Crafting a Thesis for an APUSH DBQ or LEQ ESSAY
Many students want to read exam prompts and then rush on to the question quickly start writing. However, APUSH essay prompts are challenging. They ask students to perform specific writing tasks and will require you to identify specific and important information prior to constructing a response The questions also contain qualifiers that guide and restrict your answer. Rather than taking 10 seconds to read the question, students would be better off spending 45 seconds reading, re-reading, marking, and analyzing. Remember, a mistake in understanding a question could make the rest of a student’s effort almost worthless .
Teaching Historical and Critical Thinking Skills
using short answer questions
Created by John P. Irish and presented at the 2014 AP National Conference in Philadelphia, PA