UNIT 2: CHAPTER 5

CURRICULUM FRAMING QUESTION

CHRISTIAN ANTHONY T. LAPIDEZ

JUNE 4, 1999
OLIVAREZ HOMES SOUTH STO. TOMAS BIÑAN CITY, LAGUNA BLK 1 LOT 40
PHASE 3 PEARL ST.
0977 – 446 – 0226
CHAPTER 5: CURRICULUM FRAMING QUESTION

I. INTRODUCTION

Curriculum – Framing Questions provide structure for student learning, encourage

students to think deeply, and help students to make connections between what they
are learning and their lives. The Curriculum Framing Questions also helps the teachers
to focus in their yearlong curriculum and bring meaning across subject areas, they
raise important question across content areas like Math, Science, Literature, History
and other subjects. They center around major issues, problems, concerns, interests,
or theme that also occur in the other units. They help to engage students to essential
question bring meaning and focus to the study of events and topics throughout a
project or course, they help students compare, contrast, and make analogies.
Questions are relevant, compelling, interesting, and are written in age-appropriate,
student language.

II. LESSON OBJECTIVES:

At the end of the lesson, the students should be able to:

1. To drive inquiry-based lessons with students

2. To write an example of curriculum framing questions
3. To chose an essential question for the learning plan

III. LESSON CONTENT:

Framing the Unit with Questions

Question – asking fuels fuel inquiry and learning. Curiosity and the desire to know
more about the world come naturally to humans. This is evident when spending time
with preschoolers and watching them as they embark in an array of question – asking
about everything they observe.

“The brain is essentially curious and it must be to survive. It constantly seeks

connection between the new and the known. Learning is a process of active
construction by the learner.” When humans ask questions and seek answer they
become engaged in learning.
Why Use Curriculum-Framing Questions?

To target higher-order thinking skills

 To require comparison, synthesis, interpretation, evaluation, etc.

To ensure student projects are compelling and engaging

 To require more than a simple restatement of facts

To focus on important topics

 To connect learning to other disciplines and other topics of study

 To ask questions that have been asked throughout human history
 To address compelling questions that students ask

What are Curriculum-Framing Questions?

1. Essential Questions

A key element of inquiry is the essential question, which is posed to students to frame
learning. Lessons that ask students to think more deeply and consider complex issues
are built around essential questions. Essential questions are open-ended questions
directly related to big overarching ideas that create a sense of wonderment and span
several units. When students work to create answers to essential questions, they
develop a deep understanding of bigger concepts by uncovering the most important
ideas related to overarching ideas.

Characteristics of an Essential Question include the following:

 They are broad, open – ended questions that address big ideas.
 They are the type of question people ask over and over.
 They lead to higher – level thinking and cannot be answered with a single
word or statement.
 They do not have obvious right answers.
  They spark curiosity and a sense of wonder and suggest investigation and
inquiry.
 Essential questions probe for deeper meaning and understanding.
 They are sometimes cross – curricular and take advantage of how subjects
are related.

Developing Essential Questions

When designing an inquiry-based unit, developing the essential question should follow
the development of the habits of learning taxonomy, identification of content standards
and benchmarks and development of student objectives/learning outcomes. To write
essential questions, teachers often need to dissect curricular content to determine the
most important understanding students should gain from their inquiry in the form of an
overarching idea. The overarching idea forms the foundation of the essential question.
Basic skills and knowledge written in the form of a question do not amount to an
essential question. For example, the question “What are the three branches of
government?” is not an essential question. The following question is an essential
question: “How are freedom and choice preserved?”

When writing Essential Questions, consider the following:

 Use language that all students will understand.
 Base the question on overarching ideas or problems.
 Write the question in a way that will engage students in wanting to know
more.
 Develop a question for which no single right answer exists
 Write the question so it involves thinking, not just answering.
 Base the question on the upper levels of a thinking model.

2. Unit Questions

Unit questions share some characteristics with essential questions. They are open-
ended and point to the most important ideas students will learn during the unit. The
difference between essential questions and unit questions is that a unit question is
more specific to the unit topic than an essential question. Unit questions focus on the
big idea that will be uncovered within the unit. Essential questions, on the other hand,
focus on big ideas that students begin to uncover through several units or across
subject areas.

Characteristics of a unit question include the following:

 They are open – ended and tie directly to a unit.
 They lead to higher – level thinking and cannot be answered with a single
word of statement.
 They assist students in constructing answers and personal meaning from
information they have gathered.

Developing Unit Questions

When writing unit questions examine unit expectations and determine the most
important idea students will uncover. Examine big ideas that support the overarching
concept in the essential question and base the unit question on that idea. Focus on
conclusions students will draw as they conduct an investigation and uncover content
in the unit. An example of a unit question related to the essential question stated in
the previous section might be as follows: “What is the role of government?”

When writing unit questions, consider the following:

 Use language that all students will understand.
 Base the question on overarching ideas that will be covered in the unit.
 Write questions that assist students in drawing conclusions about the unit
content.
 Write a question that is open – ended with no single right answer.

Content Questions

Content questions are fact-based questions that guide students to what they need to
know or be able to do in order to answer and understand the unit and essential
questions. There is a right or wrong answer to a content question. These questions
typically require information definition, identification and recall. Content questions
equate to short-answer test questions.

Characteristics of a content question include the following:

 They have correct, fact – based answers.
 They require students to recall, define or identify information.
 They assist students in clarifying or obtaining information they need to
answer the unit questions.

Developing Content Questions

When writing content questions identify important facts and information students must
know to develop an answer to the unit question. Concentrate on what students need
to know prior to solving problems, making decisions or developing innovative
solutions. Consider the unit content standards and pull questions directly from the
expectations defined in the standards.

When writing content questions, consider the following:

 Use language that all students will understand.
 Base the questions on facts students need to know.
 Review unit content standards and pull questions directly from expectations
in the standards.
 Write questions that have a single right answer or a small group of correct
answers
 Develop fact – based questions students need to answer and understand
so they can answer unit and essential questions.
What is the Difference Between Essential and Unit Questions?

Essential Questions:

 Are broad in scope

 Provide bridges between disciplines and units of study
– Example: How does conflict produce change

Unit Questions:

 Are tied to a specific topic or unit of study

 Support and continue the study of an Essential Question

Examples:

a) How does stress on the environment impact evolution?

b) How are changes in economics a factor in war?
c) In the story, Charlotte’s Web, how do the animals’ different abilities help
Wilbur survive and succeed?

How are Content Questions Different?

Content Questions differ from Unit and Essential Questions:

 Content Questions deal mostly with facts, rather than the interpretation of those
facts
 They typically have clear-cut answers

Examples:

a) How are volcanoes made?

b) What is photosynthesis?
c) Why is it cold in the winter when the sun is shining?
d) How do you find the values of unknowns in equations?
e) What is a fable?
What is the Difference Between an Essential Question and a Content Question?

Essential questions Fact- based, “one” answer content

questions
How does art reflect culture or change it? What is renaissance art?
How does an organism succeed in its What is the life cycle of a frog?
environment?
How does conflict produce change? What is the conflict in the story…?
Why do laws change? How are laws made?
Is history a history of progress? Who is an important inventor and what
did he/she invent?

How Do Unit Questions Support Essential Questions?

Essential Question Unit Questions

How can math help me understand the world What are fractals good for?
around me?
Why have stories always been important Why do we still read Shakespeare? How is
throughout history? Shakespeare’s work relevant to my life?
How does art reflect or change society?  How does impressionist art reflect life in the
late 1800’s?
 How does your own art reflect your life and
culture?
What does it take to change the world? • How did the policies or actions of Abraham
Lincoln affect America in the 1860’s?
• How do the policies and actions of Abraham
Lincoln affect your life today?

How are Essential and Unit Questions Related to Curriculum Frameworks?

4th Grade  Students will know that plate tectonics account for
Standard important features of Earth’s surface and major geologic
(California) events.
 Sample  Students will demonstrate and explain how volcanoes and
objective different types of mountains result from plate motions.
Essential  How does the earth change?
Question
Unit Question  Could a volcano erupt in my backyard?
Content  How are mountains made?
Questions  What are the different layers of the earth?
 How do igneous, sedimentary and metamorphic rocks form?

How Do Essential Questions Help Teachers?

 They help teachers focus on important topics in their year-long curriculum and
bring meaning across subject areas:
 They center around major issues, problems, concerns, interests, or themes that
also occur in other units.

How Do Essential Questions Help Students?

They help to engage students:

 Essential Questions bring meaning and focus to the study of events and topics
throughout a project or course, which otherwise may seem arbitrary or
unrelated.
 They engage students’ imagination and connect the subject with their own
experiences and ideas.
 There is no one, obvious “right” answer, so students are challenged to explore
many possibilities.
 They encourage in-depth discussion and research, and set the stage for further
questioning.

They help students compare, contrast, and make analogies.

 Questions are relevant, compelling, interesting, and are written in age-

appropriate, student language.
IV. SUMMARY OF THE LESSON

The Essential questioning really help the students to have a better understanding
about the lesson. It engages student’s imagination and connect the subject with their
own experiences and ideas. It provides structure for student learning, encourage
students to think deeply, and help students to make connections between what they
are learning and their lives. The Unit questions and content question can be an
essential question. The lesson shows how can we make an essential and better
question for the class in able for the students to improve their imagination, critical
thinking and also, they will going to have a social interaction to each other when you
give a question like this on a group activity. They can give their own opinions at the
same time the teacher can guide and correct the students answer.

V. REFERENCES:
 https://sites.google.com/a/emints.org/unit-design-1-tb/home/unit-
foundation/curriculum-framing-questions
 https://hartvilletechspot.weebly.com/uploads/2/5/4/0/2540874/curriculum-
framing_questions.pdf
 http://gseci.pbworks.com/f/A1+Unit+Design+--
+Curriculum+Framing+Questions.pdf
 http://wvde.state.wv.us/hstw/documents/Tips_for_Creating_CFQs.doc
 http://www.acpsk12.org/pl/acps-classrooms-in-focus/essential-questions/
 https://www.teachthought.com/pedagogy/examples-of-essential-questions/
 https://study.com/academy/lesson/using-essential-questions-in-
curriculum.html
 https://www.robeson.k12.nc.us/cms/lib6/NC01000307/Centricity/Domain/3916
/Writing%20Essential%20Questions.pdf
 https://www.scholastic.com/teachers/articles/teaching-content/essential-
questions/
 https://www.authenticeducation.org/ae_bigideas/article.lasso?artid=53
VI. APPENDIX

Quiz:

(1-3) What are the Curriculum Framing Questions

(4-8). Differentiate the Essential Questions, Unit Questions and Content Questions

9. Why use curriculum framing questions?

a) To target higher-order thinking skills

b) To ensure students project are compelling and engaging
c) To focus on important topics
d) All of the above

10. Make an Essential Question.

Essay:

Write the importance of Curriculum Framing Questions as Pre service teachers

ACTIVITIES:

1. Before the lesson start, the Facilitator will give the students a sticky note and
they will going to write a question, at the end of the lesson they will identify what
kind of question is that in curriculum framing questions.

2. The class will be divided into 4 groups. Each group will be going to make an
example of Essential, Unit and Content Questions. Then after that, they will
going to exchange the manila paper to the other groups and the other groups
will going to answer the Questions on the manila paper.