Wiggins Chapter Five

This chapter discusses the essential questions that we should use, or ask, to really dive-in to the topics we discuss in the classroom and connect them to our big ideas or goals of a unit, for example. In a (literally) perpetual set of example “essential questions,” the authors demonstrate how these questions can elicit “deep and transferable understanding” (106) of the material. What makes this idea stick is when the authors compare what they consider  “essential questions” with questions that we are used to seeing in text books or workbooks that check for only exact, one-answer responses. I am sure that every teacher has used the classic comprehension questions and has felt like they had a successful lesson after students were able to answer the questions correctly. But, what does the fact that they could answer the questions really tell us? We learn through this chapter that we can have our students think more, be more critical, and develop even more ideas if we begin to concentrate more on essential questions rather than the former.

I find it useful when the authors distinguish between overarching and topical questions. These two types of questions both are essential questions and should not be wrongfully categorized as good and bad or useful and not useful. It is the combination of overarching and topical questions that create the best units. The only difference is that topical questions lead to “specific topical understandings within a unit,” and overarching questions “point beyond the topic content toward broader, transferable understandings…” (114). This explains very clearly how the combination of the two can be very successful in the classroom. The authors also make a good point when they mention students’ self-depreciating attitude towards asking questions in the classroom. I can say from experience that students always say, “I know this sounds stupid…” before asking a question because they feel as if the teacher is expecting only one right answer. If we begin to implement this “essential question” design in the classroom, not only will our students gain a deeper understanding of the material, but will gain the confidence to be more inquisitive and critical as well.

Wiggins Chapter Three

Gaining Clarity on Our Goals

In Chapter Three, long-term goals in planning are highlighted. The authors claim, “With no long-term goals, there is no perspective—hence no check on the teacher habit of merely teaching to short-term, content-related objectives” (58). I completely agree with this statement and unfortunately can relate. I had a semester in which I was studying and working so much that I didn’t have sufficient time to fully design a curriculum for each of my private adult classes. Although the classes went smoothly, and I at least felt that the students learned, I had no real list of priorities at the end of the course to say, “Yes, these objectives were achieved.” Now, I always have a full idea of the entire course before the first class and make everything explicit for the students so that they have a clear idea as well.

The chapter also describes the standards phenomenon and mentions the fact that we would need about nine more school years to cover all the benchmarks we are supposed to (61). I feel it is true that there is a lot of content to cover, and it is impossible to do so, but I also feel that we must concentrate on what we can do with these standards and not take it so literally. We learn that in these cases, what we can do is make a graphic organizer consisting of three ovals to clarify what content we are going to focus on in our lessons.

The ovals in the graphic organizer that I mentioned are labeled as “Big Ideas and Core Tasks,” “Important to know and do,” and “Worth being familiar with.” This organizer is very useful, because it cuts down the overload of material that a teacher is supposed to cover. If we really do not have enough time to cover the material, this chart will at least let us teach the most important material in the time allowed. To be honest, I feel like a lot of time is spent complaining about the standards situation rather than working with it and not letting it affect our classes and lessons. With the tips given in Chapter Three, we can definitely plan our courses better.