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Teaching & Learning with Documents

Document-based questions have always been used on the College Board Examinations and are currently used by various state education agencies, so it is increasingly important for students to have the skills to effectively complete these assignments. If gained in primary schooling, these skills can aid students in later schooling including specialized high school programs and even college. This course will deal directly with the use, understanding, and application of documents in the classroom for the purpose of increasing student understanding, encouraging analytical skills and maximizing performance. The focus will be on exploring the skills necessary to make classroom exercises, activities and assessment using documents and the document based questions successful and productive. Teachers will learn to address how to differentiate instruction based on available documents and assess students using document based questions.

Carlow University ED 695 • Madonna University EDU 5830.45 • Mercy University EDUT 551

The required text for this course is Asking the Right Questions: A Guide to Critical Thinking, 12th Edition, by Neil Browne.

ISBN: 978-0134425610

Graduate participants earn 3 semester hours of graduate credit and will receive a transcript from one of our partner institutions below. Professional development participants will receive a certificate of completion for 45 hours of professional developments credit for face-to-face classes and 60 hours of professional development credit for online classes.

Professional
Development

Course Schedule

2/11/25 - 5/13/25
4/8/25 - 7/8/25
6/10/25 - 9/9/25
8/12/25 - 11/11/25
10/14/25 - 1/13/26
12/9/25 - 3/10/26

Textbook List FAQs

Outline
Objectives
Partner Universities
Important Information
Student Academic Integrity

Print Online Course Outline Print Face To Face Course Outline

Outline

Session 1: An Introduction to Document and Data Based Learning

Contents:

Member introductions
Individual and group expectations
Course sessions, resources and requirements
Identification of the different types of documents used in educational settings
The purpose of Document Based Questions and Activities.
Using the Document Based Question in conjunction with already mastered content
Assignments

Session 2: Primary versus Secondary Sources

Contents:

Defining a document
Examining the role of document based questions and activities for the purpose of assessment of student’s knowledge and skills
Exploring Cartoons, Maps, Graphs, Political Cartoons, Diaries and Videos
How to differentiate between primary and secondary source documents and their respective role in research and instruction.
How to analyze a primary source
How to analyze a secondary sources
How to compare and contrast like sources
Assignments

Session 3: Document Bias

Contents:

Identifying the Point of View in documents
Identifying the Origin of the Document
Identifying whether the documents used are Valid or Hearsay
Focus on the importance of document bias
Comparing historian bias and introducing satire
Assignments

Session 4: Developing Appropriate Questions Related to Documents

Contents:

Developing questions that encourage analytical skills
Introducing Document Based questions that require use of previous knowledge and information
Appraising both Scaffolding and free synthesis of the document
Evaluating guided reading as a helpful tool to document based unit
Improve literacy and writing skills of students
Assignments

Session 5: Using Photographs for Instruction and Assessment

Contents:

Analyzing a photograph.
What types of photographs are appropriate for the content and grade level
Evaluating how are photographs manipulated
Utilizing the quadrant technique for analyzing a photograph
Assignments

Session 6: Integrating Cartoons as Documents

Contents:

Analysis of cartoons
Evaluating the satire and bias in political cartoons
Acquiring skills to critique and analyze humorous cartoons
Assessing the Value of Satire in the curriculum for older grades
Assignments

Session 7: Utilizing Charts, Graphs, Pie charts in the Document Based Assessment and Activities

Contents:

Developing ways to help student comprehension of Graphs and charts.
Utilizing graphs and charts on the document based assessment.
Utilizing Graphs and Charts as a tool for assessment
Assignments

Session 8: Video and Audio Clips as a Document

Contents:

Utilizing Video Clips as a document
How to scaffold response to a video clip
How to integrate video and audio clips into activities
Assessing the Value of Satire in video for older grades
Assignments

Session 9: How to Create a Document Based Question/Unit or Activity

Contents:

Identifying a theme or centralized topic
Coordinating the desired content
Diversifying the document based series based on multiple intelligence and differentiated instruction
Proposing student creation of document based activities
Assignments

Session 10: Incorporating Documents into Lessons and Exams

Contents:

Grouping various documents with a common theme to create a document based question or activity
Designing assessment tools, strategies and activities through the synthesis of documents
Final project: Creation of a document based assessment tool

Objectives

Identify the different types of documents used in educational settings.
Examine the role of document based questions and activities for the purpose of assessment of student’s knowledge and skills.
Research different types of grade appropriate document activities and instruction.
Determine how the use of critical and analytical skills can be enhanced via document based activities.
Improve literacy and writing skills of students.
Design assessment tools, strategies and activities through the synthesis of documents.
Assemble a host of resources and tools that they can use during daily instruction.

Differentiate between primary and secondary source documents and their respective role in research and instruction.
Appraise specific documents that encourage mastery and enrichment of content areas.
Examine the use and impact of videos as a type of document.
Create and organize document based questions, activities, and units.
Collect and employ document based resources to integrate into curriculum.
Develop classroom activities that will encourage student creation on document based activities.

Partner Universities

Our Partners are well-established regionally and nationally accredited colleges and universities, recognized for academic excellence and their commitment to teachers.

Important Information

Online 3-graduate credit courses are 13 weeks in length.

On-site weekend courses are held Friday evening from 6:00pm-9:00pm and Saturday/Sunday, 8:30am-5:30pm.

Weekday courses are Monday-Friday from 8:00am- 6:00pm.

It is the responsibility of the student to check with their state, county, district, or school to ensure that all requirements are being met by the course you're taking.

Check the Partner Universities page for specific university information as well as course numbers which are specific to the university partner.

Students are required to purchase their own textbook, the information for which can be found here. If no book is required it will be specified on the list. We have copies of many of the textbooks should you wish to purchase directly from TEI.

Professional development (PD) participants receive a certificate of completion from TEI for 45 hours of PD credit for face to face classes and 60 hours of PD credit for online classes. These certificates are mailed within one week of the end of the class and reflect the course title, dates of attendance, and credit hour information.

Student Academic Integrity

Participants guarantee that all academic class work is original. Any academic dishonesty or plagiarism (to take ideas, writings, etc. from another and offer them as one's own), is a violation of student academic behavior standards as outlined by our partnering colleges and universities and is subject to academic disciplinary action.