DBQ Review

Document Based Questions (DBQs) are one my of favorite activities to do with my students. I recently created an assessment design checklist that I’m going to use to evaluate one of my favorite assessment genres, the DBQ. How will the DBQ stand up to the test? Let’s find out!

What is a DBQ?

Before I evaluate the DBQ, I want to take a moment to explain what this assessment genre is and some of the different ways it can be used. At its core, students respond to the DBQ by creating a claim and writing an essay after analyzing various sources. Students must use evidence found in the sources to craft their essay and support their point of view. The goal of a DBQ is for a student to act like a historian, someone who looks at evidence and provides an interpretation. I like a DBQ that is debatable so students can take a stance and answer the question using evidence to support their chosen position.

There are a lot of ways teachers use DBQs. While the essay appears to be the most frequently used method, I typically do not have my students write the essay. Instead, I have my students interpret and evaluate the sources and make a evidence based claim. Essentially, this claim is a thesis statement that would be used to write the essay. While I see value in the essay, I believe the analysis portion and claim statement are the most important parts of the DBQ, especially when classroom time is precious.

There are many ways this activity can be used to inform my instruction. I can find out if my students can:

• Summarize primary and secondary sources
• Draw connections between sources
• Write a thesis statement
• Bring in outside knowledge (if they write the essay)

Below is an example of a DBQ that I use at the start of the school year. I am not the creator of this activity, however I use it with permission from Mr. Roughton. He has amazing lesson plans for social studies! The top image is the “agent notebook” where students will record their interpretation of the sources. This notebook is printed and folded into a booklet. There are questions for each source to help guide students in their analysis and their claim statement goes on the back. The sources they use are below the agent notebook.

DBQ Evaluation

The checklist I’ll be using to evaluate DBQs can be found by clicking here. Although I will be adding to it, currently my checklist is composed of two major questions.

Question 1: Does the content of the assessment align with the desired learning? Was the assessment created with the end in mind?

• Although it is time consuming to create a DBQ from scratch, it’s not difficult find sources that align to any teaching standard. I like to use a variety of sources: images, videos, speeches, letters, maps, and more!
• It also would not be a problem to create this DBQ through Understanding by Design (UbD.) Following the principals of UbD, one would need to start with what they want their students to know and create the DBQ based on that. Knowing this end goal will provide a DBQ creator with focus on creating a relevant DBQ.

Question 2: Are students assessed on understanding over knowledge?

• I believe the DBQ does a wonderful job assessing student understanding. Instead of assessing students on basic facts, students must make meaning of sources in order to make a claim. A student could walk into a DBQ with little prior content knowledge and still make a claim by analyzing and drawing connections between sources.
• Assuming the essay is created as part of the DBQ, it would be easy for students to draw in outside facts demonstrating their ability to transfer prior knowledge into the essay. The ability to transfer one’s knowledge is a mark of understanding over basic fact repetition.

Recommendations

I’m happy to see the DBQ holds up well to my checklist! One of the biggest reasons I like using DBQs is because I believe they assess student understanding well. According to Jay McTighe, “Just because a student knows things, doesn’t mean they understand it” (McTighe, 2013). I could not agree more. Too often we ask students to memorize and regurgitate facts, and this does not demonstrate student learning. A DBQ allows students to engage with sources that they must analyze in their own way in order to draw conclusions. Students must draw connections in order to create a claim statement, and it’s this claim, and potentially essay, that is the essence of their understanding.

While it’s easy to see how the DBQ works well in Social Studies, I believe it can be applied in any subject, and at any level. While it may take some out of the box thinking, I think you’ll find the activity worthwhile if you give it a try in your classroom.

In order to further differentiate this activity, one could use specific guiding questions (perhaps for younger students) as they analyze the sources. Older students may need broader document guiding questions or not need questions at all. They may be able to take notes on each source instead.

The only drawback I find to using DBQs is that sources can be difficult for some students to understand. I try to find a balance of sources that will challenge students, but are also not out of intellectual reach. To help with this, I usually have students complete the source analysis portions in groups to allow them to process the sources together. I do prefer students to work independently on their claim statement so I can better see their individual thinking and understandings.

Digital Contexts

A DBQ is extremely versatile and can be completed in multiple ways.

Paper: This is the traditional DBQ method, having printed documents in front of students, while students can hand write their claim statement and their essay.

Digitally: Sources can be uploaded electronically and students can type their essay on a computer. Using a digital medium allows you to have greater access to types of sources: videos, audio recordings, maps, and more!

Hybrid: I prefer to use both paper and digital resources in my DBQs. I find my students prefer to hand write their analysis findings (like in the example in this post) but I like to have them watch videos or listen to audio recordings of documents as well. As I like to have students work in groups during the source analysis portion, I rotate them around the room and every other “station” rotates between a paper and digital source.

Let me know what experience you have using DBQs, or if you decide to use DBQs in your classroom!

Resources

Roughton, M. (n.d.). Teach with Magic. Retrieved June 07, 2020, from https://www.mrroughton.com/home

Download free photo of Tick,cross,check mark,positive,negative – from needpix.com. (n.d.). Retrieved June 08, 2020, from https://www.needpix.com/photo/download/1367916/tick-cross-checkmark-positive-negative-report-green-red-illustration

McTighe, Jay, director. What Is Understanding by Design? Author Jay McTighe Explains. 17 June 2013, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d8F1SnWaIfE. Accessed 27 May 2020.

Assessment Design Checklist 1.0

How do we know when an assessment is “good enough?” Although it’s in draft mode, I’m creating a checklist to use when I design new classroom assessments. This checklist is a compilation of my learning from several sources. It can be viewed below or by clicking here.

Formative Assessment Design 1.0

I’ve created a formative assessment to use in my 8th Grade Social Studies classroom using Google Forms. Before you view the assessment, let me explain my purpose and the instructions students will receive to complete this assessment.

Purpose

I’ve noticed that students this school year have entered my class with more knowledge on some of my curriculum, specifically that of the American Revolution. The purpose of this assessment is for me to understand what my students know about my content at the beginning of the year. I plan to use the data to re-design my goals and lessons to better accommodate the needs of my students. For example, if students once again have a solid understanding of the American Revolution, the amount of time I spend on it will be reduced to allow extended time on new topics.

This assessment contains several “big picture” topics based on the 8th Grade Social Studies standards for the State of Michigan. These standards start on page 76 of this document.

Student Instructions

This pre-assessment has been designed to help me be a better teacher for you. It is not used as a grade, but simply as a tool for me to understand what you know regarding 8th Grade Social Studies at the start of the school year. Please complete this assessment to the best of your abilities.

You will complete this assessment on your Chromebook using Google Forms. When you have finished, please click “submit” at the bottom of the page.

Assessing the Assessment

Have you ever assessed an assessment? This week in CEP 813, I’m going to take a moment to do just that. I’ve pulled up a quiz that I’ve used in my classroom the past few years, on Westward Expansion. This is an online quiz created with usatestprep.com. Students take it independently and are allowed to use their paper Interactive Student Notebook (ISN) while taking the quiz. It’s used to help me determine if students have successfully comprehended the material for the unit. Or at least, that’s what it’s supposed to do, right?

I honestly don’t believe this quiz shows me what students have learned. What it does show me, however, is which students have completed their ISN, and which students have incomplete or blank pages of notes. It’s more of a check on how well students are keeping their notes than it is a check on their understanding of content.

Here is a screenshot of my quiz. It’s made using usatestprep.com.

I chose this assessment to analyze because, despite me continuing to use it, it does not align with my beliefs on what assessments should be. In a previous post, I mention my beliefs on assessments. Here’s how this quiz compares to my beliefs:

1. Type of assessment: I had previously stated that assessments can be a lot of things, including a quiz. This assessment is a standard quiz, and therefore aligns with my belief of how an assessment may look.
2. Purpose: My belief is that an assessment shows teachers if students understand the content being taught. A majority of this quiz is naming land expansions and identifying terms. Understanding the “how” and “why” behind Westward Expansion is more important than knowing a label. Therefore, I do not believe this assessment adequately shows if my students understand the content.
3. Perception: My third belief is that students can show understanding without passing a test. There are many ways for students to show understanding and just because a student does or does not pass this quiz, does not mean they understand the content.

Seeing that this quiz does not fully uphold my three beliefs, I will need to modify or replace it before I can comfortably administer it again.

In thinking how I could change this assessment, I will take some advice from Dr. Lorrie Shepard. I recently read her article, titled “The Role of Assessment in a Learning Culture.” In this article Shepard provides a historical look at assessments and discusses the proper role of assessments in classrooms. Shepard states, “One hundred years ago, various recall, completion, matching, and multiple-choice test types, along with some essay questions, fit closely with what was deemed important to learn. However, once curriculum became encapsulated and represented by these types of items, it is reasonable to say that these formats locked in a particular and outdated conception of subject matter” (Shepard, 2000. p. 5). The quiz I have posted here is primarily rote memorization and fits the outdated form of assessment that Shepard talks about. Although the way teachers engage and teach students has changed over the past 100 years, the way we assess students has changed much less.

Shepard offers a criteria for how assessments should structured when she states, “The most obvious reform has been to devise more open-ended performance tasks to ensure that students are able to reason critically, to solve complex problems, and to apply their knowledge in real-world contexts” (Shepard, 2000. p. 8). I could modify this quiz by including open-ended free response questions. An example could be, “How does China’s present day expansion of island making compare to the expansion of the United States in the 1800’s?” This question follows Shepard’s advice because it’s open ended and relates the content to present day.

All in all, it may be easy for a teacher to administer and grade a quiz like this one. It’s more time consuming to grade open ended questions, projects, and more, but it’s the right thing to do. Educational structures are slow to change, but in order to adequately prepare our students for their futures, we need to ensure they are gaining the necessary skills by administering appropriate assessments.

References

Shepard, L. A. (2000). The Role of Assessment in a Learning Culture. Educational Researcher, 29(7), 4–14. doi: 10.3102/0013189×029007004

What is Assessment?

As I start CEP 813, I begin to think about what my current beliefs on assessments are. Here are three thoughts I have on assessment in the classroom:

1. Types: An assessment can be a lot of things. Formative assessments can be exit tickets, daily assignments, or even a show of hands. Plickers is a great way to formally assess students in a quick, anonymous way. Assessments can also take the form of an end of unit test, quiz, or project. These larger types of assessments are summative.
2. Purpose: Assessments are used to guide us teachers as to what our students know. They are key in determining how well we do at our craft. We can adjust our current teaching using data from formative assessments, and can change things for next year using data from summative assessments.
3. Perception: Some believe one needs to pass a test to show their knowledge or ability. I disagree because there are many ways students can demonstrate their learning. We cannot judge the value of a student, teacher, or school, based solely on that of a test, as there are many skills students gain that are not shown by a test.

6/7/20 Update: I still have these three beliefs regarding assessments. I realize that these beliefs are fairly broad, and because of this I don’t think my thinking on these larger concepts will change anytime soon. I continue to believe that there are many types of assessments but I suppose I would also say that I think it’s important to use a variety of assessments and to not over use any one form.

I still believe the purpose of assessments should be to guide us teachers as to what our students know and we should use that information to make changes right away, or for next year.

Lastly, the perception that tests are important still exists and unfortunately I don’t see that changing soon. It has been interesting that our usual state testing was cancelled due to COVID-19. Perhaps that will change things for next year too? Maybe I can hope for a de-emphasis on state testing for the future!

6/21/20 Update: While my initial broad beliefs have continued to hold true, I would like to amend my former thinking on the purpose of assessments. While I believe the main purpose of an assessment is to understand what my students know and to guide teacher instruction, there’s more psychology that goes into assessments than I thought. For example, it’s important for students to see the value and purpose behind an assessment. Also, positive and negative feedback will affect students differently based on their level of “buy in.” Students highly committed to the goals of an assessment will perform better with negative feedback, while less committed students will perform worse if only given negative feedback. Positive feedback is good and can encourage students to continue in an activity (Hattie & Timperley, 2007).

7/1/20 Update: “To get the most accurate data about what students understand and can do, assessments should not offer only one means of response but should provide multiple opportunities in varied media for learners to demonstrate skills and express themselves” (Meyer et al., 2014, pg. 74). There are many digital tools technologies a teacher can select in order to assist with assessing students in a variety of ways. Using a variety of types and technologies for assessment is very much in line with my beliefs on assessment. One technology I’ve been using a lot is FlipGrid. I have not used it with my students yet, but I really want to, especially with the potential of more distance learning next school year. Since students record themselves responding to some type of prompt on FlipGrid, it creates a more “in person” atmosphere when I or peers can respond with our own videos.

7/10/20 Update: Course Management Systems (CMS) offer a variety of ways to administer student assessments. In order to be congruent with my beliefs on assessments, I need a CMS that allows students to complete assessments in a variety of ways. Most platforms I’ve seen allow students to submit a variety of files, and this opens the door to many modes of creation.

7/26/20 Update: I had a positive experience creating a game to support learning in my classroom. I’ve used online games before and I have many reasons why games support my core beliefs on assessment. Games are engaging for students and data can be obtained on student content knowledge, just like any other assessment. One of my go to websites for engaging games on my content is mission-us.org. If you’re a social studies teacher you should check it out!

CEP 813: Electronic Assessment

I’m starting my final semester of the MAET program and one of my last courses is CEP 813. I will be posting updates from this course on this page.

Looks like WordPress has some new upgrades I haven’t seen yet! I’m looking forward to learning about them. : )

A Wonderful Conclusion…or a new beginning?

As I conclude the questioning journey through my CEP 812 course, I have one final creation to share. I used the website storyboardthat.com to create this story board that demonstrates some of the education related topics that I’m passionate and curious about.

Why teach integrated subjects: This is something that I’m passionate about because I have experience working with the ELA teacher on my team to fully integrate our subjects for an entire semester. My students were able to see connections between our subjects in amazing ways. It’s not easy and it’s time consuming, but I would love to continue teaching this way.

What’s more valuable than IQ: Tom Friedman mentions that curiosity combined with passion is more important than intelligence. I like his analysis because, while intelligence is great to have, it takes passion to keep one motivated and curiosity to ask questions to change and innovate.

How impactful is community and connectedness: According to Warren Berger, “Regardless of circumstance, Belic found that ‘community and connectedness’ formed the common thread among the happiest people” (Berger, 2016. p. 355). In order for students to feel connected I strongly believe that community must be built the first several days of school. If students feel like they belong, they will learn more and be happier in general.

Why should technology be used appropriately in schools: I use the word “appropriately” because just replacing a Chromebook with a textbook is not how we should be using technology. Technology today allows students to create in ways they have never been able to before. We must not only integrate technology into our classrooms, we must change the way we teach because of it.

Although my questioning journey with this course has ended. I believe my questioning journey has only just begun. I look forward to using my passions to guide my future questions.

Resources

Berger, W. (2016). A more beautiful question: The power of inquiry to spark breakthrough ideas. New York: Bloomsbury.

Wang, A. (n.d.). Tom Friedman’s Advice to Millennials. Retrieved from http://blog.runnymede.com/tom-friedmans-advice-to-millennials

Wicked Problem Project

I just finished my final version of my Wicked Problem Project for CEP 812.  It’s been a long journey of questioning and conducting research in an attempt to answer this question, “Should middle school students have a choice in creating curriculum and how much choice should they have?”

Click here to view my final presentation.

This was not the original question I was going to use for this project.  I originally was going to use the question “Why do we teach divided subjects, when the real world is much more fluid and connected?”  After thinking about it, I decided this question in its original form was too complex for me to use for this project. Instead, I focused on one aspect of this question, integrated teaching.  For me, student choice is a major component of integrated teaching, so I decided to better explore the perceptions surrounding student choice in the classroom.

I wanted to get a variety of sources on student choice and was able to find several peer-reviewed sources using the MSU Library.  

I believed that most sources would support the use of student choice, and found this to be true.  I also thought there would be some sources against it. While I was unable to find any source that was downright against student choice, I found several that had reservations.

The source from the MSU Library database that I found the most interesting was titled “An Action Research Exploration Integrating Student Choice and Arts Activities in a Sixth Grade Social Studies Classroom” by Courtney Kosky and Reagan Curtis.  I was immediately interested in this source as it chronicles the journey of breaking down subject barriers and integrating art and social studies together. Their findings support the integration of art and social studies. They cite an increase in engagement, fun and learning as a result of the integration (Koskey & Curtis, 2008).  An important takeaway from this source is that teachers need to be risk takers when offering student choice. The source states, “Also, the teacher must be flexible and willing to take risks” (Koskey & Curtis, 2008).

A second source that I enjoyed is one that has some reservations to student choice. It’s titled “When choice is demotivating: Can one desire too much of a good thing?” by Sheena Iyengar and Mark Lepper. Their research indicates that it’s better to have a smaller amount of choices, somewhere around six, opposed to something greater (Iyengar & Lepper, 2000). Although teachers cannot offer six choices for everything all of the time, I think it’s beneficial for teachers to know that less choices can sometimes be better than more.

Not only did I use sources from the MSU Library, but I also used data from the survey I mentioned in a previous blog post.  Since this previous blog post, I have had two more people take the survey, with the results remaining more or less the same. My biggest takeaway from my survey is that the great majority of respondents support student choice in some way, but also cite that covering their standards would be challenging with too much student choice. One of the sources in my presentation addresses this concern. The source is available for viewing here.

In regards to my solution, or steps towards a solution, I wanted to come up with real, practical ways to address my wicked problem. I shared some specific ways for teachers to start using more student choice in their classrooms. While these steps are certainly not the complete answer to my question, I believe it’s a good start.

I hope that teachers choose to explore the power of student choice!

Resources

https://lib.msu.edu/

Kosky, C., & Curtis, R. (2008). An action research exploration integrating student choice and arts activities in a sixth grade social studies classroom. Journal of Social Studies Research, 32(1), 22.

Seiler, G. (2013). Reconstructing science curricula through student voice and choice.Education and Urban Society, 45(3), 362-384. doi:10.1177/0013124511408596

Iyengar, S. S., & Lepper, M. R. (2000). When choice is demotivating: Can one desire too much of a good thing? Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 79(6), 995-1006. doi:10.1037//0022-3514.79.6.995

Student Choice Survey

Should middle school students have a choice in creating curriculum and how much choice should they have?

As I mentioned in my last post, the above question is something that I’m trying to answer. I recently created a survey, for teachers, to better understand the viewpoints of educators on this topic. At this time, I’ve received a total of 34 responses and I’d like to share my preliminary findings.

Demographic Surveyed: Of the 34 respondents, I expect one of them to be my peer in CEP 812, and the remaining 33 to be teachers at my suburban based school. Since the survey is anonymous, it’s possible someone used the link from my previous post to complete the survey. If my assumptions are correct, then around 57% of the teachers at my school have completed the survey.

Should students have choice in creating the curriculum?

This was my initial question and my goal with this question was get a feel for attitudes associated with student choice. 3%, of respondents chose “No” for their answer, while 97% of respondents answered “Yes” or “Maybe” to this question. I was expecting the majority of teachers to view student choice as a favorable thing because student choice is popular topic in education today. As “Maybe” was the popular choice, I interpret this as teachers liking the idea of student choice, but either unsure how much choice, or unsure of how it would look in their classroom.

How much choice should students have in creating curriculum?

This next question gave me a much better idea of to what degree teachers believe student choice should exist regarding classroom curriculum. The scale on this question went from number one “None” to number seven “Complete control.” I was not expecting many teachers to select seven or one, and thought the selections would fall somewhere in the middle. I noticed that the majority of teachers would opt for less student choice over more student choice. I interpret this to mean that teachers would allow student choice to a certain extent in their classrooms. For example, allowing students to choose assignments from a menu board, but not to actually choose the topics that are taught.

Have you ever used student choice in curriculum?

In regards to this question, I was surprised at the higher number of “No” respondents, especially when compared to my initial question where only 3% of respondents seemed to view student choice as negative. I would interpret this to mean that while most teachers view the idea of student choice as a good thing, they may not think it works within the constraints of their classroom, or they may be hesitant to implement more student choice in their classroom.

Open response questions regarding ways to implement, benefits, and drawbacks of student choice.

Regarding how to implement student choice, over a third of respondents mentioned using project or menu based assignments to give students choice. This is what I was expecting because this is the most popular strategy I have seen teachers use in regards to student choice. I thought it was interesting that one person said “The order of when curriculum is presented.” I view this as a great example of students having choice in curriculum that we don’t always think about.

As for the benefits of student choice, almost every respondent mentioned something about increased engagement, motivation, or buy-in. This does not surprise me because humans like having choice in things, and when left to our own devices, we do things that interest us, that keep us engaged.

Many teachers cited a drawback to student choice as not being able to cover the necessary standards. Some teachers feared chaos or a lack of control in a classroom where students had complete control over curriculum. Others thought students would choose easy topics and avoid less challenging ones. All of these concerns make sense to me and I am not surprised to see them because we know middle school students could very well do these things if given free reign.

Overall, I was not overly surprised with most of the responses. Teachers support the idea of student choice in ways that were controlled and less radical than allowing students to have complete control over curriculum. This makes sense to me, as it mirrors what most classrooms look like today.

My Wicked Question

Over the past few weeks I’ve been learning about the complexity of wicked problems and questions. For my CEP 812 Wicked Problem Project, I have decided on the question “Should middle school students have a choice in creating curriculum and how much choice should they have?”

I thought for a long time and went back and forth with what my question should be, however I settled on this question for several reasons. I am a believer of breaking down subject barriers to teach students in an integrated way. Integrated teaching allows students to explore their interests without the barrier of subjects getting in the way. The first step to teaching this way is to understand student choice. I understand an integrated approach is huge change from a traditional classroom, however there are other “less extreme” ways to use student choice.

Student choice can be as simple as allowing students to choose a novel off a list, using “menu boards” for students to pick assignments from, project based learning, etc. As there are numerous ways to use student choice in the classroom, I want to know how much student choice is good?

I want to learn more about what role teachers believe student choice should play in education. Despite research that exists to support using student choice in the classroom, I have found those who claim student choice can be detrimental. In order to learn more about the topic of student choice, I have created a survey for teachers to take, specifically those at the middle level. If you are interested in helping with my research, please click here to take survey.

I have included questions in the survey to better understand the positives and drawbacks to using student choice in the classroom. Also, there is an open comment question at the end, a survey technique I recently learned. I have enjoyed creating this survey and look forward to what feedback is generated.