Dysart Unified School District #89

DBQ
Document Based Question
The Black Plague
Form A
Updated August 2013
Student Name
School
Grade Level 10th Grade World History Period
Date / Prerequisites must be present to be graded
Teacher Name / Score
Scored using the holistic rubric ______(1-6)
1=FFB 2=FFB 3=APP
4=Meets 5=Exceeds 6=Exceeds

Overview

Document Based Questions (DBQ) provide primary and secondary source materials, related to a specific theme, in which students are provided the opportunity to:

·  Analyze informational texts

·  Make life connections and determine social, historical, political and economic significance

·  Draw conclusions from historical and/or current primary and secondary sources

·  Respond accurately to a prompt, and apply six-traits writing skills and knowledge

·  Utilize and demonstrate expository text comprehension strategies

The following must be completed on your DBQ:

ü  Put the prompt in your own words

ü  Analyze each document (take notes and answer the trigger thought question)

ü  Graphic Organizer

ü  Rough Draft

ü  Edit/Peer Edit

ü  Final Essay

Strategies for Success:

·  Underline/highlight directional and specific topic words in the prompt. It is important that you fully understand what it is you are responding to. (Role, Audience, Format, Topic)

·  With every document, realize that you need to analyze and identify the importance of that document to respond to the prompt thoroughly.

·  Use the left columns of document pages to pose questions, take notes, point out ideas, organize information, and so forth.

·  Use summary questions at the bottom to respond to the prompt with the information from the document. Keep the prompt in mind.

·  When reading document, use reading strategies to help you understand. These should include: slow down, write notes, highlight, reread, pose questions, visualize, look for patters, use punctuation to your advantage, summarize.

·  Before drafting, know all requirements of written response by reading the rubric. You must write according to the skillful column. It is the basic requirement.

·  Grade your rough draft with the first rubric. Make changes if necessary.

·  Use pen to write your final draft.

DBQ Time Line:

■Day 1: Introduction of prompt and grading procedures/Document analysis/Notes/Trigger questions

■Day 2: Research/Share and discuss/Complete research charts

■Day 3: Research/Share and discuss/Complete research charts

■Day 4: Thesis formation/Graphic organizer

■Day 5: Rough draft including all citations/Peer review

■Day 6: Write final draft

DOCUMENT BASED QUESTION Grade 10 Form A

Write the prompt in your own words:

(Example: Assess how the Bubonic Plague changed life of the Western Europeans in regards to their government/laws, trade/profit, and social classes.) Choose one of the following as your argument (government/laws, trade/profit or social classes) and find three supports to defend your position (these are your three paragraphs) on how the plague affected life in your chosen category.

______

______

______

______

Key Terms/Phrases:

Black Death Black Plague Bubonic Plague
Political Social Economic
Anti-Semitism Victims Disease
Spread Trade Inflation
Illness Death Fleas
Rats Causes Effects
Results Catholic Church
Collaborative Conversations / 4 Exceeds / 3 Meets / 2 Approaches / 1 Does Approach Standard
Preparation / ·  Seeks outside sources to gain insight
·  Readily shares resources with others
·  When appropriate makes strategic use of digital media to enhance understanding of findings / Preparation is evident, includes but not limited to:
·  Identifies/highlights key words and phrases
·  Has notes of main ideas
·  Includes outside sources
·  When appropriate makes strategic use of digital media to enhance understanding of findings / ·  No Highlighting
·  Skims text
·  Very few notes,
·  Some misunderstandings of text and meaning. / ·  Unprepared with text
·  unprepared with text does not recall or has not read text
·  No attempt was made to understand text
Questioning / ·  Has prepared several high level questions based on the text
·  Asks several higher level questions during discussion / ·  Has prepared a variety of questions
·  Asks thoughtful questions during discussion
·  Is open to questioning / ·  Has very few questions
·  Asks very few questions / ·  Has not prepared questions
·  Does not ask questions
·  When questioned is unable to respond appropriately
Speaking / ·  Moves conversation forward
·  Speaks to all participants
·  Thinks before answering
·  Refers directly to the text
·  Makes connections to other speakers
·  Considers all options
·  Offers insightful contributions
·  Uses appropriate and academic language all of the time
·  Builds on other’s comments
·  Prompts others to make comments / ·  Comments often and encourages others
·  Addresses the issue, stays on topic
·  Reflects on the text often
·  Responds to questions
·  Respectfully considers all opinions
·  Offers interesting ideas and makes preliminary connections
·  Uses appropriate and academic language most of the time
·  Builds on other’s comments / ·  Emphasizes only own ideas
·  Addresses only teacher’s questioning.
·  Tends toward debate not dialogue
·  Ideas do not always connect
·  Comments neglect details of text. Only focuses on opinion
·  Only uses academic language a small portion of time / ·  Disruptive or argumentative
·  Mumbles or is silent
·  Makes no connection to previous comment
·  Does not use appropriate academic language
·  Is engaged in another activity other than listening or speaking for clarification.
Listening / ·  Demonstrates effective listening skills (eye contact, nods, takes notes)
·  Writes down thoughts and questions
·  Builds on other’s comments
·  Questions for clarification when needed
·  Asks for clarification when needed
·  Develops clear understanding of speaker before making judgment, is reflective / ·  Demonstrates effective listening skills (eye contact, nods, takes notes, body aligns with speaker).
·  Takes notes
·  Asks questions for clarification when needed
·  Suspends judgment until speaker is finished,
·  No outside activity, only listening / ·  Rarely demonstrates effective listening skills (eye contact, nods, takes notes)
·  Loses track of conversation
·  May interrupt or judges other’s ideas without asking for clarification
·  May sporadically engage in another activity but stops and self regulates. / ·  No effective listening skills demonstrated
·  Attempts to dominate
·  Interrupts speakers in middle of sentence
·  Repeats same ideas
·  No eye contact or is engaged in another activity rather than listening

Document A: The Spread of Plague from Asia

Notes: /
Trigger thought: Describe how the map illustrates the spread of plague from Asia to Europe.

Document B: Churches response to the plague

Notes: / The Middle Ages marked a time of strong religious convictions, and it was during the Bubonic Plague that anger toward the Roman Catholic Church and the persecution of Jews intensified. The church played an important role in the lives of the people of the 13th and 14th Centuries, and it was forced to intervene when Christians demanded help. The most significant action taken by the church involved causes of the Plague as it was forced to defend itself and other religious groups. Victims of the disease often stayed in monasteries and hospitals run by church officials.
Unfortunately, these methods provided little relief, and the Church, too, was in a frenzy. As Boccaccio noted, "Even the authority of divine and human law had crumbled and fallen into decay. For its ministers and executors, like other men, had either died or sickened...everyone had free rein to do as he saw fit.(Biel, 1989, p.32). As the number of infected clergy increased, many individuals began to suspect that it was the Church officials who were responsible for the spread of the Plague. Frightened men and women left their own families in order to escape the Plague, and the abandonment of their trust in the clergy seemed to be next. The Church offered little comfort to victims or their families to combat their fears.
The blame that the flaggelants placed on the Jews continued after their group dissolved, despite the efforts of Catholic officials and attempts of secular authorities to prevent their outbursts (Strayer, 1983). The flaggelants had helped to spread the belief that Jews infected cities' wells with the Plague element through the use of contaminated vials. Fears were heightened as it was discovered that Jews would not take water from city wells. (In order to keep Jewish kosher laws, Jews had to draw water from country springs.) In September, 1348, eleven Jews were charged with contaminating a well in a small southern German town. The men were tortured, and each eventually confessed (falsely) to the deed. Their trial and executions set off a wave of terrible acts against Jews in Switzerland and Germany. Zurich was the first city to take action against the Jewish community by voting never to admit Jews into thier city (Giblin, 1995). Jews in Basel, Strasburg, and Brussels were herded into wooden barns and burned alive. Others in Germany were burned at the stake. Pope Clement VI asked that gentiles treat Jews with tolerance, but this request was not granted. The Church had lost authority during the Plague, and now had few loyal followers.
The results of the Church's role in the Black Plague are unclear (Strayer, 1983). Church documents note an increase in gifts to religious institutions, but a shrinking number of churches. Historians point out a general decline in moral standards, but at the same time, a flowering of personal piety and a revival of individual spiritual fervor.
Source: The Churches involvement in the Bubonic Plague, SBSKKO
Trigger thought: Explain the church’s stance on the plague and the people’s response to it.

Document C: Politics and the Plague

Notes: / The plague had no permanent effect on the course of politics, but it did take its toll. King Alfonso XI of Castile was the only reigning monarch to die of the plague, but many lesser notables died, including the queens of Aragon and France, and the son of the Byzantine emperor. Parliaments were adjourned when the plague struck, though they were reconvened. The Hundred Years' War was suspended in 1348 because so many soldiers died. But it started up again, soon enough.
The effect at local levels was more severe. City councils were ravaged. Whole families of local nobles were wiped out. Courts closed down and wills could not be probated.
But new courts were convened. The legal mess caused by so many deaths was eventually sorted out, and political life went on. Still, more than once you will read of a siege being lifted because of the plague, or of some principality falling into disarray because the prince died of the Black Death.
History of Western Civilization
E.L. Skip Knox
Boise State University
Trigger thought: Describe how the plague affected politics at the state and local levels.

Document D: Social and Economic Effects of the Plague

Notes: / Social and Economic Effects of the Plague
The plague had large scale social and economic effects, many of which are recorded in the introduction of the Decameron. People abandoned their friends and family, fled cities, and shut themselves off from the world. Funeral rites became perfunctory or stopped altogether, and work ceased being done. Some felt that the wrath of God was descending upon man, and so fought the plague with prayer. Some felt that they should obey the maxim, “Eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow you may die.” The society experienced an upheaval to an extent usually only seen in controlled circumstances such as carnival. Faith in religion decreased after the plague, both because of the death of so many of the clergy and because of the failure of prayer to prevent sickness and death.
The economy underwent abrupt and extreme inflation. Since it was so difficult (and dangerous) to procure goods through trade and to produce them, the prices of both goods produced locally and those imported from afar skyrocketed. Because of illness and death workers became exceedingly scarce, so even peasants felt the effects of the new rise in wages. The demand for people to work the land was so high that it threatened the manorial holdings. Serfs were no longer tied to one master; if one left the land, another lord would instantly hire them. The lords had to make changes in order to make the situation more profitable for the peasants and so keep them on their land. In general, wages outpaced prices and the standard of living was subsequently raised.
As a consequence of the beginning of blurring financial distinctions, social distinctions sharpened. The fashions of the nobility became more extravagant in order to emphasize the social standing of the person wearing the clothing. The peasants became slightly more empowered, and revolted when the aristocracy attempted to resist the changes brought about by the plague. In 1358, the peasantry of northern France rioted, and in 1378 disenfranchised guild members revolted. The social and economic structure of Europe was drastically and irretrievably changed.
(Ed: D.S.) Courie, Leonard W. The Black Death and Peasant’s Revolt. New York: Wayland Publishers, 1972; Strayer, Joseph R., ed. Dictionary of the Middle Ages. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons. Vol. 2. Pp. 257-267.
Trigger Thought: What was the plague’s impact on society and the European economy?

Document E: Trade and Black Death

Notes: / Between 1339 and 1351 AD, a pandemic of plague traveled from China to Europe, known
in Western history as The Black Death. Carried by rats and fleas along the Silk Road
Caravan routes and Spice trading sea routes, the Black Death reached the Mediterranean
Basin in 1347, and was rapidly carried throughout Europe from what was then the center
of European trade. Eventually, even areas of European settlement as isolated as Viking
settlements in Greenland would be ravaged by the plague. By the time these plagues had
run their course in 1351, between 25 and 50% of the population of Europe was dead. An
equally high toll was exacted from the populations of Arabia, North Africa, South Asia,
and East Asia.
-The Role of Trade in Transmitting the Black Death
Trigger thought: How does this document explain the spread of plague and its results?

Document F: Number of Black Plague Deaths

Notes: / 25 million (1/3) people died in just under five years between 1347 and 1352. Estimated population of Europe from 1000 to 1352.
http://www.themiddleages.net/plague.html
Trigger thought: Mathematically analyze the chart by determining:
a.  The total number of deaths attributed to the Bubonic Plague from 1000 to 1352.
b.  The height of the plague.
c.  Possible reasons the plague reached such disastrous numbers in the early 1300s.

Document Based Question: Research Chart