Themes & Essential Questions

Themes and essential questions help to frame student inquiry and promote critical thinking. They also provide a helpful framework for organizing a unit of study using a multi-genre approach. The themes to the left have been designated for instructional focus at each grade level. Beginning in September, the expectations for teachers related to the designated grade-level themes will be as follows:

Teachers will use the designated grade-level theme to organize a multi-genre, thematic unit of study; the unit may last from 10 weeks (at a minimum) to 40 weeks (the entire year) at the teacher’s discretion.
Whether teachers decide to use the designated grade-level theme for a marking period, a semester, or for the entire year, they will use a thematic multi-genre approach throughout the year; if teachers choose to use the designated grade-level theme for part of the year, they will then choose additional themes from the list as long as they do not teach the theme designated to the previous or following grade levels.
Teachers will use essential questions to promote open-ended inquiry as they engage students in exploration of the theme and the related multi-genre texts; teachers may use the essential questions provided as examples or they may generate their own.

Good essential questions have some
basic criteria in common:

· They are open-ended and resist a simple or single right answer

· They are deliberately thought-provoking, counterintuitive, and/or controversial

· They require students to draw upon content knowledge and personal experience

· They can be revisited throughout the unit to engage students in evolving dialogue and debate

· They lead to other essential questions posed by students