Essential+Questions

=ENGLISH 9: DEVELOPING ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS=

An **essential question** probes for deeper meaning and understanding of an issue, concept, or principle. Essential questions set the stage for further questioning, foster the development of critical thinking skills and problem solving.

Essential questions can begin your exploration of your speech topic and are based upon the concepts you want your audience to understand and apply. The best essential questions center around major concepts, problems, interests or themes relevant and authentic to your lives and surroundings. They must be open-ended, non-judgmental, meaningful, motivational, and invite further exploration.

Use this process to develop essential question(s) about your speech topic:

1. Identify **your topic** (example: Environmental responsibility at Iolani).

2. Determine **smaller subtopics** (examples: paper waste from handouts, Styrofoam cups in the cafeteria, energy drain from unnecessary lighting and plugged in appliances).

3. Determine the **organizational approach** you will take with this topic (Time, Space, Extent) and explain how this will support your speech.

4. Determine the **concepts/big ideas** that you want your audience to walk away with when they're done listening to your speech. (examples: the environmental impact of paper waste on our campus; the environmental image we project as a school, the financial implications of wasted electricity)

5. Reword the concepts into question(s) that begin with words such as: **what, why, how, should,** **could, which** (examples: Why should we lessen the amount of paper waste on the Iolani campus? Should we be concerned about our "green" reputation? Why do students and teachers continue to waste electricity? When did this waste become a recognized problem?)

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For each of your three possible topics, follow the process above. After you are done, you should have a pretty solid idea as to which topic will work best for you: which one has the most interesting/powerful essential questions?

You might want to narrow your topic by choosing one overall essential question and creating even more sub-questions from there.

Your essential questions will also serve as your guide