Poster DBQs

Today is block schedule at my school which means 2 hour and 2 minute classes. That is a very long time for students to sit and listen to a lecture. We started off with our March Madness Elite 8 round and voting, but that only took 20 minutes. The idea for a visual DBQ came from an AVID conference that I had attended years ago.

I found 17 different documents (speeches, letters, diagrams, photos, etc) and put them together in a Google Doc. Students were put into groups of four and given the instructions to look through each document and decide how they would answer the question: Why did the US lose the Vietnam War? Once they had decided on an answer, they were given a piece of flip chart paper, scissors, markers and glue sticks. On the poster they had to write a thesis statement. Then students selected 6-8 documents that supported their claim as to why we lost the war. Each document was cut out and glued on the paper. Students wrote sentences underneath explaining how that document answered the question. Many students also chose to make colorful borders and pictures to enhance the look of their posters.

Each team was asked to present its thesis and supporting evidence. We then discussed comparisons to other wars, both past and present.

Rather than me telling them in 5 minutes the reasons why the US lost the war, students used document analysis, critical thinking and collaboration skills to answer the question. This took over an hour of group work. All of these skills are essential common core and 21st century skills. It also allows the students to take ownership of their learning rather than be passive listeners to a teacher on stage.

Here are some pictures of completed posters: