History teachers often pair Hiroshima with primary sources such as government statements, memos, and news coverage of the period. The combination gives students a human account and an official record to compare. It also produces essays that are more complex and more demanding to grade.

A document-based essay asks students to build an argument from several sources at once. They must read each document carefully, group them, and use them as evidence rather than just quoting them one after another. Many students find the synthesis step the hardest part.

For teachers, the challenge is that essays can go wrong in many different ways. A student might misread a document, ignore one entirely, or treat Hersey's book as just another source without thinking about how it differs. Your rubric needs to capture each of these.

Here is a practical approach to grading this kind of assignment.

Score Source Use as Its Own Skill

Give source handling its own category instead of folding it into general evidence. Students should be scored on how many documents they use, but more importantly on how well they interpret them. A student who uses four sources thoughtfully deserves more credit than one who name-drops seven.

• Does the essay use most of the provided documents accurately?
• Does it group sources by theme or perspective rather than summarizing each in turn?
• Does it consider who created each document and why?
• Does it treat Hersey's narrative account differently from official records?
• Does it draw on at least one piece of outside knowledge to add context?

Look for Sourcing and Point of View

Strong document-based essays pay attention to who is speaking. A government statement issued shortly after the bombing was written for a different purpose than Hersey's reporting a year later. Students who note this difference show real historical thinking.

When feedback is needed, prompt students to ask why a source reads the way it does. A short question in the margin often gets further than a long explanation. It trains the habit you want them to carry forward.

Manage the Volume With a Consistent Process

Document-based essays take longer to read because you must check source use as well as argument. Setting a fixed order helps: read for the thesis first, then scan for how documents are used, then evaluate the reasoning. Doing the same steps in the same order on every paper keeps scoring steady.

Some teachers use AI grading tools to produce a first-pass breakdown that shows which documents each essay cites and how. That gives you a quick map before you read closely. You still decide whether the interpretation holds up.

Debrief With the Class

After grading, share the most common misreadings of the documents. Students often make the same mistakes, and hearing them named helps everyone. It also shows that misinterpretation is a normal part of learning source analysis.

Doing this turns the grading process into instruction. The essays become a record of what the class understood and where it needs more practice, which makes the next DBQ unit stronger.