Document Based Questions

The Document Based Question (DBQ) must include a question that must be answered using the documents that the student finds and uses (usually 8).

    Part I: Students create a DBQ based on a topic. For our purposes, for the first year of the Summer Seminar dealing with the Constitution, the lesson plan teachers create could focus on the ratification of the Constitution, colonial governments, the Puritan legacy, or whatever strikes their fancy at the Summer Seminar. The lesson plan would include visuals and links since it's going on the website.

    Part II: Calls for an in-depth analysis of one of the documents. Students choose one of the documents in their DBQ (for our purposes, one of the sources used in the Lesson Plan) and write an analytical paper about it. The purpose is to have the student examine closely an historical document in the same way that they would analyze the text of a play, historical reading. The paper is approximately 500-750 words in length.

    The analysis must consider

• the viewpoint of the author

• why the document was created

• whom did the author of the document seek to persuade

• why did he/she write the document when he/she did

Students of the teacher-participants must consult a biography about the person. Students of the teacher-participants must also consider the historical context of the document. Was it written in response to another document or after a major event? What was the document's message