Tutorial for Writing Key Questions

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Tutorial for Writing Key Questions

• EHMIS
• Adapted from Learning Focused Schools

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What is a Key Question?

• Key questions are concepts or skills in the form
  of questions
• Key questions organize and set the focus of the
  lesson
• Key questions are a tool to gather evidence of
  learning
• Posted in the classroom
• Directly referred to at the beginning of class to
  guide instruction
• Usually one (may be more) key question per lesson
• Questions are organized to guide instruction
• Sequence to naturally lead from one to another
• Can be used to organize notebooks or study guides
  around the questions to make clear their
  importance for study and note taking
• Use a reasonable number of questions per unit,
  Chunk or group major themes/concepts under
  connecting questions so that there are 2-6
  essential questions per unit.
• Directly referred to at the end of class to use
  as a summarization tool and to assess students
  acquisition of knowledge
• Allocate time for students to understand and then
  answer the essential questions.

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Key Questions
Sets the focus for the days learning. Overarches
everything to be done during that lesson
Key Question(s)
Lesson
Teaches the answers to the Key Question(s)
Students summarize and answer key question(s)
Key question is asked or used as a basis for
assessment at the end of the lesson to summarize
student learning and to determine student level
of learning
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Key Question Examples

• How is the earth affected by the sun?
• What characteristics do all living things have in
  common?
• How do we add integers?
• What is the subject of a sentence?
• How do prefixes and suffixes affect words?
• How does the order of operations affect the
  solution of the problem?

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Key Question Examples

• 1. What is a compound word?
• 2. How does a snake make venom?
• 3. How do we use adjectives to make a sentence
  more interesting?
• 4. How is Saturn different from the other
  planets?
• 5. Why and when do we use pronouns?
• 6. What do the symbols lt and gt mean?
• 7. How do we organize information in order to
  write a meaningful report?
• 8. How do we use context clues to determine the
  meaning of a sentence?
• 9. How do we add fractions?
• 10. Who are the main characters in ___________ ?
• 11. How do you put a fraction into its simplest
  form?
• 12. What rights do we have today as a result of
  the civil rights struggles of the 1950s and
  1960s?
• 13. Why did we call I the cold war?
• 14. What do you do in the Pre-Writing step of the
  writing process?
• 15. What are at least 3 test-taking tips?

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Key Question Examples

• 16. Where in the world are we?
• 17. What makes a desert a habitat?
• 18. Is one life form more important than another?
• 19. No Pain, No Gain Do you agree or disagree
  and why?
• 20. How does society know where to place limits
  on control?
• 21. What is healthful eating?
• 22. What caused the race riots of the 1960s?
• 23. How is expectation different from
  probability?
• 24. How do you calculate probabilities using
  binomial distribution?
• 25. What happens to energy in a chemical process?
• 26. How do scientists determine the amount of
  energy transferred in a chemical process?
• 27. What functions does a Spanish plaza serve in
  Spanish society?
• 28. What could you say to tourists in my town to
  convince them to visit the plaza?
• 29. How much truth is there in fiction?
• 30. What parameters can be set to determine if
  data is periodic?

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Key Question Starters

• 1. What is a ____________ ?
• 2. What is it like?
• 3. How does ___________ work?
• 4. How do we know?
• 5. Why is it like that?
• 6. What is our responsibility to _______ ?
• 7. Where do __________ come from?
• 8. What are three __________ ?
• 9. What does a ____________ eat?
• 10. How is this the same as __________ ?
• 11. How is _________ different from a _________ ?
• 12. How do you ______________ ?
• 13. What do you know about __________ ?
• 14. Who is this story about?
• 15. What just happened?
• 16. What is this shape?

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Practice ActivityWhat is the Key Question??

• What is your teaching objective? See if you can
  make it a question.
• What do you want students to be able to answer or
  show at the end of the lesson? What question
  would they get in order to have the answer?
• What questions will foster further inquiry,
  understanding, and transfer of learning?
• What do you want the students to be able to
  answer 3 weeks from now about this lesson?
• Question should not be able to be answered with
  yes or no.
• Questions should create connections for the
  learners.
• Write the question and then rewrite the question
  for the learners.
• Keep it simple!