Best Practices | TeachingHistory.org

Welcome to Best Practices

Daunted by teaching the Bill of Rights and its complex vocabulary to students? Middle-school teacher Christine Valenti explains how she introduces her students to the Amendments.

Teaching the Bill of Rights

In Teaching in Action

Poster, "Stone walls and chains do not make a prison --- for Houdini," LoC

Work with early twentieth-century film as historical evidence. What questions do you need to ask?

Making Sense of Films

In Using Primary Sources

Historian Christopher Hamner engages educators in close questioning of the Ulysses S. Grant Memorial in Washington, DC.

A Close Look at the Ulysses S. Grant Memorial

In Examples of Historical Thinking

Spotlight on Elementary Education

Oral histories and interviews are a unique form of historical documentation. This guide by Linda Shopes offers an overview of the various ways oral history can be integrated into classroom discussions. Though some of the techniques will have to be adapted for elementary students, the ideas Shopes presents are extremely useful. FIND OUT MORE »

Example of Historical Thinking

Scholars, students, and teachers model historical thinking

Women's Suffrage: Burroughs's Article

In the struggle for women's suffrage, how did African American women [...] »

Piscataway Park and Tobacco Farming

What was it like being a small farmer in the 1700s? Follow a tour group [...] »

Reading Place with the National Building Museum

What does architecture say about the past and the present? TAH teachers [...] »

Cross-checking Sources and Testing Hypotheses

Challenge students to gather evidence from multiple primary sources. Here, a [...] »

Civil War Letters

Historian Chandra Manning analyzes Civil War letters from black and white [...] »

Teaching in Action

Teachers demonstrate promising teaching practices

Causal Reasoning

The fictional Alphonse the Camel provides insight for one classroom.

Integrating Language Arts and History

Elementary teacher Karen Eanes hooks her students with engaging historical [...] »

Using Primary Sources

Strategies for analyzing primary sources

Online Primary Source Collections

Check out these sites for excellent primary source material.

Teaching with Museum Collections

National Park Service lesson plans, teaching materials, and vibrant images [...] »

Teaching with Textbooks

Techniques for promoting historical inquiry

Opening Up the Textbook

Make the most of your textbook—engage students in close reading and analysis [...] »

The Grammar of History Textbooks Part II: Questioning the Text

Turn your textbook into a conversation by scanning its language for biases [...] »

Building a Conversation between Textbooks, Students, and Teachers

Class discussion and personal inquiry builds an interactive relationship [...] »

Children’s Voices from the Civil War

Help students identify with the past via children who lived through the [...] »

Questioning Textbook Authority

Show your students how to challenge the authority gap between the textbook [...] »