Craft the Essential Question | Facing History & Ourselves
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Section

Craft the Essential Question

Explore our bank of essential questions for a coming-of-age literature unit and engage with activities in the Educator Workbook to align your essential questions with your learning outcomes and passages from the text.

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At a Glance

Section

Language

English — US

Subject

  • English & Language Arts

Grade

6–12
  • Culture & Identity

Overview

About This Section

Essential questions invite students to grapple with complexity, deepen their understanding of a topic or theme, and explore connections between what they are reading, what they are experiencing, and what they are learning about the world today. 

When students revisit essential questions over the course of a unit, in their journals and in conversation with others, they come to realize how questions can lead to new questions, as well as how literature can deepen their understanding of themselves and their world.

This section explains Facing History’s approach to developing essential questions, as well as ideas for essential questions that teachers can choose from for their coming-of-age literature unit.

This section on crafting essential question includes: 

  • 12 options for essential questions that address individual identity, belonging, personal values and beliefs, and what it means to experience adolescence.

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Inside This Section

Inside This Section

According to Grant Wiggins, an essential question “causes genuine and relevant inquiry into big ideas.” In the same vein, Harvard professor David Perkins describes these “big questions” as inspiring wonder and curiosity about the human condition and our world. Unfortunately, classroom research shows that most of the questions that students encounter are review and procedural rather than exploratory. 

Our essential questions invite students to use their imagination and lived experiences to explore complex questions about human behavior with the hope that these questions will spark new ones as students deepen their understanding of the literature they read and the world in which they live.

Educators can choose from the following Facing History essential questions to frame their coming-of-age unit. Each question invites students to wrestle with complexity and to engage the mind, heart, and conscience in an exploration of the text and reflection on their own lived experiences. 

For educators who plan to implement the “This I Believe . . .” Personal Narrative summative assessment, which you can find in Section 5 of the unit planning toolkit, consider one of the first five essential questions for your unit.

  1. What makes me, me? What story do I want to tell about who I am and what matters to me? 
  2. What do I believe? What factors have shaped my beliefs as I’ve grown up?
  3. What individuals and experiences have shaped my beliefs about myself and the world around me? 
  4. What does it mean to be a (insert label) ________ (boy, girl, gender-fluid person, immigrant, person with a disability, Latinx teenager, Jewish teenager, cisgender teenager, teenager in foster care, etc.) and how can I embrace, amplify, challenge, or escape this label?
  5. What do I stand for? Who/what do I stand up for? 
  6. How can growing up and experiencing adolescence impact or change an individual’s identity?
  7. What are the internal and external factors that help shape identity? What aspects of my identity can I control and which ones are impacted by other people, society, or circumstances?
  8. What does it mean to grow up? When does an adolescent become an adult? 
  9. What does it mean to belong? How do I navigate the tension between my desire to fit in and my need to express my individuality?  
  10. What is the relationship between who I am, who others think I am, and who I will become? 
  11. What responsibility do I have to my family, friends, and community? What responsibility do they have to me? How might my understanding of my responsibilities toward others change as I grow up? 
  12. Where do I see myself and my experiences in the stories that other people write and tell? Where am I missing from these stories? What is the story that I want to tell the world?

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Materials and Downloads

Quick Downloads

Use Section 4 of your Educator Workbook, available below in Google Doc format, to begin identifying possible essential questions for your unit. You can also get a copy of our Essential Questions for a Coming of Age Unit in Google Doc format. 

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Facing History & Ourselves is designed for educators who want to help students explore identity, think critically, grow emotionally, act ethically, and participate in civic life. It’s hard work, so we’ve developed some go-to professional learning opportunities to help you along the way.

Most teachers are willing to tackle the difficult topics, but we need the tools.
— Gabriela Calderon-Espinal, Bay Shore, NY