The DBQ Thrash-Out

A thrash-out is DBQ talk for a speaking and listening activity designed to help students use documents to answer a question. We like the idea of "thrash-out" because it implies that students are involved in a formative conversation. They are furthering their thinking without finishing it. They are preparing to write the essay.

1. Students need to practice putting new learning into phrases and sentences.
2. Students need to try out which evidence is best to prove the claim.
3. Students learn when they hear other students' ideas.
4. Students gain confidence as they practice speaking to classmates in small and full groups.
5. Students (and all of us) need to practice speaking and listening to one other respectfully.
6. State Standards in every state require students to make a claim and support it with evidence and reasoning. The thrash-out is where they pull all that together.
7. Students enjoy learning actively.

Students of all ages and abilities need STRUCTURE to make them feel safe in a discussion. However, they do not need the teacher to tell them what to say. This is a balance. Some general principles and considerations for striking the balance follow.

1. Provide clear instructions.
2. Establish norms. Model this. Perhaps show the thrash-out video in DBQ Online.
3. Don't make the format too complicated. See suggestions below.
4. Have students work in small groups before they speak in front of the whole class.
5. Consider assigning students roles like these from the Illinois State BOE.
6. Consider providing students with sentence starters like these from Common Lit.
7. Use a timer to limit planning, speaking time, the overall debate or discussion.
8. Consider having a shy student take notes for their team on poster paper the first time.
9. Consider allowing language learners to speak about the documents in their own language before they speak about them in English.
10. Don't interrupt your students when they are speaking. Correct flagrant errors other students fail to find, but give your kids a chance to shine before you jump in to save them!

Thrash-outs differ depending on the type of question. If you have an expository question, a narrative or journal entry question, or a question that might have more than 2 clear choices, you need a four corners approach. If you have only two possible ways to answer the question, you have a debate with only two sides.

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Step By Step Instructions for Teachers and Students

Tag team debates work for both binary issues as well as multisided issues. One benefit of Tag Team is that it leads to wide-scale participation. It makes a four-corner or debate style thrash out more of a game.

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Want Step By Step Instructions for Getting This Set Up?

This strategy is sometimes called the fishbowl. The attached instructions are adapted by California State University in Chico. They adapted it from Tolerance.org. If you search for "fishbowl discussion strategy" you will find many similar ideas.

Inner-Outer Circle is more deliberation than debate. The advantage of this approach is students really have an opportunity to listen and consider the position of those that feel differently from them. It’s not about winning, but growing in their understanding.

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Specific Instructions Here

This is a small group discussion, which gets all students speaking. It is more a deliberation than a debate, and the end goal is for students to reach a consensus, or at very least, understand and be able to articulate the opposing side’s position. SAC, created by David W. Johnson and Roger T. Johnson, both from the University of Minnesota, and covered on Teaching History.org requires students to listen as well as speak.

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Want a Student Handout and Graphic Organizer?

Conver-stations, developed by Dr. Harvey Silver, is a strategy that has been catching fire. If you search for it in your browser, you will find different versions of it. This strategy is part thrash-out and part thesis testing ground. The purpose is to help students see how a collection of content can address more than one correct thesis statement at once.

This is very helpful for preparing students for AP or IB exams but General Ed students also grow from using a set of documents to argue different positions.

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Want a Google Slides deck to explain it to students?

Students work to analyze a document or answer a full DBQ question in a more gamified format. The purpose is to encourage thorough investigation of the topic and to build excitement by making it more of a game.

The Socratic Smackdown was developed by The Institute of Play. We have introduced this strategy in countless DBQ Follow-Up Workshops. We appreciate the brilliant idea!

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