Best Practices | TeachingHistory.org

Welcome to Best Practices

Photo, We <3 Students Who <3 Reading, Mar. 9, 2010, Enokson, Flickr

Use the Stanford History Education Group's curriculum to teach historical investigation.

Reading Like a Historian

In Using Primary Sources

Watch Suzannah Niepold guide TAH teachers through analyzing the differences between two versions of Emanuel Gottlieb Leutze's Westward the Course of Empire Takes Its Way.

Smithsonian American Art Museum: "Westward the Course of Empire"

In Examples of Historical Thinking

What is the key line in Franklin D. Roosevelt's second inaugural address? Historian David Kennedy gives his answer.

FDR's Second Inaugural Address

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

Sourcing a Primary Document

See sourcing in action, as a historian reads a document about the Scopes [...] »

Abolitionist Speeches by African American Women

How do the speeches of Sojourner Truth and Frances Ellen Watkins Harper [...] »

Smithsonian American Art Museum: "Acehlous and Hercules"

Analyzing a massive primary source? Divide it up! Teachers at the [...] »

Jackie Robinson and Martin Luther King Jr.

What connections do documents related to the Jackie Robinson Testimonial [...] »

Smithsonian American Art Museum: "Inventing a Better Mousetrap"

Take a look at artifacts from the past—what might they be? Teachers model [...] »

Teaching in Action

Teachers demonstrate promising teaching practices

Prologue to Studying the Emancipation Proclamation

An 8th-grade class analyzes letters about the Emancipation Proclamation.

Historical Context and Roleplaying

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

Using Primary Sources

Strategies for analyzing primary sources

Critically Analyzing Information Sources

This source from Cornell University's Olin and Uris Libraries includes [...] »

The Civil War in Art: Teaching and Learning Through Chicago Collections

Integrate these two guides into your curriculum to help students develop [...] »

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 [...] »

Learning Menus: Textbooks a la Carte

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

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 [...] »

Using Historiography to Analyze the Mexican-American War

Allow students to see that history as we know it is interpretation, [...] »