Student Learning Map Questions- Essential Questions and Assessment Prompts

Bill Blynt
May 26, 2008

When developing Student Learning Maps, teachers must distinguish between three types of questions:

Unit Essential Questions

Lesson Essential Questions

Lesson Assessment Prompts

Unit essential questions refer to the big ideas students will be engaged with throughout the unit and beyond. These are the 'big ideas' that students should remember well beyond the period of study. They are questions that may run across subject s and time.  The question must have multiple answers and require the student to use multiple sources to make connections to prior knowledge and/or reach new levels of understanding. It must be able to help the student link his/her thinking to previous units or years of study. Unit essential questions are built from the components of state standards. This question requires a student to develop a broad understanding of a whole unit. Students demonstrate their understanding through a performance or development of product at the end of the unit.

Lesson essential questions are questions that focus the learner on the critical ideas (concepts) embedded in a particular unit.There is only one lesson essential question per lesson. This question frames the series of instruction that will lead the learner to understanding the focus of that particular 'chunk' of learning. The content of the lesson will provide the student with the answer to this question. It should be poised to the students at the beginning of a lesson and should be answered, by the student, at the conclusion of that lesson. As such, it serves as a formative assessment that provides valuable and timely information to the student and teacher. The information ascertained from student responses to the lesson essential question should assist the teacher in determining the next step in the learning process. Lesson essential questions do not reflect a 1:1 relationship with each state standard. Questions can address multiple standards or be focused on just part of a single standard. Lesson essential questions evolve from a Know-Understand-Do (KUD) analysis of state standards that have been grouped together to frame a teaching unit. Lesson essential questions flow from the Know and Do components of this analysis. Unit essential questions emerge from the Understand column of this matrix.

Lesson assessment prompts are questions that guide the learner through a series of activities or instruction specifically focused on a particular concept or skill central to that unit. There may be multiple assessment prompts throughout the lesson. These questions have correct and incorrect answers. Student responses to these questions indicate understanding of the sequential elements of content or series of steps in learning a skill required for a student to master the primary lesson objective. These questions provide a framework for the student that serves to keep them focused on the intended lesson outcome.  

Examples:
Unit Essential Question
  How and why do we provide checks and balances on government power?

Lesson Essential Question
  Does separation of powers inherent in our government create a deadlock?

Lesson Assessment Prompts
 How is government power shared in the government of the US?
 What are the powers given to each of the branches of government?
  Why do we have three branches of government at the federal level in the US?