Thursday, June 30, 2011

Essential Questions

Essential Questions are hard for me... mainly because I am not a big picture thinker.  I often see things in the "how are we going to get it done" manner -- you know, all of the details!  From Delaney's class to this one, it hasn't gotten any easier.  BUT, I am thankful for Figure 5.3 on page 120 of our Wiggins and McTighe.  It certainly made it easier to think of questions!

Explaination
  1. What is the definition of presidency?
  2. How does the president connected to the governor of a state? a mayor of a city?
  3. Why do we need a president?
Interpretation 
  1. How is the role of the president similar to the role of governor? 
  2. How does the president's decisions affect me as a student?  Why does this matter?
  3. Do we need a president?
Application
  1. How can we affect the role of the president?
  2. How does the president affect our standing with other countries in the world? specifically other Northern American countries? (NOTE: specifically asking about North America as that is part of NCSCOS).
Perspective
  1. What are the strengths of the role of president as it is currently constructed in our Constitution and Amendments?  What are the limits of the role of president as it is currently constructed in our Constitution?
  2. How would different political parties in our society change the role of President?
Empathy
  1. How might George Washington feel about the role of president today?
  2. What would it be like to walk in President Obama's shoes?
Self-Knowledge
  1. What are my "blind spots" about how I rate a president as "good" or "bad"?
  2. How are my views about the president shaped by my experiences?
As I review this list I cannot help but wonder -- have I grasped essential questions and how they should be "categorized."  Even with Figure 5.3 I sometimes think, "But, wait... can this be a X type of question?"  I guess I am saying that the lines seem sort of fuzzy between a couple of these categories.  For example, Interpretation can sometimes seem like Application... but only slightly.  And what about Perspective and Empathy?  Although not the same, they definitely have some overlap.  It is just hard -- or maybe I am making it hard because I want to be right and hate making mistakes.  But I will have to learn how to be wrong, making mistakes and asking for help when I need it. 

Thanks for any feedback you can give me!
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1 comment:

  1. tduncanJune 30, 2011 at 11:56 PM

    You're right, some of these do have overlapping tendencies, but that is what happens as we move up the ladder to higher order thinking. We figure out how to take what we've learned and apply it to our own lives yet still see the world through someone else's lens. It's a fine line and one that you'll become more comfortable with as you change your way of thinking and planning.

    Also, based on this it is evident that you've begun (from the content priorities post) to narrow your thinking to the role of the president. My suggestion would be to update that priorities list now to better reflect the specifics of this topic.

    Now, which of these questions are your faves? Here's mine, but ultimately the decision is yours so you'll need to select no more than 3.

    How does the president affect our standing with other countries in the world? specifically other Northern American countries?

    How are my views about the president shaped by my experiences?

    What would it be like to walk in President Obama's shoes?

    How does the president connected to the governor of a state? a mayor of a city?

    Why do we need a president?

    ReplyDelete

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