how to make a big question

Pearson English

Starting with a Big Question

How can we inspire students from the word go? This is a question that teachers everywhere ask themselves when introducing a new topic or project to their classes. And, as you might have guessed from the title, it’s all about asking questions.

Perhaps your own social interactions have taught you this already: questions nearly always generate more conversation and inspiration than statements do.

Let’s explore this idea for a moment. Look at the following approaches and select the responses below:

A) This week we will be learning about space exploration.

B) Do you think it is important to explore space?

It’s clear that the question is more engaging than the statement. It encourages students to use their imaginations, respond to you, and explore their own thoughts.

However, not all questions are made equal. Some will generate lots of thought and discussion. Others, however, will simply encourage yes or no answers and fall rather flat.

By asking BIG questions about BIG issues, we can carry on the conversation and the learning for as long as we wish.

But wait, what are Big Questions?

Big Questions do not have one correct answer; they are a springboard for ideas and opinions. They also give the students the correct impression that in our lessons we will explore the topic and provide new information and share our knowledge.

Which of these would you consider Big Questions? Which do you think would generate most interest in your students?

What should we do once we have introduced the topic with a Big Question?

We need to ensure that our students who are more outgoing and willing to speak have a chance to shine, but do not dominate the class. It’s therefore a good idea to provide opportunities for different ways of responding. For example, you can ask students to:

It’s also a good idea to use a bulletin board – by pinning your Big Questions to it you can encourage students to add their sketches, notes and ideas. Since none of the Big Questions can be answered completely and easily, make sure that the students know their ideas and thoughts can be changed and added to at any point.

Feeling free to change our minds, to experiment with ideas, to throw things out for discussion in a thoughtful but random way is vital for mental growth.

We don’t have to get everything right first time and it is important to convey this to our students. It’s okay to get things wrong and say something which you later reassess and reconsider. Think of the Big Question in the same way as you might a craft or nature table; let your students contribute as they wish with ideas big and small.

How can we build up our ideas and knowledge?

Of course, for Big Questions to become answerable, we need to provide stimuli, information, facts and ideas and help increase our students’ knowledge and awareness.

We can do this in lots of ways. For example, if we look at the Big Question ‘What powers our lives?’ we might want to provide information about the sun, about wind and water energy, about how electricity is created, how fossil fuels are found and why they are difficult to renew.

This could lead us on to thinking about our own usage of different sources of power, if we could become more ecologically aware, and how this might be achieved.

It’s important to do this type of activity in stages. If we take the sun as our first subtopic, we could break it down like this:

Now let’s look at a Big Question which we might use with younger children: ‘Why do we go to school?’

We can break this down like this:

Take your time

As well as the reading, writing and speaking which the Big Questions will involve, you will also be introducing new vocabulary and grammar structures. So, take your time; it’s always best to do a little less and leave time for the students to absorb everything they are learning. So use your textbooks, but don’t feel rushed by them. Really delving into any subject is more rewarding than skimming over it and, most importantly, our lessons become more enjoyable and memorable.

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Jeanne Perrett has been working in the language teaching sector for over thirty-five years as a teacher, school owner, publisher and writer and is the author of many acclaimed pre-primary and primary EFL series. She has trained teachers all over the world and frequently presented at professional conferences. Jeanne graduated from Sussex University with a degree in English Literature and has lived in Greece since 1981. Apart from her professional experience, she draws a lot on the practical knowledge she has gained as the mother of four children and now as the grandmother of five. Jeanne is one of the authors of the Now I Know! series for Primary.

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Burning Questions: Using Big Questions That Lead to Big Learning

It was the early days of remote learning. I was staring at a screen full of avatars, as not a single 12th grade student had their camera on. I was talking into the void, unsure if anyone was listening or learning. I missed their faces. I missed their jokes. I missed their interruptions, comments, questions and most of all, I missed the connection. On the screen, I couldn’t see the ah-ha faces or the looks of confusion. I couldn’t tell if they were drifting or most importantly, if they were okay. But then, I asked some big questions, and the magic was back.

The BIG Question

I always open my high school English classes in New York City with a big question or a set of questions that are provocative, thought-provoking, mindset shifting and debatable. I ask questions that lead to more questions and set us off into a storm of inquiry. What I call “The BIG questions” ignite curiosity and heighten interest in the learning to come. They guide students to want to think and learn by sparking the inquiry process.

During that remote learning class, as I taught into the Zoom abyss, I posed a question: “If you could see a simulation or video of how your life turns out, would you want to see it? Why or why not?” Instantly, the chat feature came alive. Answers were pouring in. Students were writing responses and some couldn’t type fast enough. They were writing. They were engaging. A real, live discussion was happening in the chat. Not only that, they were asking follow-up questions, noting quantifiers, making connections, and responding to each other.

I followed up: “If you could see your life in the future, what might you want to know?” and “What would you definitely NOT want to know?” I heard the click of a mic come on, “Miss, I’m going to just jump in here, if that’s cool,” one student said, breaking the ice. And then more mics clicked on and we were actually talking . A few cameras popped on and I saw students in their bedrooms or in living spaces, surrounded by family members listening in. Finally, I asked, “Let’s say you were in love with someone, and wanted to know if they were the right one. If the technology existed and you could see a video of your future with this person, would you watch it or just see what happens?” The chat filled with “hmm’s” and one student responded through laughter, “Miss, now you’ve got me thinking. I don’t know!” The conversation continued.

What was all of this leading to? It was all related to a short story to come — a sci-fi story called “Sequence” by author J. Marcelle Corie from the anthology “A Phoenix First Must Burn: Sixteen Stories of Black Girl Magic, Resistance, and Hope.” Now, I had students hooked into the moral questions examined in the story. They were not only willing, but eager to read it. The high-interest questions paired with a high-interest text was a winning combination. We read the story, we asked a lot of questions and imagined ourselves in the character’s shoes. Then, we dug into the philosophy of free will, determinism and moral responsibility. Later, the students took to writing about these ideas in connection to the text, and it wasn’t a daunting task because they had already thoroughly explored the ideas. They had a lot of material to pull from in crafting their responses, and were easily able to refer back to the text because it all made such an impression.

Later that week, a student’s mom emailed me and said, “My son, who usually hates school, is talking about the big question from English class at the dinner table and is telling us about the story you read and the debate in class.” That was a win. In the first few days, this particular student was normally very quiet in class, but suddenly he was fired up and was taking that fire home. That’s the power of simply asking big questions.

Essential Questions

Many of us experienced questioning in the classroom that was solely rooted in a correct or incorrect answer structure. Questions were merely checks for understanding, instead of firestarters, with the teacher asking a question having a specific answer in mind. And of course, that’s appropriate sometimes. But “The secret to teaching may be as simple as asking students good questions — and then giving them the opportunity to find the answers,” said Jeffrey D. Wilhelm, Distinguished Professor of Boise State University, Co-Director of the Boise State Writing Project, and an internationally-known teacher, author, and presenter. He described an essential question as one that “Frames a unit of study as a problem to be solved. It should connect students’ lived experiences and interests (their only resources for learning something new) to disciplinary problems in the world. And it should connect what they learn back to the real world, where they can put their new understandings to work.” Essential questions are open questions, with no exact right answer. Wilhelm noted the key to crafting successful essential questions is in creating compelling questions that lead to ongoing discussion and authentic (real-world connected) learning.

Big Questions Work Everywhere

Big questions are not just for English class or remote learning. They work across content areas and are particularly effective at generating lively participation in the live classroom. Students generally enter my classroom excited for the day’s big question. Does that put some pressure on me to make them count? Yes. And realistically, some don’t fly as high. The point, however, is to make engaging connections between academic content areas and the real world. You’re doing something right when you foster relationships and a classroom culture in which students feel comfortable to think, be critical, and even argue. All of this is the pathway toward deeper learning. Academic subjects aren’t just theories in textbooks to be memorized and recalled. Asking big questions builds a bridge between the learner and the content — one they may just take to the dinner table and beyond . And that’s … big.

How to Craft Big Questions

Jennifer Gunn

Jennifer L.M. Gunn spent 10 years in newspaper and magazine publishing before moving to public education. She is a curriculum designer, teacher, teaching coach, and educator in New York City. She created Right to Read, a literacy acceleration program for teens, steeped in social justice. She also created the progressive learning models, The Big Idea Project and We the Change. Jennifer is also co-founder of the annual EDxEDNYC Education Conference for teacher-led innovation. She is a regular presenter at conferences and frequently writes about education, adolescent literacy and innovation. Connect with Jennifer on Twitter: @jenniferlmgunn.

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How can I form strong guiding questions?

Creating Standards-Based Guiding Questions

In addition to helping students ask better questions, you can create better guiding questions by aligning them with standards. Begin at the end. What do you want your students to learn? What standards are you trying to cover? Form questions based on the standard.

Scenario: Imagine that you need to teach the following social studies standards . The first is a performance standard, and the second is a content standard:

B.8.8 Identify major scientific discoveries and technological innovations and describe their social and economic effects on society.

8.5 Learn about the Civil War and Reconstruction, 1861-1877.

Building Guiding Questions

Now frame a guiding question that addresses both the performance and content standards. Also, make sure you ask questions that have many possible answers and require research and analysis.

Using Guiding Questions

By framing a guiding question that combines a content standard with a performance standard, you can make sure that the inquiry that students do stays on topic. You can also provide students the chance to choose which of the possible guiding questions they want to pursue . If you provide five questions, you can end up with five groups, each working to answer one of the questions and report what they find to the class.

Teacher Support:

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Standards Correlations:

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Big Question framework

TOK Home > About > About teaching TOK > Big Question framework

The Big Question framework

The BQ framework is our conceptual way of structuring TOK and delivering a highly integrated, engaging course. It is similar to the ‘official’ knowledge framework, but offers several advantages, which we outline below.

The 72 classroom-ready lessons that form the BQ framework, as well as 60 further 10 minute TOK sessions, and a host of other resources, are available to our Full Access members .

What are the Big Questions?

The BQs ask broad questions about knowledge, enabling us to consider the most essential aspects of how we understand the world. They give us a lens through which we can explore the world, and a way of teaching the course.

How is the BQ framework applied?

We apply the BQs to all of the different aspects of the course (ie the core theme, the optional themes, and the areas of knowledge, and for each of these, adapt the BQs so they allow us to apply this lens in a specific way to what is being studied. For example, when we look at the optional theme of politics, BQ2 becomes, ‘How does our knowledge about politics inform the way we construct our values?’, for history, BQ4 becomes, ‘How do our perspectives and biases shape our knowledge of history?’, and for the natural sciences, BQ5 becomes, ‘How is new knowledge about the natural science created?’

Ordinary DP teachers can also apply the questions to their own subjects, allowing them to play a role in the TOK course at any point. So a DP psychology teacher might ask, ‘How does our understanding of psychology depend on the way knowledge is communicated?’ for BQ3, and a music teacher might ask, ‘How do we become a discerning knower of music?’ for BQ6.

What advantage does the BQ framework offer?

The BQ framework is similar to the knowledge framework, but it has distinct advantages over the traditional ‘shopping list’ approach to TOK, in which themes and AOKs are taught separately.

It provides a coherent structure to the TOK course

Each BQ asks a question about knowledge which provides us with a focus and direction, and encourages us to approach each element of the TOK course in an analytical, rather than descriptive, way. The BQs can be applied to all aspects of the course, and shift to suit the context of the theme or area of knowledge. All this means that students have a much clearer idea about content and purpose of TOK.

It enables us to approach the course in an integrated way

Each BQ requires an exploration via a combination of themes and areas of knowledge, rather than dealing with the different parts of the course in isolation (which gives us an artificial and contrived perception of knowledge). This gives students a more complete picture of both knowledge, and TOK, and interlink ideas and concepts more effectively.

It brings everyone onboard TOK

In addition to creating an integrated TOK course in itself, it also helps to create an integrated Diploma Programme. Every DP teacher can apply the BQs to their own subject, and play a role in TOK at any point during the course, not just when their subject is being covered. It also enables parents to get involved with TOK more easily, and support the intellectual development of their children.

It prepares students more effectively for the essay

The BQs were backward planned from many years of prescribed titles, so they provide the perfect preparation for writing the TOK essay. Rather than dreading the moment when you provide your students with the list of PTs, you’ll watch them instinctively relate the different PTs with the BQs, and make links with the lessons they’ve learned, rather than dwell on their dissonance from the titles.

You’ll also see a lot of overlap between the BQs and the IA prompts for the exhibition. Concepts such as values, perspectives, and spin, which we study explicitly during the BQ framework appear repeatedly throughout the 35 IA prompts, meaning that any student who has followed the BQ approach will feel very comfortable choosing the focus point for their exhibition.

It links TOK more naturally with the real world

We explore knowledge via real-life situations – events and issues going on in the world today, that may be local, regional, or global. Structuring a course via questions enable links to be made much more easily to those situations, and enables us to draw them into TOK in order to understand concepts and ideas that are central to the course.

How do the BQs work in practice?

The best way to see how the BQ units work in practice is to see our beautifully designed lessons for yourself. Download a sample selection of lessons and support material from the BQ framework on this page . If you have any questions about the resources, you can get in touch with us easily, and as a member , we are always on hand to provide support.

Ask us any question about the course, how to become a member , or advice on teaching and learning TOK.

Find out about us here , and read testimonials from members here .

A Giant List Of Really Good Essential Questions

by Terry Heick

Essential questions are, as Grant Wiggins defined, ‘essential’ in the sense of signaling genuine, important and necessarily-ongoing inquiries.” These are grapple-worthy, substantive questions that not only require wrestling with, but are worth wrestling with–that could lead students to some critical insight in a 40/40/40-rule sense of the term.

I collected the following set of questions through the course of creating units of study, most of them from the Greece Central School District in New York. In revisiting them recently, I noticed that quite a few of them were closed/yes or no questions, so I went back and revised some of them, and added a few new ones, something I’ll try to do from time to time.

Or maybe I’ll make a separate page for them entirely. Or, who knows. Nonetheless, below are many, many examples of essential questions. Most are arts & humanities, but if this post proves useful, we can add some STEM inquiry to the mix as well. Let me know in the comments.

See also 8 Strategies To Help Students Ask Great Questions

Many, Many Examples Of Essential Questions

Decisions, Actions, and Consequences

Social Justice

Culture: Values, Beliefs & Rituals

Adversity, Conflict, and Change

Utopia and Dystopia

Chaos and Order

Constructing Identities

Freedom and Responsibility

Good and Evil in the World

Heroes and “She-roes”

The Human Condition / Spirit

Illusion vs. Reality

Language & Literature

Love & Sacrifice

Nature in the Balance

Our View of the World and Ourselves

Past, Present, and Future

The Pursuit of Happiness

Relationships and Community

Shades of Truth

My brain; Grant’s authenticeducation.org; L. Beltchenko 2007-2008 and the Greece Central School District, New York; Many, Many Examples Of Essential Questions

About The Author

Teachthought staff.

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Starting with a Big Question

By Jeanne Perrett

January 22, 2019, 15:25 , 15:25

Perhaps your own social interactions have taught you this already: questions nearly always generate more conversation and inspiration than statements do.

Let’s explore this idea for a moment. Look at the following approaches and select the responses below:

A) This week we will be learning about space exploration. B) Do you think it is important to explore space? Students…

It’s clear that the question is more engaging than the statement. It encourages students to use their imaginations, respond to you, and explore their own thoughts.

However, not all questions are made equal. Some will generate lots of thought and discussion. Others, however, will simply encourage yes or no answers and fall rather flat.

By asking BIG questions about BIG issues, we can carry on the conversation and the learning for as long as we wish.

But wait, what are Big Questions?

Which of these would you consider Big Questions? Which do you think would generate most interest in your students?

What should we do once we have introduced the topic with a Big Question?

Feeling free to change our minds, to experiment with ideas, to throw things out for discussion in a thoughtful but random way is vital for mental growth.

How can we build up our ideas and knowledge?

Of course, for Big Questions to become answerable, we need to provide stimuli, information, facts and ideas and help increase our students’ knowledge and awareness.

This could lead us on to thinking about our own usage of different sources of power, if we could become more ecologically aware, and how this might be achieved.

It’s important to do this type of activity in stages. If we take the sun as our first subtopic, we could break it down like this:

Now let’s look at a Big Question which we might use with younger children: ‘Why do we go to school?’

We can break this down like this:

Take your time

About Jeanne Perret

Jeanne is one of the authors of the Now I Know! series for Primary.

how to make a big question

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