Enlightenment Thinkers Document Based Question (DBQ)

This is a complete DBQ (document-based question) on the topic of the EUROPEAN ENLIGHTENMENT. This DBQ includes clear instructions, ample historical context, seven documents/sources, and a detailed rubric.

This DBQ asks students to consider the following question: evaluate the social, cultural, and political reforms that Enlightenment thinkers sought in 18th-century European society.

Students will analyze and evaluate historical sources by Baron de Montesquieu, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Francois Marie Arouet de Voltaire, Immanuel Kant, and Mary Wollstonecraft. The documents have been abridged for a high school-level audience.

This resource is in a Google Doc format, which means that you are able to easily edit the doc. to personalize it in order to fit the needs of your students. I added a "sourcing" column in which students can input their notes as they analyze each document. The sourcing column asks students to consider the author, audience, reliability, etc.

I love engaging my students with DBQs. Why? Students assume the role of historians and build critical 21st century skills, such as close reading, critical thinking and analysis, writing, argumentative, and many other skills. DBQs offer a great preparation for college-level courses. Allow your students to reach their own conclusions about history based on their reading of historical evidence!

**DBQs also work great as formative and summative assessments** They are an important part of the AP history curriculum, as well.

I've come to really appreciate the flexibility that DBQs provide. In the past, I've used the sources in the DBQs for socratic seminars, gallery walks, argument towers (google this!), and debates.

GIVE IT A TRY TODAY. I'VE USED IT IN THE PAST WITH MUCH SUCCESS. I KNOW YOU WILL LOVE IT.