Creating Authentic Document-Based Essay Questions

In recent years, a change has been made in the education field to move away from tests, which merely measure memorization. As a result, critical thinking assessments have emerged, mainly in the form of essays. The overall action research question of this study addressed whether enabling 10th grade Social Studies students to create authentic Document- Based Essay Questions be the catalyst for higher student achievement and a more positive attitude towards completing Social Studies DBQs. An authentic assignment was given to students designed to assess their ability to apply standard-driven knowledge and skills to real-world challenges. The literature review contains research articles that have examined the authenticity of DBQs and how creating authentic tasks can lead to greater conceptual understanding and student achievement in a high school social studies setting. The methodology devised for this research project was firmly grounded in the criticism and suggestions of Grant et al. (2005) with regards to the Regents Document Based Question and the Create-Your-Own DBQ activity of Kotzin (2001).