Welcome to Best Practices
Spotlight on Elementary Education
Example of Historical Thinking
Excite students by introducing them to primary sources that answer questions [...] »
Analyzing a massive primary source? Divide it up! Teachers at the [...] »
A student demonstrates thinking aloud reading two documents.
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Watch Smithsonian curator Barbara Clark Smith discuss John Smith’s Map of [...] »
How can you get teachers thinking about monuments and memorials as secondary [...] »
Teaching in Action
A 3rd-grade teacher leads her students through analysis of child labor [...] »
An 8th-grade teacher asks: Was early 20th-century America a "melting pot" or [...] »
Using Primary Sources
Every town has a scattering of historical markers and statues. Discover what [...] »
Analyze art in the classroom with these resources from the Picturing [...] »
Teaching with Textbooks
Class discussion and personal inquiry builds an interactive relationship [...] »
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, [...] »
Show your students how to challenge the authority gap between the textbook [...] »
Turn your textbook into a conversation by scanning its language for biases [...] »