Welcome to Best Practices
Spotlight on Elementary Education
Example of Historical Thinking
What was it like being a small farmer in the 1700s? Follow a tour group [...] »
Whitman Ridgway outlines some of the context in which the Bill of Rights was [...] »
Watch Suzannah Niepold of the Smithsonian American Art Museum guide teachers [...] »
If students lack historical context, they can miss the substance of a [...] »
What is the key line in Franklin D. Roosevelt's second inaugural address? [...] »
Teaching in Action
Watch 4th-graders analyze cartoons about Virginia and Brown v. Board of [...] »
How did people in the North feel about John Brown after his raid on Harpers [...] »
Using Primary Sources
This website by the Smithsonian Portrait Gallery will help students [...] »
The Bracero Archive’s tutorial shows how to conduct successful interviews. [...] »
Teaching with Textbooks
The language of history textbooks challenges English language learners and [...] »
Turn your students into 'master chefs' by using learning menus that allow [...] »
Class discussion and personal inquiry builds an interactive relationship [...] »
Turn your textbook into a conversation by scanning its language for biases [...] »
Help students identify with the past via children who lived through the [...] »