Best Practices
Engage students and encourage historical thinking in K-12 American history classrooms.
Video clips of Third Graders Analyzing Historical Sources shows a carefully scaffolded lesson. Students analyze photos taken by Lewis Hine, consult mulitple sources, and generate connections. FIND OUT MORE »
Read and Learn
Examples of Historical Thinking
View students, teachers, and scholars thinking historically as they encounter primary sources.
Excite students by introducing them to primary sources that answer questions [...] »
On the website Historical Thinking Matters, a student reads aloud a speech by [...] »
A student demonstrates thinking aloud reading two documents. [...] »
If students lack historical context, they can miss the substance of a reading. [...] »
A Cherokee Nation Supreme Court document reveals the fluidity of racial [...] »
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Teaching in Action
Watch teachers demonstrate promising methods for teaching history.
Browse Teaching Examples
Using Primary Sources
Explore these guides and worksheets for pointers on how to engage particular kinds of primary sources.
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Teaching with Textbooks
Learn techniques for moving from textbook accounts to historical inquiry.
Allow students to see that history as we know it is interpretation, perspective [...] »
The language of history textbooks challenges English language learners and [...] »
Turn your textbook into a conversation by scanning its language for biases. [...] »
Show your students how to challenge the authority gap between the textbook and [...] »
