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chapter 1

Essential and Herding Questions

The first shift I present in this book involves deeply engaging students with their learning. You can do this by forming an essential question that tasks them with examining a learning topic beyond the surface level. You can then use their initial, free-form responses to that question to form a series of herding questions—questions that help drive them toward the specific learning goal you have in mind. Let’s explore what makes a question essential by looking at the concept from a different angle and then how you can follow that with herding questions.

When presenting new learning, consider this: If this learning is the answer, what was the question? Often, educators present learning as the next thing students need to know or be able to do. As educators, we may understand the scope and sequence that makes the learning essential, but students may have no idea. I believe the presence of an essential question might actually be essential to learning.

I have found that deep questioning leads to exceptional thinking when answers prompt more questions and more in-depth inquiry. Key learning areas arise when students face a flurry of essential questions that drive them to investigate; the fruits of that investigation result in knowledge, understanding, and insight. Would biology exist had someone not asked, “What are the fundamental elements of living systems? What structures exist within, and what purpose do these structures serve?”

I find that learning usually springs from a need or from curiosity about a personal connection. Learning has a reason; it is an answer. Without a question, learning lacks both purpose and meaning and is lost. All learning should start with an essential question, and the relatively brief time it takes to discuss an essential question benefits learners in terms of engagement, context, and relevance. Getting students’ initial answers to an essential question also provides you with insight into what they think and already know. Furthermore, the essential question and the conversation around it reveal personal connections, which provides the opportunity to personalize learning, something we discuss in chapter 3 (page 35).

For example, perhaps the curriculum you want to address involves medicine and diseases. An essential question you might ask students is, “How best can we ensure everyone’s health?” In reply, students may talk about obesity, nutrition, or healthy eating. They may discuss exercise, safe streets, or bicycle helmets. It doesn’t matter which direction the conversation takes, as long as they all engage in dialogue and debate. Even though they are a long way from where you intended (medicine and diseases), you can use their ideas and the engagement you established to ask a series of herding questions such as, “If all that works, and you’re living a healthy lifestyle and wearing a bike helmet, what happens if you suddenly become ill? What happens if you get a disease? Do you know anyone who has ever had a terminal illness?”

This creates an entirely new line of conversation, and eventually, you can arrive at medicine and the eradication of diseases. In the process, however, you have identified several opportunities for planning your next unit and glimpsed ways to personalize learning by allowing students to approach the content through what was relevant to them. For example, learners may know the pain and trauma of having someone close to them with a terminal illness, and questions that are relevant to them based on this experience stimulate a drive in them to find answers.

Put simply, the essential question is what starts the debate; the herding questions are what you (the facilitator) use to fuel the debate and drive it faster and more furiously toward a particular line of questioning. You are like the sheepdog steering the sheep through a narrow gate. The first nip from the sheepdog is the essential question to get the sheep moving. The herding questions manage their direction. In this chapter, I establish what attributes make a question essential and then explore some microshifts of practice you can use to stir students’ engagement.

Characteristics of an Essential Question

A good essential question calls for higher-order thinking, such as analysis, inference, evaluation, and prediction. Recall alone cannot answer it, and it points toward important, transferable ideas within (and sometimes across) disciplines (Wiggins & McTighe, 2005). I define an essential question as having the following characteristics.

• It has no obvious answer and is not answerable with a simple search.

• It goes beyond topic or skills (skills relevant to life beyond school and to students’ interests).

• It creates the opportunity to use herding questions through the hydra effect (cut off one head [question], and two more appear).

• It's timeless and naturally recurs throughout the ages (it is as relevant in Plato’s time as it is today).

• It requires critical and continual rethinking (the deeper into the inquiry, the less certain the answer).

• It inspires meaningful discussion, debate, and knowledge development.

• It engages learners through a personal connection.

An essential question leads learners to explore the background of an issue and choose from various plans, strategies, or possible courses of action to generate a complex, applicable solution. A truly essential question inspires a quest for knowledge and discovery, encourages and develops critical-thinking processes, and is all about possibilities rather than the definitive. From here, I will help guide your understanding of what makes a question essential and how you can evolve and develop a good essential question to use with your learners.

From Nonessential to Essential

Consider this question: Do rainstorms create moisture? Then, ask yourself the following questions: “Does this question inspire contemplation or any serious inquiry? Does it generate other questions and ideas or meaningful discussions? Does it motivate the learner to think about creating something to solve a problem or meet a challenge?”

Not really. It’s a relatively empty question. It is nonessential.

In class, educators often ask students questions like, “How do rainstorms create rain?” This question is a bit better. It calls for some investigation and a search for knowledge. The problem is that students can answer it very quickly with some light research and a one-paragraph answer or a diagram. They did learn something, but they didn’t have to actually discover or create anything.

A further evolution might be to ask, “How does the rain from rainstorms benefit ecosystems?” In students, this question gives rise to deeper thinking, broader questions, and more in-depth research. Through this process, learners discover how storms affect different systems, and this will lead them to other considerations. It’s a fine question, but does it inspire, engage, and push them to visualize? Is it as good as it could be? How can we take this even deeper into authentic inquiry and creativity and make it into a quest for engineering a solution to an intriguing problem?

What about asking, “How best could we thrive without the rain from rainstorms?” Now we’ve got something really essential that will inspire students to fully engage with their learning. It also leads naturally to forming herding questions to help drive student explorations where they need to go, such as, If rainfall suddenly stopped for all time, what would it mean to life on Earth, human and otherwise? Who and what would an absence of rain specifically affect? Think about ecosystems, agriculture and food production, business, and the beauty of nature itself; how would all these things change?

Imagine the ingenious and creative solutions to this problem your students might come up with!

Development of an Essential Question

Although the previous example can help you better understand what an essential question is and looks like, and how to refine an existing question to be one, it doesn’t demonstrate how you might create one in the first place. Over the years of developing essential questions with teachers, I have facilitated conversations about essential questions on a whiteboard, crossing out parts of the sentence and rewriting them underneath. The usual frustrated response I hear from teachers is that it looks so obvious when I do it. This led me to consider what the simplest method is to consistently develop a quality essential question and herding questions. While I was poring over photos of various whiteboards from different facilitation sessions, I realized I have a very particular and unconscious two-step approach in which I consider the questions, (1) How do I move the question as high up Bloom’s revised taxonomy (Anderson & Krathwohl, 2001) as possible? and (2) How do I remove specificity? It’s simplest to illustrate with an example, so consider the following question.

Who was Tony Abbott?

This is not a great question for all the reasons we established in the previous section. So, let’s simply get on with the first step of moving it up Bloom’s taxonomy as high as possible. Let’s revise.

Was Tony Abbott or Gough Whitlam the better prime minister?

This question now requires evaluation in the form of comparing and contrasting, which puts it near the top of Bloom’s taxonomy (Anderson & Krathwohl, 2001). It would, however, be simple to create a response and most likely would not engage learners nor inspire earnest debate. Next, let’s begin by removing the specificity of the two prime ministers.

What makes a great prime minister?

At this point, the evaluation is much deeper, causing the learner to develop a set of criteria based on personal judgments. We can, however, continue to remove specificity.

What makes a great leader?

This question still requires students to intensely evaluate and develop criteria, but it inspires much more inquiry as many more herding questions arise from it. What makes a great leader at school, or in a family, or on a sports team, or in an army, or in a spiritual sense? Are these characteristics the same, and what factors influence their importance? Although this question is excellent, we can even go one step further.

What is greatness?

This is a truly essential question. Notice that each previous question is a subset of this question; in other words, each question becomes less and less specific as it develops. In speaking of greatness in general, we could be considering great leaders, great humans, or great devotion to sacrifice or humility. Learners can run wild with this kind of question, allowing you to achieve engagement and then add specificity back in to herd them where you want to go. If you are teaching students about historical leaders, a subset of herding questions might be to ask about heads of state, of which a further subset might be prime ministers, and ultimately a particular individual. As herding questions become more specific, they drive the conversation closer to the original and often curriculum-related question. In other words, they work backward from the essential question of “What is greatness?”

I find that educators are often concerned with asking such a huge, open question because they can’t see how it relates back to the content they are teaching. By starting with a specific question, moving it up Bloom’s taxonomy (Anderson & Krathwohl, 2001), and then removing specificity, it creates opportunities for you to ask a series of herding questions that act like breadcrumbs leading back to the beginning. If learning is an answer, then it is the essential question that begins the process.

Before I address some microshifts of practice, a final point I’d like to add is a simple tip that helps in the construction of essential questions. Consider the question words who, what, where, when, why, and how. Which of these might best assist in the formation of an essential question? If you reflect on the levels of Bloom's revised taxonomy (Anderson & Krathwohl, 2001), who, what, where, and when are knowledge-based questions, typically found at the bottom levels of the taxonomy. (They are the lower-order-thinking skills.) How correlates with analysis, and why with evaluation, which are at the top. (They are higher-order-thinking skills.) In general, who, what, where, and when support the why and the how. The reason my example of “What is greatness?” works is because the consideration of greatness itself requires extensive evaluation and justification, whereas a question such as “What is the square root of four?” does not.

Microshifts of Practice: Essential and Herding Questions Create Engagement

There are a variety of approaches you can take in developing and using essential and herding questions to engage students in your classroom. In this section, I describe three methods: (1) explore the essential, (2) go beyond the curriculum, and (3) use Socratic seminars. Each section includes a specific activity you can use with students and reflective questions you can ask yourself about how your students responded.

Explore the Essential

The first step in being able to create essential questions is understanding what they are, and part of this comes from being able to recognize one when you see it. Often a question may seem essential, but on closer inspection, you will come to realize that it can be even broader and help students incorporate even more critical thinking and knowledge creation into their answers. By recalling the characteristics of essential questions I present in this chapter, along with the examples I provide, you can create an exercise whereby you and your learners both learn to spot essential questions on the fly and understand what makes them so.

Activity

Begin by discussing what essential questions are with your learners and challenge them to analyze and understand their structure and significance to meaningful learning—that is, independent thinking and learning skills that will stick with them and remain useful throughout their lives. Depending on your students’ grade level, you can ask your learners questions such as the following.

• “What do you believe makes a question essential?”

• “What makes them different from simple or closed questions?”

• “Where do we see such questions asked in the world outside school?”

• “When are essential questions important to ask?”

• “How would you go about building an essential question right now?”

• “What are some examples of essential questions that are famous and well known?”

• “Why are essential questions vital to success in so many areas of life?”

• “How does asking essential questions shape and affect our views, opinions, and ideas about things?”

One simple exercise you can use is to collect examples of both essential and non-essential questions and place them where the whole class can see them. Next, have learners indicate on a worksheet or by using voting cards which questions they believe are essential and which ones are not, and have them discuss their perceptions in groups.

You can take this activity even further by discussing with your students how they could transform nonessential questions into essential questions. Ask them what it takes to turn a simple question with an elementary answer into one that fosters meaningful discussion, exploration, and reflection. Ask them how they would transform the question in both word and intent.

Reflection

After you complete this activity with your students, take some time to reflect on and answer the following questions.

• What knowledge were your learners able to demonstrate about essential questions?

• How much better do they now understand an essential question’s structure and importance?

• In what ways and in what other kinds of activities could your students apply this new knowledge?

Go Beyond the Curriculum

In Understanding by Design, Grant Wiggins and Jay McTighe (2005) remind us that essential questions are “important questions that recur throughout all our lives” and that they are “broad in scope and timeless by nature” (p. 108). Such questions lead us to explore the deeper issues of life and what it means to have uniquely human experiences and interactions with the world around us and those we share it with. These issues may not necessarily align with your core curriculum, but there is value in having your students receive practice with how to explore them. This is the time for you to step outside the curriculum and encourage them to let their imaginations soar without fear of judgment. Ask your learners what’s on their minds, what their primary concerns are, and what they truly wonder about.

Activity

Have your learners think about, write, and revise a list of questions that concern the kinds of timeless topics that interest them and make them want to investigate. This is a way for you to connect them to their interests, their deepest musings about everything under the sun, and perhaps even to things beyond the sun. They need not restrict the questions they write to curriculum, although the next step would be finding ways to use herding questions to connect them with it in ways that are creative, challenging, and relevant.

The essential questions you ask students for this activity can be from a variety of different viewpoints. They can be personal.

• “How do you discover your true calling?”

• “What can you do to improve your relationship with your family?”

• “Which country have you always wanted to visit and why?”

They can be philosophical.

• “What does it mean to truly be alive?”

• “Why do we dream and what do our dreams tell us?”

• “What should be our greatest goal as a society and why?”

They can be ethical.

• “Is condemning a murderer to death justifiable?”

• “Is it acceptable to risk harm to others to benefit someone who is clearly in need?”

• “Should people be allowed to clone themselves?”

They can be scientific.

• “What type of diet allows for optimum athletic performance?”

• “When and how do scientific theories change?”

• “How can we be sure that the universe beyond our world is truly infinite?”

They can be global.

• “How could we ensure and sustain enough food, water, and clothing for every living person on Earth?”

• “How has technology transformed how we see ourselves and others? Is this good or bad?”

• “How can small actions eventually change the world?”

For a deeper challenge, break students into groups and have them take turns posing their essential questions to the group for discussion. Pay careful attention to the questions they are sharing, and if possible, encourage them to find ways to link them to lessons in the curriculum. From there, choose the best questions as the focus for upcoming classroom units of study.

Reflection

After you complete this activity with your students, take some time to reflect on and answer the following questions.

• What are the types of issues that students revealed they are most interested in exploring?

• Why are these matters important to them?

• How did student groups discuss and answer the questions?

• Is there anything students are still wondering about?

• What do they know about exploring important issues in this manner that they didn’t know before?

Use Socratic Seminars

The Greek philosopher Socrates was renowned for his belief in the power of asking good questions. The aptly named Socratic seminar seeks to provide a powerful platform for students to both ask and answer open-ended questions about a wide range of topics and content in a way that is highly collaborative and social (“Socratic Seminar,” n.d.). Socratic seminars call for students to apply critical and independent thinking by way of forming both essential and herding questions about the discussion topic and responding to the questions of others. Socratic seminars also teach learners how to respond to questions with thoughtfulness and civility.

Activity

Hold your own classwide Socratic seminar on a topic or material you choose. Begin by exploring the structure of the Socratic seminar with your learners. Students can prepare well beforehand by reading the appropriate text and formulating questions as though they were entering a formal debate. Work with students to also come up with a clear list of guidelines and expectations for the seminar.

On the day the seminar begins, you are the one best prepared to lead the discussion so that students can get their feet wet with the whole process. However, you ultimately want them to take over the proceedings and lead the discussions themselves, almost as if you weren’t even in the room. Since your learners’ thought processes and inquiries are the focal point of the Socratic seminar, it makes sense to involve students in these structural decisions.

The guidelines you’ll agree to follow are important, such as when to turn discussion—a sharing of ideas—into debate. In this context, that debate should consist of peers attempting to persuade each other and challenge each other’s opinions. Throughout the process, your role will be one of mediator and guide for the discussion, steering it back to the right trajectory if it should happen to go off the rails.

As you should always do when engaging students in a format of this nature, debrief afterward. You and your students work together to assess the effectiveness of the seminar on the day’s or the week’s learning goals. As part of this debrief, ask students to set goals for future seminars and discuss topics of interest that will provide fodder for lively discussions and the development of more essential questions.

Reflection

After you complete this activity with your students, take some time to reflect on and answer the following questions.

• What did the Socratic seminar teach learners about developing thinking and questioning skills?

• What were some of the most powerful moments for you and your students in this activity?

• What could the students have done differently to make the seminar more effective?

• How could you use this activity for assessment purposes?

Summary

Questions matter; they are, in fact, essential. Where there are no questions, there is no interest and no curiosity. Without interest, there is no learning. I believe that the art of teaching has less to do with knowing and more to do with questioning. Essential and herding questions lie at the root of powerful learning; they take a student from zero interest in learning to finding real answers and cultivating a desire to create meaningful solutions. Asking questions instead of simply providing answers moves the responsibility for the learning where it should be—to the student. Now that you know more about how to bring essential questions into your lessons every day, use your new knowledge to answer students’ questions with more questions and let them reap the benefits. Asking questions that drive curiosity and interest is a tactic that you’ll find incredibly useful when diving into our next shift of practice, which is all about connecting students to learning using context and relevance.

Guiding Questions

As you reflect on this chapter, consider the following five guiding questions.

1. Why do we ask questions?

2. What are essential and herding questions, and why are they important for learning?

3. What is the difference between a nonessential question and an essential one? In what ways can you use both to create a successful learning environment?

4. Why is it helpful to explore essential questions that lie outside your core curriculum?

5. How can you use Socratic seminars in your classroom to help students use essential and herding questions in ways that advance their learning?

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