Best Practices | TeachingHistory.org

Welcome to Best Practices

How did the women's suffrage movement use the rise of journalism to its advantage? TJ Boisseau looks at what photographs reveal.

Women's Suffrage Photographs

In Examples of Historical Thinking

Marginalia, CHNM

Show your students how to challenge the authority gap between the textbook and themselves.

Questioning Textbook Authority

In Teaching with Textbooks

Photo, Toy Cradleboard, Nez Perce National Historical Park, NEPE 1629

National Park Service lesson plans, teaching materials, and vibrant images reveal what historical objects tell us about history.

Teaching with Museum Collections

In Using Primary Sources

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

The U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum: Personalizing History

Make large-scale historic events like the Holocaust personal with artifacts [...] »

Creative Memo on Lay's Products

Potato chip marketing—how a luxury item became an everyday U.S. food.

Primary Sources as Windows into the Past

Excite students by introducing them to primary sources that answer questions [...] »

An Introduction to Historical Thinking and Reading

Watch this flash movie for a peek at how historians read and question [...] »

What do slave receipts reveal? Ever considered using similar documents to [...] »

Teaching in Action

Teachers demonstrate promising teaching practices

Teaching Historical Interpretation through Planning Documentary Films

Watch this 9th-grade teacher lead his class in planning, writing, and [...] »

Historical Context and Roleplaying

A 5th-grade teacher teaches historical context through roleplaying [...] »

Using Primary Sources

Strategies for analyzing primary sources

Secondary Sources: What Are They?

National History Day identifies secondary sources along with [...] »

Making Sense of Numbers

Quantitative data, although seemingly daunting and impersonal, can help you [...] »

Teaching with Textbooks

Techniques for promoting historical inquiry

The Grammar of History Textbooks Part II: Questioning the Text

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

Opening Up the Textbook

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

Children’s Voices from the Civil War

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

Building a Conversation between Textbooks, Students, and Teachers

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

Learning Menus: Textbooks a la Carte

Turn your students into 'master chefs' by using learning menus that allow [...] »