Best Practices | TeachingHistory.org

Welcome to Best Practices

Today, we accept paper—and electronic—money as a fact of life. Historian Michael O'Malley analyzes an 1876 cartoon criticizing "greenbacks."

Thomas Nast Cartoon

In Examples of Historical Thinking

What do slave receipts reveal? Ever considered using similar documents to teach?

Slave Receipts

In Examples of Historical Thinking

Integrate these two guides into your curriculum to help students develop visual and textual analysis skills.

The Civil War in Art: Teaching and Learning Through Chicago 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

Creative Memo on Lay's Products

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

Smithsonian American Art Museum: "Inventing a Better Mousetrap"

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

A Close Look at the FDR Memorial

Historian Christopher Hamner visits the original Franklin D. [...] »

The Election of 1932: Photographs of FDR

What can a photograph of Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1932 reveal? Donald A. [...] »

The Salem Witch Trials

Absolving the guilty and punishing the innocent. Historian Elizabeth Reis [...] »

Teaching in Action

Teachers demonstrate promising teaching practices

Teaching the Bill of Rights

Daunted by teaching the Bill of Rights and its complex vocabulary to [...] »

Prologue to Studying the Emancipation Proclamation

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

Using Primary Sources

Strategies for analyzing primary sources

Integrating Material Culture into the Classroom

Use this guide developed by PBS and the Antiques Roadshow to teach [...] »

Document Analysis Worksheets

Find the National Archive's worksheets for analyzing a variety of primary [...] »

Teaching with Textbooks

Techniques for promoting historical inquiry

Building a Conversation between Textbooks, Students, and Teachers

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

Questioning Textbook Authority

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

The Grammar of History Textbooks, Part I: Language Analysis

The language of history textbooks challenges English language learners and [...] »

Learning Menus: Textbooks a la Carte

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

The Grammar of History Textbooks Part II: Questioning the Text

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