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Essential questions are important questions. They are often difficult to answer, but they deserve our attention. Formulating an essential question is a process that will require some background knowledge of your topic and some idea of whether you have the time and resources to answer it. Formulating an answer will require you to make a critical judgement based on the evidence you have gathered. Essential questions are different than fact finding questions in that they are often arguable. You may come to a different conclusion than another person when you answer an essential question. Here is an example of an essential question: "How does identity influence art?" Click here to find a much longer list of essential questions
Factual Questions are just that: questions that require you to find facts in order to provide an answer. They are generally less complex than essential questions, though, if you have little background knowledge of a topic, you may find it necessary to invest considerable time in getting the basic facts straight, before you can move on to answering a question that requires your judgment or analysis.
Question Stretchers Try using the table below to construct your own questions. Surface questions are generally fact finding questions. Digging and Digging Deeper questions may require you to make a judgement. Table courtesy of © 2006 Q Tasks: The Student as Questioner by Carol Koechlin and Sandi Zwaan. Pembroke Publishers.
Factual Questions are just that: questions that require you to find facts in order to provide an answer. They are generally less complex than essential questions, though, if you have little background knowledge of a topic, you may find it necessary to invest considerable time in getting the basic facts straight, before you can move on to answering a question that requires your judgment or analysis.
Question Stretchers Try using the table below to construct your own questions. Surface questions are generally fact finding questions. Digging and Digging Deeper questions may require you to make a judgement. Table courtesy of © 2006 Q Tasks: The Student as Questioner by Carol Koechlin and Sandi Zwaan. Pembroke Publishers.
