Teaching About DBQs and Robert Frost

Intro to DBQ - Frost

Why it's a favorite

I love poetry. But that isn't why I love this lesson. Although, it is partly the poetry that makes it so powerful. It is the fact that I can literally let the kids loose, with little to no guidance, to try to figure out what Frost is saying in his poetry. I can lead, help, give thought-starters, but the bottom line is, I am not Robert Frost! I have no idea what was in his mind at the time of writing. All I can do is what my kids do, consider his background, think about the era, and put it all together.

When you have a lesson that kids leave saying, "That was so much fun!", but you didn't play a game, used no technology, and were discussing POETRY, that is about as big a win as they come.

It starts with setting the scene through samples of visual metaphors, and goes through the DBQ process. For those not familiar with DBQs, it is a set format created to teach our students how to make arguments and persuade. They end up writing 5-paragraph essays, using persuasive techniques, and practice very academic vocabulary, all despite themselves! There is something about the way the writers of the project put things together that really engages the students - although looking at it logically, it really shouldn't!

There's a lot of paper.

There's a lot of thinking.

There are difficult vocabulary words and complicated verbiage.

Expectations are high, the questions are hard.

It should all add up to a tough, rough, miserable experience. Especially for the strugglers. But it isn't. It empowers them and supports them. I love it.

So it's a double win. The DBQ process that they enjoy so much, conjoined with Frost's poems. The poems make them think, seek ideas, strive to discover. It's one big puzzle. I love being able to tell them that I don't know - they could be right, I could be right, the kid in the corner could be right - or we could all be wrong! But if you have evidence to support your thinking, then the only person who could actually tell you that you are wrong, is long from this world.

Cool, huh?

I love this process, each and every step.

For this lesson we had to cut it down - there was no time for a full DBQ. Instead we used it to teach the steps. We practiced it all together. Some whole class, some in groups, parts independent. We ended the handful of days with the students writing their own paragraph about The Road Not Taken. The writing about Frost's decision covered a plethora of thinking - from choosing poetry over fighting, to thoughts about suicide. Powerful stuff for my sixth graders!

The DBQ Project Method™

From the DBQ website at https://www.dbqproject.com/about-us/dbq-project-method/

The DBQ Project 6-Step Method underpins the design of all our DBQs and Mini-Qs. Each step builds on students’ curiosity and increases motivation and confidence to answer a compelling, authentic question.

Step 1: The Hook Exercise - Engages students and orients them to the question.

Step 2: The Background Essay - Further orients students to the question and provides essential context that helps make sense of the documents.

Step 3: Understanding the Question and Pre-bucketing - Helps students plan so they can target their investigation of the documents. Clarifying the question motivates students to start reading their sources to find answers.

Step 4: Analyzing the Documents - It’s like you’re a detective! The documents provide clues and evidence students need to support their thesis or claim. They provide the knowledge and information students need to answer the question.

Step 5: Bucketing - Helps students get organized. Buckets become containers for evidence that students use to categorize or group evidence from the documents.

Step 6A: The Thrash-Out and Preparing to Write - Students prepare to write by debating or “thrashing-out” their answer to the question. Students practice using evidence from the documents to support and verbally validate their claims. They use what they learn to outline their essays.

Step 6B: Writing the Essay - Students write multi-paragraph, evidence-based essays using their documents, buckets, and outlines to support and explain their reasoning.

The DBQ Project

What I Learned from this (and other) DBQ

The kids love a challenge. They like to be pushed. They are OK with tough language and hard-to-understand poems. I just have to guide and support when needed - because you are on a fine line between excited discovery and frustrated shut down.
Questions that lead to clues are far more effective in creating buy-in, and a feeling of success, than hints and actual clues.
Building something together is fun.
You have to do more than one DBQ. Every one is easier as they get the 'process' down and can focus on the content itself.
Allowing the kids to really come up with their own thinking opens conversation doors that are rare. It feels very 'canned' at times, and sometimes I shudder at the format and all the paper. But then I remember how they open up, how they seek, how they light up when they find a clue or an answer. It works.
Some kids just don't trust groups. Because they work together but develop their own work, it allows those who have been burned by group work to enjoy the support and debate, but also pushes those who are overly reliant on their group to gear up and do the work that they should be doing.

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