Keep these 3 characteristics in mind when writing essential questions.
1. In addition to being provocative, open-ended, and challenging, questions should spur debate in your classroom.
2. Answers to essential questions should require evidence and support.
3. Essential questions should occur over and over again. Revisit them as often as possible to allow students to grow in how they think about a few core topics.
THE ARTS ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS
- How does a song, piece of art, or a dance communicate with us?
- What is “art” and why do individual cultures place so much value on its continuing evolution?
- What inner and outer factors influence how we express ourselves artistically?
- What kinds of responsibilities does an artist have to an audience or a consumer?
- Do audiences and consumers have any responsibility towards artists? If so, what are they?
- What are the fundamental differences between a “thoughtful” and a “thoughtless” critique?
- What do we mean when we refer to music as the universal language?
- How can we use the arts to inspire positive action?
- What would the world be like if we weren’t able to artistically express ourselves?
- What can the art forms of other cultures teach us about ourselves and about life?
QUESTIONS ABOUT CREATING
- Can all people be artists?
- What conditions, attitudes and behaviors support creativity and innovative thinking?
- Does collaboration expand the creative process?
- What inspires people to make art?
- How are artists and designers attuned to their surroundings?
- How do artists and designers make and use connections from various sources?
- How does knowing the contexts of histories and traditions of art forms help us create works of art and design?
- Why do artists follow or break from established traditions?
- How do artists determine what resources and criteria are needed to formulate aesthetic investigations?
- How do artists work?
- How do artists and designers determine whether a particular direction in their work is effective?
- How do artists and designers learn from trial and error?
- How do artists and designers care for and maintain equipment and materials?
- Why is it important for safety and health to understand and follow correct procedures in handling equipment and materials?
- How do artists appropriately use other’s images and ideas?
- What responsibilities come with the freedom to create?
- How does art and design communicate stories and ideas?
- How do artists and designers create works of art that effectively communicate?
- How do objects and places shape lives and communities?
- How do people design the environments in which they live and work?
- How do artists and designers determine goals for designing or redesigning?
- How do artists grow and become accomplished in art forms?
- What motivates and sustains artists in their practice?
- What factors prevent or encourage people to take creative risks?
- How do artists take the initiative to improve their work?
- What role does persistence play in revising, refining and developing work?
- How does collaboratively reflecting on a work help us experience it more fully and develop it more completely?
- How do people use creative and critical thinking skills in their jobs and careers?
- How do people use creative and critical thinking skills in their daily lives?
- How do people use artmaking knowledge and skills to develop and enhance their homes, personal styles and communities?
- How does creating enrich people’s lives?
- Why do people learn about the arts in school and community settings?
QUESTIONS ABOUT PRESENTING
- Why do people select things for display?
- Why do people value objects, artifacts, and artworks?
- How are artworks cared for, and by whom?
- What criteria, methods and processes are used to select work for presentation or preservation?
- What is a portfolio?
- What is a collection?
- What criteria might be considered when selecting a work for a collection or portfolio?
- What methods and processes are considered when preparing artwork for presentation or preservation?
- How do technologies influence how we share and experience images and works of art?
- How does technology influence our presentation and experience of art?
- How does technology influence how images, objects, artifacts and artworks are preserved?
- What is an art museum?
- How does the presenting and sharing of objects, artifacts, and artworks influence and shape ideas, beliefs, and experiences?
- What is an image?
- How do images influence our views of the world?
- Where and how do we encounter images in our world?
- How do artworks convey meaning?
- How can the viewer "read" a work of art?
- How does knowing and using visual arts vocabularies help us understand and interpret works of art?
- What can we learn from our responses to art?
- How do life experiences influence the way you relate to art?
- How do visual arts experiences enhance the ability to understand art?
- How does art help us understand how people lived in different times, places, and cultures?
- How does knowing how people lived in different times and places influence our response to the art?
- How does one determine criteria to evaluate a work of art?
- How and why might criteria vary?
- How do people engage in the visual arts throughout their lives?
- How does learning in the arts help us build relationships with others?
- How do your choices in life and engagement with the world evolve as you grow in your knowledge and interaction with the visual arts?
