The DBQ Project
May 19, 2009 8:30am–3:45pm
Educational Service District 112 Conference Center
The DBQ Project was started in 2000 to help teachers help students read with understanding, think straight, and write clearly. The Project took root in Phil Rhoden and Chip Brady’s positive experience with the Document Based Question exercise in the Advanced Placement History tests offered every May. The Project seeks to create materials that democratize the DBQ experience by making it available to a wide range of elementary through high school students.
The power of the DBQ is that it encapsulates the thinking and writing skills that good history and social studies teachers value most: close analysis and interrogation of documents, deep reading for understanding, and powerful evidence-based writing. The DBQ Project’s pedagogy is driven by the simple question, "How should the teacher structure the DBQ experience so that kids of all skill levels are challenged and successful?"
During this session, Rhoden and Brady lead participants’ examination of two DBQs: How Revolutionary Was the American Revolution? and Why was the Equal Rights Amendment Defeated?