Welcome to Best Practices
Spotlight on Elementary Education
Example of Historical Thinking
How did the World War II internment of Japanese Americans happen? Historian [...] »
A student demonstrates thinking aloud reading two documents.
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Potato chip marketing—how a luxury item became an everyday U.S. food.
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How do the speeches of Sojourner Truth and Frances Ellen Watkins Harper [...] »
On the website Historical Thinking Matters, a student reads aloud a [...] »
Teaching in Action
How did people in the North feel about John Brown after his raid on Harpers [...] »
High school teacher Joe Jelen combines roleplaying and critical analysis—by [...] »
Using Primary Sources
When visiting historical sites, sometimes you need a visual/emotional "hook [...] »
Work with oral history interviews as historical evidence.
[...] »Teaching with Textbooks
Make the most of your textbook—engage students in close reading and analysis [...] »
Allow students to see that history as we know it is interpretation, [...] »
Help students identify with the past via children who lived through the [...] »
Turn your students into 'master chefs' by using learning menus that allow [...] »
Class discussion and personal inquiry builds an interactive relationship [...] »