Welcome to Best Practices
Spotlight on Elementary Education
Example of Historical Thinking

A student demonstrates thinking aloud reading two documents.
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Watch Suzannah Niepold of the Smithsonian American Art Museum guide teachers [...] »

Watch Smithsonian curator Barbara Clark Smith discuss John Smith’s Map of [...] »

This interactive tutorial models a four-step process for analyzing [...] »

Make large-scale historic events like the Holocaust personal with artifacts [...] »
Teaching in Action

Elementary teacher Karen Eanes hooks her students with engaging historical [...] »

Is a school an island? James Liou talks about working to integrate schools [...] »
Using Primary Sources

Quantitative data, although seemingly daunting and impersonal, can help you [...] »

Work with oral history interviews as historical evidence.
[...] »Teaching with Textbooks

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

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

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

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

Make the most of your textbook—engage students in close reading and analysis [...] »