Samia Muhareb, eighth grade social science instructor at Rancho Viejo Middle School, was recently featured as a Superstar Teacher in an educational blog celebrating classroom success using the Document Based Question (DBQ) learning model.
The DBQ model provides a method of teaching evidence-based, argument writing so that students can learn the skills of primary source document analysis, gain historical thinking skills, and ultimately learn how to write an argumentative essay using evidence from documents they have analyzed. Hemet Unified School District has been using the DBQ curriculum to supplement core adoptions in middle and high school history-social science. This year the district added the online version to support virtual learning.
DBQ questions are commonly seen on Advanced Placement (AP) Exams and other competitive assessment tests, like the English Language Arts (ELA) portion of the Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium (SBAC) test.
According to Ms. Muhareb, the online program has enabled her to have more touch points with student work.
“I noticed I got better student products because I was able to check the documents in real-time, leave feedback, and give students the opportunity to fix their mistakes," stated Ms. Muhareb.
The full article about Samia Muhareb can be found online at https://www.smore.com/sw0b94-dbq-superstar-teachers?ref=email. More information about The DBQ Project can be found at https://www.dbqproject.com/