?
• What characters do you relate to, and why?
• How do you figure out the theme?
• How does the author hook and hold the reader’s attention?
• How does point of view affect the story?
• How would the story change if the narrator changed?
• How is style important to the telling of a story?
Historical Fiction
• In what ways may events in historical fiction connect to real history?
• How do authors of historical fiction make the time period and characters come alive?
• What types of insights about life in a given time period might an author provide?
• How do authors help us draw comparisons between life today and life in another
period of time?"
McConnell, C. (2011). The essential questions handbook. Scholastic.

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"Fantasy
• How does life in the fantasy world help us learn about the real world?
• What kinds of conflicts typically occur in fantasy narratives?
• What is believable about the story?
Science Fiction
• How does the author use advances in science or technology to tell the story?
• Would you want to live in the world of this story? Why or why not?
• What message about life in the present time might the author be presenting?
Realistic Fiction
• How does the author make the story seem real?
• Are there any characters that you relate to in the story? Why or why not?
• What does the author want readers to remember about the story?
Mystery
• What role does suspense play in mysteries?
• What qualities make a mystery successful or unsuccessful?"
McConnell, C. (2011). The essential questions handbook. Scholastic.

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Students can use these questions to guide their reading of the various types of nonfiction.

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Students can use these questions to guide their reading of the various types of nonfiction.

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"• Why do people write nonfiction?
• What are the characteristics of nonfiction?
• What are ways to identify a piece of writing as nonfiction?
• How is nonfiction different from fiction?
• How is reading nonfiction different from reading fiction?
• How is nonfiction like fiction?
• How does understanding the structure of the text help the reader understand
the meaning?
• How does an author’s purpose and audience influence decisions made while writing?
• How does the author’s language match his or her purpose in writing?
• What questions are raised but not answered?
• What opinions of the author are expressed, and how easy are they to tell from facts?
• Why do people read nonfiction?
• Why is nonfiction an important genre of literature?
Biography/Autobiography/Memoir
• Why can you trust what the author says about the person being written about?
• What opinion about the person does the author seem to express, and why do you
agree or disagree with that opinion?
• What information is left out, and why?
• Why is the person’s life worth reading about?"
McConnell, C. (2011). The essential questions handbook. Scholastic.