This document defines essential questions and provides examples of how to write them. Essential questions encourage critical thinking by not having simple answers and requiring students to conduct research and develop original ideas. They prompt students to think deeply about open-ended issues rather than just look up facts. Examples provided include "should" questions about moral decisions and "why" questions to understand causes and effects. Proper essential questions are open-ended, explicitly stated to students, and help design curriculum around exploring the key issues of a subject.

1. What Are They
and How Do
You Write Them?
By Mary Alice Osborne,
the “Facing History and
Ourselves Team,” and
Linda Foote
Essential
Questions

2. What is an Essential Question?
 Students have to
think critically to
answer an essential
question. Instead
of simply looking up
answers, they
conduct research
and create original
answers.

3.  Provokes
Deep
Thought
An Essential
Question:

4. An Essential Question:
 Solicits
information-
gathering
and
evaluation of
data

5. An Essential Question:
 Encourages
students to
produce
original ideas
rather than
predetermined
answers

6. An Essential Question:
 Helps
students
conduct
problem-
related
research

7. An Essential Question:
 May not
have an
answer

8. An Essential Question:
 Encourages
critical thinking,
not just
memorization
of facts

9. Think: Bloom’s Taxonomy

10. Who’s Doing the Learning?

11. Some Examples:
 NOT Essential: What is it like to live in Hong Kong
 Essential: Which city in Southeast Asia is the best place to
live?
 NOT Essential: What is AIDS?
 Essential: Which serious disease most deserves research
funding?
 NOT Essential: When was the Declaration of
Independence signed?
 Essential: What ideas in the Declaration of Independence
have become American traditions?

12. “What If” Questions:
 What if the Cultural
Revolution had
never happened?
 What if students
didn’t have to go
to school?

13. “Should Questions”
A Moral or Practical Decision based on Evidence
 Should we clone
humans?
 Should we discontinue
trade with countries
that abuse human
rights?
 Should Wilbur run for
freedom?

14. “Why Questions:
Understand Cause and Effect
 Why do people
abuse drugs?
 Why is the death
rate higher in one
Third World country
than another?

15. Traits of Essential Questions:
 Open ended: not usually answered with a simple
yes or no, or right answer.
 Made explicit to students: referred to often
during units
 Deliberately framed to engage students
 Connect to students’ lives and past, present, or
future experiences
 Used to design curriculum. Activities and
materials should be selected based on how they
help students explore the essential questions of
the unit.

16. Essential Questions in History
 What choices do people make in the face of injustice?
 What makes it possible for neighbor to turn against neighbor?
 How are genocide and other acts of mass violence humanly
possible?
 What choices do people make that allow collective violence to
happen?
 Who decides how laws or rules are applied? How can we ensure
that laws and rules are applied to everyone in the same way?
 What are civil rights? Who decides? How can we respond when
our civil rights are violated? What can be done to strengthen the
civil rights of individuals and groups?
 What is race? How can ideas about race be used and abused?
What can be done to counter harmful myths about race?
 How have ideas about race been used to decide who is
included and who is excluded?
Copyright © 2011 Facing History and Ourselves. All rights reserved.

17. Examples of Open Ended Questions
 How would you…?
 What would result if…?
 How would you describe…?
 How does…compare with…?
 What is the relationship between…?
 What would happen if…?
 How could you change…?
 How would you improve…?
 How do you feel about…?
 Why do you believe…?
 What is your opinion of…?
 What choice would you have made…?
 What would you do differently?
 Why do you feel…?
 How would you go about solving the problem…?
 If you were in this position what would you do?
 Why do you/don’t you support…?
 What could improve…?

18. Culture: Values Beliefs and Rituals
 How do individuals develop values and beliefs?
 What factors shape our values and beliefs?
 How do values and beliefs change over time?
 How does family play a role in shaping our values and
beliefs?
 Why do we need beliefs and values?
 What happens when belief systems of societies and
individuals come into conflict?
 When should an individual take a stand in opposition
to an individual or larger group?
 When is it appropriate to challenge the beliefs or
values of society?
 Are there universal characteristics of belief systems that
are common across people and time?

19. Social Justice Questions
 What is social justice?
 To what extent does power or the lack of power affect
individuals?
 What is oppression and what are the root causes?
 How are prejudice and bias created? How do we
overcome them?
 What are the responsibilities of the individual in regard
to issues of social justice?
 Can literature serve as a vehicle for social change?
 When should an individual take a stand against what
he/she believes to be an injustice? What are the most
effective ways to do this?
 What are the factors that create an imbalance of
power within a culture?

20. Questioning Resources
 Asking Essential Questions
http://www.biopoint.com/ibr/askquestion.htm
l
 The Key to Understanding Essential Questions
http://www.hannibal.cnyric.org/Acrobat%20d
ocs/ESSENTIAL%20QUESTIONS%20For%20high%
20School.pdf
 Themes and Essential Questions: Framing
Inquiry and Critical Thinking
http://www.greece.k12.ny.us/instruction/ELA/
6-12/Essential%20Questions/Index.htm
 Asking Essential Questions
http://www.il-tce.org/present04/flesser.pdf

21. Questioning Resources
 Asking Essential Questions
http://www.biopoint.com/ibr/askquestion.htm
l
 The Key to Understanding Essential Questions
http://www.hannibal.cnyric.org/Acrobat%20d
ocs/ESSENTIAL%20QUESTIONS%20For%20high%
20School.pdf
 Themes and Essential Questions: Framing
Inquiry and Critical Thinking
http://www.greece.k12.ny.us/instruction/ELA/
6-12/Essential%20Questions/Index.htm
 Asking Essential Questions
http://www.il-tce.org/present04/flesser.pdf

22. Credits
Name Mary Alice Osborne
Location West Topsham, Vermont, United States
Work Teacher Librarian at King Abdullah University of Science and
Technology
About Libraries are changing rapidly due to the incredible
information & communication opportunities that the Internet
presents. I want to use the new ideas of "Web2.0" to help bring
libraries forward to better serve their patrons.
Website www.kslibrary.info
http://www.slideshare.net/maryaliceosborne/essential-questions-for-
students