Writing+Document-Based+Questions+in+Social+Studies+(Holly)

"Writing Document Based Questions Essays in the Social Studies Content Area" __**I.** Research Question:__ My focus question for my research was "what strategies are being used to help students write high quality document based question essays in the Social Studies content area?"

Secondary students are often faced with the task of writing in the Social Studies content area. This writing is very discipline specific and differs from writing in any other content area. Specifically, while writing a Document Based Question essay, students are faced with numerous tasks that require them to both think and write historically. Students must work through the primary and secondary documents presented to them, reason historically, connect their own background knowledge to the topic, recognize bias, and interpret the documents. After they complete these tasks, students must write an essay that makes an argument and connects information from both the documents and their prior knowledge on the subject matter.I discovered that students often struggle with this task and that researchers are studying techniques to help students write historically.
 * Key concepts related to writing in the Social Studies content area:**

__**II.** Background about topic:__ Researchers have found many strategies used to aid students writing quality document based question essays.

These include the following:

1). Self-Regulated Strategy Development: SRSD is an instructional approach where students are taught task-specific strategies along with more general strategies for regulating their strategy use and learning process. SRSD has been studied extensively and has been used while learning many skills in various content areas. In my research, SRSD was taught to teach students to teach students to write argumentative essays (which is important while writing a DBQ essay) and historical reasoning, which students are required to do while interpreting the documents found in a DBQ. Two studies I found (one from 2005 and one from 2010) stated students wrote better essays that contained more arguments, were more historically accurate, and generally were of better quality after receiving SRSD instruction for argumentative writing and historical reasoning.

2). Historical Thinking: A 2011 study by Monte Sano examined the instructional practices of a teacher who focuses on historical reasoning and writing in his classroom, but does not use SRSD to do so. This teacher (Mr. Lyle) did not use a textbook and focused primarily on primary and secondary source documents. Mr. Lyle taught historical thinking by focusing on evidence use, perspective recognition, and interpretation. Interestingly, Mr. Lyle never taught his students to write argumentatively, however, they were still able to write essays that were historically accurate and included evidence.

3) Scaffolding for English Language Learners: Zwiers (2006) conducted an action research study to explore ways to scaffold academic language and historical thinking for non-native English speakers. This was done in many ways including; background knowledge, understanding perspective, recognizing bias, and interpreting history. The students wrote in log books throughout the entire length of the study and Zwiers found that historical and academic language was being integrated into the log books without the students being prompted to do so.


 * III.** Sources Consulted

-Students often struggle with both reading and writing in the discipline specific way that DBQ's require. -Reading and writing histirocally should both be incorporated into the Social Studies content area. -It is not enough to leave writing to the English teacher! -Different strategies should be used in the Social Studies content area to aid students in reasoning with historical documents. Strategies include: recognizing bias, interpretation, critical thinking, and writing arguments. -Students may need time to develop strategies and skills that allow them to write high quality document based essays. -Students need to spend more time writing.
 * Implications for Readers:**

[|SRSD Information] This website provides an overview of what SRSD is and the steps to implementation.
 * 1. Professional Resources For Teachers/Administrators:**

[|Historical Thinking Matters] Explore one of the four topics that includes teacher materials and strategies. Each provides lesson plans with primary and secondary sour documents. The plans follow an inquiry and critical thinking method, allowing students to both read and write historically.

[|R.A.F.T Writing Fix Lesson] This lesson from Writing Fix has students assume a Role, consider their Audience, write using a given Format, and write about a certain Topic. This lesson will allow students to think historically and write in a given format as well.

[|Writing in Social Studies] Not all teachers incorporate a lot of writing in the Social Studies content area. This link provides many different types of writing such as prompts, quick writes, and topic choices for writing.

[|Regents Prep: DBQ Essay] This link will provide detailed steps that should be followed while writing a DBQ essay. Examples and organizers are shown.

[|Tips for Parents of Struggling Adolescent Writers] This website provides many tips and strategies for parents to help their child if they are struggling with writing. The site also explains why students may dislike writing. There are many other resources linked on this site to information regarding content area reading/writing.
 * 2. General Resources for Family Members/Public**

[|Teaching History] Check out the "What is Historical Thinking" video under the Introductory Videos heading. This will explain to you what historical thinking is for students. Explore the website as well for videos and other resources.

[|History Oriented Videos from PBS] Explore one of the many videos linked on this site. Use the videos as prompts to get your child thinking why these events happened and what was the result of each? See if they can give you any background information they may have already learned in school on the topic and at the end see what they have learned.

[|History Today Podcast] History Today, a UK based magazine, published monthly podcasts about world history. This includes interviews, discussion, and other material. Listen to the podcast with your child and see if it changes they way they think about history.

[|At Home Historical Activities] Select one of the at home activities to complete with your child. Some require parent help so be sure to be prepared for an historical adventure!

[|National History Day Contest] A yearly contest that allows students to pick a historical topic based on an annual theme and then conduct primary and secondary research based on the topic. After students analyze, interpret, and draw conclusions about the topic they are able to present their work in one of five ways. This contest truly gets students thinking and writing like a historian!