DOCUMENT BASED QUESTION(DBQ)
What is a DBQ?
- A document based question is an essay question that requires you to analyze and use five-seven documents as evidence to answer the prompt given. Documents can be secondary or primary sources, ranging from raw data to newspapers to images.
Purpose of a DBQ?
- Test student’s content knowledge
- Test student’s ability to interpret historical documents
- Test student’s ability to find connections between historical documents
- Test student’s ability to craft an argument around knowledge of a historical issue
- Test student’s ability to write a thesis statement with analysis of documents to support it.
Example of DBQ questions from AP US History exams in the past:
- “Evaluate the extent to which economic growth led to changes in the United States society in the period from 1940 to 1970.” link
- “Evaluate the extent to which differing ideas of national identity shaped views of United States overseas expansion in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.” link
- “Explain the reason why a new conservatism rose to prominence in the United States between 1960 and 1989.” link
Benefit of having this data part of DBQs
- In Virginia standard of learning VUS.3c the goal for students is to,”Explain the impact of the development of indentured servitude and slavery in the colonies.” Dangerous Harbors’ data is perfect for addressing this standard. DBQs would allow the court records to be seen by thousands of students across the United States, allowing for those in the records to be seen.
Attached Below is a downloadable file with a comprehensive Document-Based Question (DBQ) pertaining directly to the source material for the project.
