How to Tell If a Driving Question Will Actually Drive the Project
Find out in five minutes, not in week two of the project.
A driving question is supposed to do exactly what it says: drive the project. Every lesson, every resource and every piece of student work should connect back to it. When it's weak, the project drifts, students lose the thread, and the question ends up as decoration on a slide.
Writing a strong one is harder than it looks. Here's a quick way to test a driving question before the project starts, so you don't discover the problem in week two.
Three things a strong driving question does
John Larmer of PBLWorks describes three criteria for a good driving question.1
- It's engaging for students. Understandable, interesting, and it provokes more questions. Larmer calls this the most important criterion.
- It's open-ended. There's more than one possible answer, and it can't simply be looked up.
- It's aligned with learning goals. To answer it well, students have to learn the content and skills you're responsible for teaching.
Most weak driving questions fail one of these three, and it's usually easy to tell which.
A five-minute test
| Test | Ask yourself | If it fails |
|---|---|---|
| The search test | Could a student answer this with one search? | It's a research question, not a driving question. Add a decision, a product or an audience. |
| The student test | Would a 14-year-old understand it without explanation? | Cut the jargon and the standards language. |
| The standards test | Could a student answer it well without learning the unit's content? | Tighten it so the content is required, not optional. |
| The "so what" test | Does anyone outside the classroom care about the answer? | Add a real audience or a real-world stake. |
| The six-week test | Is it still worth asking at the end of the project? | It's too narrow. Broaden the decision it asks for. |
Revising a weak question
A few before-and-after examples show how small changes can transform a question:
- Weak: "What were the causes of the Great Depression?"
Stronger: "What should our town do to protect families if another depression hit?" - Weak: "What are the parts of a cell?"
Stronger: "How would you design a model cell to teach a fifth grader how their body works?" - Weak: "What is a budget?"
Stronger: "Could someone our age afford to live on their own in this town, and what would it take?"
Each stronger version asks for a decision or a product, gives students a reason to care, and still can't be answered without learning the content.
Post the driving question where students see it every day, and refer back to it at the start of each lesson. A question that's only mentioned on launch day won't drive anything.
More examples to adapt
Seeing a lot of examples side by side is one of the fastest ways to get better at writing them. Elevate the Norm has a collection of driving question examples organized by subject, along with weak examples and a five-step formula for revising them.
Common questions
Should students help write the driving question?
They can, especially once they've done a project or two. Larmer suggests getting feedback from colleagues and even students on a draft question, which is a good starting point.
Can one driving question cover a whole unit?
Yes, and that's often the goal. The daily lessons then become the pieces students need to answer it.
What's the difference between a driving question and an essential question?
They overlap, but a driving question usually points toward a specific project, product or decision. An essential question is often broader and more philosophical.
Sources
- Larmer, J. A tricky part of PBL: Writing a driving question. PBLWorks. Source