{"id":652,"date":"2015-11-02T15:12:14","date_gmt":"2015-11-02T15:12:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/staff.ncsy.org\/education\/?p=652"},"modified":"2015-11-02T16:50:35","modified_gmt":"2015-11-02T16:50:35","slug":"how-to-start-planning-a-program","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/staff.ncsy.org\/education\/how-to-start-planning-a-program\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Start Planning a Program"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>\u201cI have an event coming up in a few\u00a0weeks, and I need education&#8230; <strong>but<\/strong> <strong>I don\u2019t know where to start<\/strong>.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>\u201cMy students said they want to talk about free will, <strong>but how do I turn that into a program<\/strong>?\u201d <\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>\u201cI have a great idea for a program, <strong>but I don\u2019t know how to drill it down and make it relevant<\/strong>. What should I do?\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<p><strong>In this post, we will learn:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>Why every good program starts with an &#8220;<strong>essential question<\/strong>&#8220;<\/li>\n<li>The <strong>4 &#8220;Why&#8221;s<\/strong><\/li>\n<li>Further reading<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<hr \/>\n<h2>Essential Questions vs. Factual Questions<\/h2>\n<p>Compare the following sets of questions:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><em>What role does free will play in our lives?<\/em><br \/>\n<strong>Compared to:<\/strong> <em>What is the definition of &#8220;free will&#8221;?<\/em><\/li>\n<li><em>What is a true friend?<\/em><br \/>\n<strong>Compared to:<\/strong> <em>What are the different scholarly interpretations of &#8220;Love thy neighbor as yourself&#8221;?<\/em><\/li>\n<li><em>What is the significance of the Holocaust?<\/em><br \/>\n<strong>Compared to:<\/strong> <em>How many concentration camps were there, and what was their system of organization?<\/em><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>What&#8217;s the difference between the first and second question in each pair?<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>All of the first questions are <strong>open-ended, spark conversation, and relate to broader questions of identity and meaning<\/strong>. All of the second questions are <strong>closed, fact-based, and don\u2019t require deep thought.<\/strong><\/li>\n<li>The\u00a0first questions are <strong>identity-based<\/strong>, while the second questions\u00a0are <strong>information-based<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<li>The second\u00a0questions\u00a0get the students to just\u00a0<strong>answer the question<\/strong>, while the first questions force the students to confront the questions and supply<strong> their own answers<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>When planning a session, the first question you should ask yourself is: What is my <em>essential question<\/em>? Within the topic I selected, <strong>what is a question that is relevant to my students&#8217; identities, core to understanding the topic, will start conversations, and connect the topic with their own experiences and ideas<\/strong>?<\/p>\n<p><strong>PRO TIP:<\/strong> A helpful frame for creating an essential question is: How will it impact my students&#8217; lives to discuss this question? Does this question have multiple perspectives? If the answer to the above questions are no, then you do not have an essential question.<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<h2>The 4 &#8220;Why&#8221;s<\/h2>\n<p>How do I discover the essential question of my topic? A strategy for getting to the core of a topic is to try to ask\u00a0&#8220;why&#8221; <strong>at least four times.<\/strong> For example:<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li><strong>Why do I want to talk about free will?<\/strong> <em>Because it is an important theological topic.<\/em><\/li>\n<li><strong>Why is it an important theological topic?<\/strong> <em>Because people need to know that they have control over their own actions and are responsible for the consequences of their decisions.<\/em><\/li>\n<li><strong>Why should the teens care?<\/strong> <em>Because as they transition into adulthood, they need to recognize that they have power, and responsibility that comes along with that.<\/em><\/li>\n<li><strong>What question is on their minds?<\/strong> <em>Maybe they are wondering: How do I take responsibility for my own actions? What role does choice play in my life? Am I responsible for my actions if God knows everything?\u00a0Am I responsible for my actions if I live at home, and don\u2019t have control over my decisions?<\/em><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>Using the process of the \u201c4 whys\u201d will help you create an essential question that will become the spine of your program.<\/p>\n<p><strong>PRO TIP:<\/strong> Make sure to approach the 4 &#8220;Why&#8221;s and essential questions from the perspective of the <strong>student &#8211;<\/strong>\u00a0not of the teacher. What might be fascinating to you, might\u00a0seem totally irrelevant to the student.<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<h2>Further Reading<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.ascd.org\/publications\/books\/109004\/chapters\/What-Makes-a-Question-Essential%A2.aspx\" target=\"_blank\">Essential Questions: Opening Doors to Student Understanding<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.authenticeducation.org\/ae_bigideas\/article.lasso?artid=53\" target=\"_blank\">What is an Essential Question?<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<hr \/>\n<p>If you have any questions &#8211; essential or otherwise &#8211; feel free to contact me at <a href=\"mailto:marc.fein@gmail.com\" target=\"_blank\">marc.fein@gmail.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><em>Marc Fein<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Ever feel stuck when you need to plan a program? How do you make your theme or topic sound relevant to teens? Learn about asking Essential Questions and The 4 &#8220;Why&#8221;s to easily plan a program that&#8217;s sure to succeed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":602,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[11],"class_list":["post-652","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-marc-feins-programmatic-diary","tag-planning"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.1.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>How to Start Planning a Program - Education<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/staff.ncsy.org\/education\/how-to-start-planning-a-program\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"How to Start Planning a Program - Education\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Ever feel stuck when you need to plan a program? 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