A Driving Question Worksheet For Students and Teachers
It’s no surprise that all good project-based learning and Inquiry-based learning project plans start with a meaningful, personal, relevant and real-world driving question or wondering. Do your students have a driving question worksheet to start their planning process?
Planning Unit plan. Project plan. Week plan. Lesson plan. Minute plan. As teachers, sometimes it feels like all we do is PLAN. But for all professionals, it’s the same. We’re asked to manage our time, prioritize, organize, and initiate tasks. Why? So we can be our most productive selves. There are so many tools and resources in cyberspace to help teachers and other professionals plan. Entrepreneurs use a business model canvas, engineers use the design thinking process, scientists use the scientific method, and teachers have unit and lesson plan templates. We all use some form of model, blueprint, or roadmap to guide our plans.
Our schools are getting overwhelmed with buzzwords - agency, student-led, personalized, student-centered, voice, and choice - all emphasizing teachers to give students the opportunity to learn how to learn. But, the agency we all want our students to embrace has to start with a plan. Not a teacher’s plan. A student’s plan.
But, the agency we all want our students to embrace has to start with a plan. Not a teacher’s plan. A student’s plan.
So the question naturally follows, do our students have the tools they need to truly plan on their own? To be agents? To personalize their work? To make their voices and choices heard? As an entrepreneur, I frequently get asked what is on our company roadmap. We need to start asking our students what is on theirs. A student’s project plan starts with their interests, curiosities and their passions. As teachers, we may have a driving question planned out, but students need to produce their own driving question to frame their own projects. Students cannot plan their investigations, define a problem and create a solution without having an overall goal or driving question. Looking for driving question examples to use for you next project or share with your students? Here are 30 SDG project ideas with excellent driving questions.
We’ve put together a library of common project planning pieces, starting with a driving question worksheet that gives students the framework to think like designers, inventors, entrepreneurs, and problem-solvers. With our student planning tools, students can move through important thinking routines central to all student-led learning experiences like PBL, Passion Projects, Design Thinking, STEAM, Maker, and Capstone. Our driving question worksheet frames all of these valuable learning experiences. Once students have their driving question, they can begin building their project proposals. In our Project Proposal Workbook students identify their goals, objectives, audience and final product for their project.
A 4-step driving question worksheet for students.
This driving question worksheet for students helps them identify their interests, hobbies, passions, goals they wish to pursue or challenges they want to address. What topic holds their interest the most? The driving question worksheet is a digital and customizable google document that students can work through independently or in groups. The model follows the QFT method.
Step 1
Identify passion, goals, curiosities or challenges
The best driving questions stem from a passion, goal, curiosity or challenge that the student wishes to pursue. So first, a student needs to list topics of interest or list subtopics of interest under a theme assigned to them down.
Step 2
List wonderings or NTK’s
Next, students list their wonderings around each topic. What do they need to know (NTK) around each topic? What do they wonder?
Step 2
Do light investigation
Students then make a list of questions around each wondering and do light research and exploration to identify which topic holds their interest the longest. Students narrow down to the wondering(s) that raise the most questions.
Step 3
Categorize
Is there any overlap in wonderings? Can you categorize your initial findings from your initial investigation? Are there commonalities? Can you bring two wonderings together?
Step 4
Write a driving question that speaks to your goals
This question will produce a deep, sustained inquiry. It is not a short-term goal, but a long-term endeavour. Students will not only use the driving question worksheet below to check-off the criteria for a quality driving question, but they will be able to identify their goals. What they want to learn/do? Why they want to learn/do it? What is their purpose?
On Spinndle, students have all the planning tools they need to move through a passion project, PBL experience or inquiry project on their own. Access Solution Finding , Design Thinking, SMART goal, Project Objectives and other interactive project planning templates directly on the Spinndle platform.
