Questions Worth Asking

always the more beautiful answer,

who asks a more beautiful question

e e cummings

Student Questions

We have talked often over the last few years about questioning.  Essential questions are a part of the Understanding by Design framework, questions are referenced in various ways on the TEDS rubric, and many of you are experimenting with using questioning sequences or having students generate their own driving questions.

The best questions, the most helpful questions, the most beautiful questions are those that have no one right answer.  Essential questions in the UbD framework are crafted to push students.  They initiate thinking at high levels, require experimentation, lead to debate, and make students wrestle to find possible answers. 

Many students, especially students who know how to play the Game of School, find these questions frustrating.  They are used to having the right answers provided, and they are skilled at memorizing them.  “Just give me the answer, so I can get it right on the test.”  You have undoubtedly heard something similar to this when you present students with an open-ended question.  They want to know what they need to do to get a good grade and are hesitant to participate in the struggle necessary to answer a beautiful question.

The purpose of school, however, is not so students can answer test questions nor is it to provide solid GPAs.  We teach because we want students to learn, we want students to think, we want students to be prepared for life in a world that seldom has just one right answer.

Our Questions

Teachers and administrators have responsibilities and demands today that go well beyond what was required when I walked in to teach my first class in 1979.  We are working on Understanding by Design, Problem-Based and Inquiry-Based Learning, creating authentic assessments, using new and ever-changing technology, and designing lessons that engage students in their own learning.  These challenges don’t have one right solution, and they may create a yearning for something easier.  Good teaching has never been defined as opening the textbook and working through it from page one to the end of the last chapter, but that would make life simpler—not better, just simpler. 

Many times we are tempted to say, just like the students, “Give me the answer, so I can get it right on the test.”  Like it or not, we live in the same world as our students, and this world seldom has just one right answer to most of life’s questions.  This truth is both wonderful and disturbing.  We know that we must challenge students and keep them thinking, but this requires from us equally difficult thinking about our lesson designs. 

School Improvement Plan

We are putting the final touches on this year’s School Improvement Plan.  It has a little different look from previous versions and will focus our most significant initiatives in several ways.  When you look closely at the new SIP, you will find that it contains nothing brand new.  It continues the journey we have been on, but it pushes us to answer some beautiful questions.  For example:

·         What does excellence look like at Hamilton Southeastern High School?  For students?  For us?

·         How do we improve the odds of success for students who face significant obstacles?

·         What does it mean to Bleed Blue at HSHS?  Can we get more students, parents, and staff members to do so?

·         What will the future have in store for our students after graduation, and how can we prepare them for this uncertain future?

I propose that these are some of the essential questions we are asking and will continue to ask.  They don’t have one right answer.  Finding answers, even partial answers, will take time, energy, and collaboration.  It will be hard and at times frustrating work, but it will also be time well spent, both for our students and for ourselves as professionals.

We do have our work cut out for us, but it is work that makes a difference.  After all is said and done, isn’t that the reason we became educators? 

Now that is a beautiful question with the potential for a beautiful answer.

Welcome back, HSE!  I hope your year is excellent.

Phil