Many high schools are transitioning their social studies curriculum from the traditional system of memorization to a more thought-based program involving DBQ’s.  We at MJDS are in full swing in that transition process.

As part of our focus on immigration, we have worked extensively on utilizing Document Based Questions (DBQ) in the classroom since December.  DBQs are simple: students receive select primary sources (often in the form of letters, photos, laws, quotations), analyze the documents (looking for relationships, context clues), create a thesis after having synthesized the documents (summarizing their thoughts on the topic), which then answers an essential question (which is their driving question they are working on answering).  Students have had ample practice time analyzing primary source documents so as to answer questions related as to how immigrants were treated in American history from the mid-1800’s to the early 1900’s.

Once students achieved a mastery of the skills of working on other’s DBQs, they began to put those skills into effect.  All students have now completed creating their own Essential Question (focused on immigration trends/events from the 1980s – present), found their own primary and secondary sources, and developed sets of questions to further expand one’s understanding of the importance of each document.  Some of these student-created DBQ’s exhibit higher level thinking and problem solving, which is amazing to think about.  Please feel free to ask your child to view their DBQ they created (either alone or with a partner).

Please be mindful that what the students are doing is higher-level work; something many high school kids would struggle to do.  Their work reflects not only their growth thus far, but also how much they still have left to learn.  Be sure to encourage them and help them to grow by simply asking questions and allowing them to explain their process and understanding.

Below are two article explaining what a DBQ is and its purpose in today’s educational system.