What are "essential questions," and how do they differ from other kinds of questions? What's so great about them? Why should you design and use essential questions in your classroom? Essential questions (EQs) help target standards as you organize curriculum content into coherent units that yield focused and thoughtful learning. In the classroom, EQs are used to stimulate students' discussions and promote a deeper understanding of the content. Whether you are an Understanding by Design (UbD) devotee or are searching for ways to address standards—local or Common Core State Standards—in an engaging way, Jay McTighe and Grant Wiggins provide practical guidance on how to design, initiate, and embed inquiry-based teaching and learning in your classroom. Offering dozens of examples, the authors explore the usefulness of EQs in all K-12 content areas, including skill-based areas such as math, PE, language instruction, and arts education. As an important element of their backward design approach to designing curriculum, instruction, and assessment, the authors *Give a comprehensive explanation of why EQs are so important; *Explore seven defining characteristics of EQs; *Distinguish between topical and overarching questions and their uses; *Outline the rationale for using EQs as the focal point in creating units of study; and *Show how to create effective EQs, working from sources including standards, desired understandings, and student misconceptions. Using essential questions can be challenging—for both teachers and students—and this book provides guidance through practical and proven processes, as well as suggested "response strategies" to encourage student engagement. Finally, you will learn how to create a culture of inquiry so that all members of the educational community—students, teachers, and administrators—benefit from the increased rigor and deepened understanding that emerge when essential questions become a guiding force for learners of all ages.

New York Times Bestseller “What, What? is a welcome—and joyful—reminder that true wisdom comes from asking the right questions. Should you read this book? Absolutely.” —Clayton Christensen, bestselling author of How Will You Measure Your Life? Based on the wildly popular commencement address, the art of asking (and answering) good questions by the Dean of Harvard University’s Graduate School of Education. Whether we’re in the boardroom or the classroom, we spend far too much time and energy looking for the right answer. But the truth is that questions are just as important as answers, often more so. If you ask the wrong question, for instance, you’re guaranteed to get the wrong answer. A good question, on the other hand, inspires a good answer and, in the process, invites deeper understanding and more meaningful connections between people. Asking a good question requires us to move beyond what we think we know about an issue or a person to explore the difficult and the unknown, the awkward, and even the unpleasant. In Wait, What?, Jim Ryan, dean of Harvard University’s Graduate School of Education, celebrates the art of asking—and answering—good questions. Five questions in particular: Wait, what?; I wonder…? Couldn’t we at least…?; How can I help?; and What truly matters? Using examples from politics, history, popular culture, and social movements, as well as his own personal life, Ryan demonstrates how these essential inquiries generate understanding, spark curiosity, initiate progress, fortify relationships, and draw our attention to the important things in life—from the Supreme Court to Fenway Park. By regularly asking these five essential questions, Ryan promises, we will be better able to answer life’s most important question: “And did you get what you wanted out of life, even so?” At once hilarious and illuminating, poignant and surprising, Wait, What? is an inspiring book of wisdom that will forever change the way you think about questions.

This is an easy to use guide on assessment for learning, answering common questions about 21st century standards and grading considerations.

Since the days of the Ancient Greeks, history has been perceived as the academic study of the past. Unfortunately, it has generally been taught as a litany of rigid, boring facts intended to be accepted rather than questioned. This has been reinforced for decades by weighty textbooks that overwhelm the reader with mind-numbing details presented in a chronological sequence. The end result is that students see little relevance of what they learn in history class to the real world, and many simply struggle to stay awake. Compared to other subjects taught at the secondary level, history is frequently judged to be the most boring. This is largely because it is viewed as an intellectually lifeless subject that presents few opportunities for active engagement. Questioning History is a book built around 16 essential questions designed to challenge this common assumption. Each question is broad, open-ended and subject to vigorous debate. By examining the historical background behind each question and by analyzing the ways in which the question can be answered, the reader will come away with a deeper understanding of the past and a new appreciation for history as a cognitively dynamic subject. In addition, by using each chapter as a platform for engaging discussions and Socratic seminars, the reader will be able to refine the decision-making skills necessary for effective citizenship in a democratic society. Depending on the classroom or the setting in which it is being used, Questioning History can either take the place of the more traditional textbook or at least be used as a supplement to make it come more alive. The best way to learn and to appreciate a subject is through active engagement. Questioning History provides a shot of adrenalin to the study of history.

Exhibition schedule: Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College: April 16-August 7, 2011; Grey Art Gallery, New York University: September 9-December 3, 2011; University of Michigan Museum of Art: February 25-May 20th, 2012.

Service-Learning Essentials is the resource you need to help you develop high-quality service-learning experiences for college students. Written by one of the field's leading experts and sponsored by Campus Compact, the book is the definitive work on this high-impact educational practice. Service-learning has been identified by the Association of American Colleges and Universities as having been widely tested and shown to be beneficial to college students from a wide variety of backgrounds. Organized in an accessible question-and-answer format, the book responds clearly and completely to the most common questions and concerns about service-learning. Each chapter addresses issues related to individual practice as well as to the collective work of starting and developing a service-learning center or program, with examples drawn from a variety of disciplines, situations, and institutional types. The questions range from basic to advanced and the answers cover both the fundamentals and complexities of service-learning. Topics include: Determining what service-learning opportunities institutions should offer How to engage students in critical reflection in academic courses and in cocurricular experiences Best practices for developing and sustaining mutually beneficial campus-community partnerships Integrating service-learning into the curriculum in all disciplines and at all levels, as well as various areas of student life outside the classroom Assessing service-learning programs and outcomes The dilemmas of service-learning in the context of power and privilege The future of service-learning in online and rapidly globalizing environments Service-learning has virtually limitless potential to enable colleges and universities to meet their goals for student learning while making unique contributions to addressing unmet local, national, and global needs. However, in order to realize these benefits, service-learning must be thoughtfully designed and carefully implemented. This easy-to-use volume contains everything faculty, leaders, and staff members need to know about service-learning to enhance communities, improve higher education institutions, and educate the next generation of citizens, scholars, and leaders.

Ask good questions, listen well to their worldview, and open the door to sharing your faith. David Cashin learned how to ask good questions and listen well through ministry experience in Bangladesh, Sweden, and Muslim contexts. As a professor of Intercultural and Muslim Studies at Columbia International University, Dr. Cashin has used this experience to equip students for professional ministry. Now, he wants to do the same for you, but teaching you these seven questions designed to help Christians share their faith in a natural, relevant, and respectful way. The Seven Essential Questions of Life teaches you skills to do evangelism in a way that encourages both the evangelist and the seeker. This is an invaluable book to help you open the door to sharing your faith.

In a twenty-first-century global economy, in which multinational companies coordinate and collaborate withÊpartners and clientele around the world, it is usually English that is the parlance of business, research, technology, and finance. Most assume that if parties on both ends of the conferenceÊcall are fluent English speakers, information will be shared seamlessly and without any misunderstanding. But is that really true? Ê Words Matter examines how communications between transnational partners routinely break down, even when all parties are fluent English speakers. The end result is lost time, lost money, and often discord among those involved. WhatÕs going wrong? Contrary to a common assumption, language is never neutral. Its is heavily influenced by oneÕs culture and can often result in unintended meanings depending on word choice, a particular phrase, or even oneÕs inflection. A recent study of corporate managers found that one out of five projects fail primarily because of ineffective transnational communication, resulting in the loss of millions of dollars. Ê In Words Matter, you will venture into the halls of multinational tech companies around the world to study language and culture at work; learn practical steps for harnessing research in communication and anthropology to become more skilled in the digital workplace; and learn to use the ÒCommunication Plus Model,Ó which can be easily applied in multiple situations, leading to better communication and better business outcomes. Ê

Eight Essential Questions Teachers Ask: A Guidebook for Communicating with Students acknowledges and addresses the essential questions and concerns that emerge for teachers in all stages of development. Using a narrative style that incorporates actual voices of teachers, this book offersreaders relevant research, peer mentoring, communication-focused recommendations, and reflective practice opportunities. This unique resource provides useful strategies for addressing communication questions that emerge in the teacher development process.This book is intended for graduate communication courses and upper division undergraduate communication courses focused on teacher training and development. As such, this book could serve as a stand-alone resource for these courses or it could be a supplement to a longer handbook (given the book isintended to be relatively short by comparison). Additionally, this book could be marketed to teacher training programs and centers that often purchase-in bulk- training materials for new teachers. Generally, the new teachers participating in these courses, programs or centers would likely be MS/MAand PhD level graduate students or lecturers.Eight Essential Questions Teachers Ask is uniquely situated to fill a niche that current communication education and instructional communication handbooks do not because of its distinct approach. First, the book is organized around empirically grounded teacher communication concerns that arepressing to new teachers (and those teachers who teach new teachers). Current books are organized topically or contextually around scholarly lines of inquiry that might not speak to the immediate challenges new teachers face. Second, this book uses a framing mechanism-teacher communication concerns- that is relevant and timely for new teachers as the entryway for introducing instructional communication literature. In this way, the book makes the instructional communication research accessible and pertinent to new teachers who might not otherwise find such comprehensive syntheses applicablefor their immediate teacher preparation needs. Finally, this book uses a narrative style to explore, address, and provide recommendations about managing concerns - emulating styles that often characterize mentoring relationships that new teachers seek out when faced with their concerns. In this way,this style and tone of this book speak to new teachers in ways comprehensive syntheses cannot.The five primary objectives of this book include:1. Acknowledging the lived, experienced communication concerns of new teachers2. Providing a foundation of research essentials that speak to teacher communication concerns3. Harnessing the power of peer guidance to provide insight into teacher communication concerns4. Providing concrete, communication-focused recommendations to mitigate teacher communication concerns5. Encouraging reflective practice about teacher communication concerns

New York Times number–one bestselling author Debbie Ford presents revolutionary questions that, when answered with complete honesty, change the way we see ourselves and make decisions – ultimately moving us toward the life we desire. The realities of the life we live today are a result of the choices we made yesterday, three months ago and three years ago. But we don't wind up $50,000 dollars in debt because of one extravagant purchase. Nor do we put on 30 unwanted pounds as a result of a couple of decadent meals. And our relationships certainly don't fall apart overnight because of one decision. We are where we are because of repeated unconscious choices made day after day. If we want to understand why and how we created our present day reality, all we need to do is look at the choices we made in the past. Ford cuts right through our denial with the 10 questions that immediately reveal the true motivations behind our thoughts and actions. But more than that, by rigorously and honestly asking and answering these 10 vital questions, we regain control and have the power necessary to create the life we always wanted.