either meets or fails to meet your criteria. Your letter should be between three and five
paragraphs long.F. Sample Document-Based Questions
I define documents very broadly. They can be pictures, cartoons, songs, poems, charts,
graphs, maps, and written material.
·Provide students with a historical picture or photograph and ask them to either answer
questions or write a description of the visual image in prose, poetry, or song.
·Provide students with a speech, newspaper article, song, poem, or a passage from a
novel and have them draw a picture or poster or create a diorama illustrating or explain-
ing the document.
·Provide students with a chart or table of information and ask them either to answer ques-
tions or to create a bar or circle graph using the data.
·Provide students with a bar or circle graph and ask them either to answer questions or to
create a chart or table using information from the graph.
·Have students write a paragraph or an essay comparing or integrating information from a
series of documents.214 CHAPTER 8
FIG. 8.6.
Source: Reprinted with permission from the New York State Great Irish Famine Curriculum
(2001) and the National Library of Ireland.