Welcome to Best Practices
Spotlight on Elementary Education
Example of Historical Thinking
Written primary sources only tell you so much. To learn about history that [...] »
Tour Monticello with TAH teachers and learn about the history behind Thomas [...] »
Smithsonian Barbara Clark Smith looks at what a colonial newspaper article [...] »
Historian Christopher Hamner visits the original Franklin D. [...] »
On the website Historical Thinking Matters, a student reads aloud a [...] »
Teaching in Action
Teacher Eva La Mar's third graders become historians, writers, and [...] »
An 8th-grade teacher asks: Was early 20th-century America a "melting pot" or [...] »
Using Primary Sources
Use this guide developed by PBS and the Antiques Roadshow to teach [...] »
Work with oral history interviews as historical evidence.
[...] »Teaching with Textbooks
The language of history textbooks challenges English language learners and [...] »
Class discussion and personal inquiry builds an interactive relationship [...] »
Turn your textbook into a conversation by scanning its language for biases [...] »
Show your students how to challenge the authority gap between the textbook [...] »
Make the most of your textbook—engage students in close reading and analysis [...] »