The way SOLEs work is that students begin with a question, organize themselves into groups, and work to answer the question. As Dr. Mitra suggests, the curriculum should be that of "big questions".
In attempting to implement this framework into my classroom, I realized there was work to be done in fashioning questions for student exploration that met a few criteria. First, the questions need to be intriguing enough for students to wish to know the answers. I have attempted so-called "inquiry" projects at many points in the past in which I presented the students with a question, only to find that they really weren't interested, although they were willing to try to answer the question to ensure that they received credit.
The second is to design a question that is large enough for students to challenge students, but small enough to prevent them from becoming overwhelmed. The scope of the question is what is at stake here. A question that is too small would mean students would be finished answering it in a short amount of time. A question that is too large would mean students may give up well before the time had expired.
The third requirement for a question is that it must be related to the standards students must become proficient at by the time they are done with my class. So a question must have as its end the achievement of a level of proficiency on a given standard that is acceptable. In other words, I need to design a question whose outcome is the proficiency on a particular standard. I have toyed with the idea of simply giving students the standard, framed as a question, to solve. But unfortunately, such a question may not meet the first two criteria listed above.
The questions for students in SOLEs must therefore meet all three of the criteria above in order for such a strategy to be effective in my classroom, and to meet the demands of my own integrity as a teacher of public school students.