NHEC | Best Practices

...help students slow down, read closely, and critically evaluate their textbook.

This Stanford University teaching method portrays history as more complex than a single, sacrosanct story.

Examples of Teaching

Exploring Historical Texts in a Discussion-Based Class

Trying to promote more productive and engaging discussions?

Using Primary Sources

Document Analysis Worksheets

Find worksheets for written documents, photographs, cartoons, posters, maps, artifacts, motion pictures, and sound recordings.

Scholars in Action: Analyzing a Thomas Nast Cartoon

Interpret Thomas Nast's 1876 cartoon, "Milk Tickets for Babies, in Place of Milk."

Examples of Historical Thinking

Seeing (and Engaging in) Historical Thinking: An Interactive Tutorial

This interactive tutorial models a four-step process for analyzing historical sources.

Sourcing a Primary Document

See sourcing in action, as a historian reads a document about the Scopes Trial.

Teaching With Textbooks

Questioning Textbook Authority

Challenge the authority gap between students and the textbook.

Using Historiography to Analyze the Mexican-American War

Allow students to see that history is interpretation, perspective, and bias.

© 2008, Center for History and New Media
Created by the Center for History and New Media at George Mason University and the Stanford University History Education Group, with funding from the U.S. Department of Education (Contract Number ED-07-CO-0088)
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