Students are much more likely to remember what they learn when they make connections to themselves, ideas and other things that they learn about. I think that many of the questions that students should be pondering do not and should not have a specific answer. The best questions can only be addressed by considering a chorus of thoughts in a discussion. Students at the upper elementary level can start to develop the idea that many unique perspectives often meld together to provide the “answer” to many questions. We are not all the same and we should not be!
This is why I like the idea of essential questions when developing a unit. They do not have one answer, and I think that they are the questions that should be considered. Some fact recall may be necessary, but I hope that students’ lasting impressions of my lessons will focus on larger ideas, and the varying responses from our class than on a few memorized facts on each subject matter.
That's the very reason why I too like the essential questions. So often students are forced to have "the one right" answer and they get out of the habit of thinking.
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