Welcome to Best Practices
Spotlight on Elementary Education
Example of Historical Thinking
Smithsonian Barbara Clark Smith looks at what a colonial newspaper article [...] »
Two letters from 1800 Tripoli lead into a story of piracy, privateering, [...] »
Use autobiographies to deconstruct views of slavery and historical heroes. [...] »
Historian Christopher Hamner engages educators in close questioning of the [...] »
Watch J. Douglas Smith discuss the Massive Resistance policy enacted by U.S [...] »
Teaching in Action
Did two bullets begin WWI? Explore causation in your classroom.
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An 8th-grade class analyzes letters about the Emancipation Proclamation.
[...] »Using Primary Sources
Check out these sites for excellent primary source material.
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Check out these sites for primary sources grouped into sets by topic, grade- [...] »
Teaching with Textbooks
Turn your students into 'master chefs' by using learning menus that allow [...] »
Allow students to see that history as we know it is interpretation, [...] »
Show your students how to challenge the authority gap between the textbook [...] »
Make the most of your textbook—engage students in close reading and analysis [...] »
Help students identify with the past via children who lived through the [...] »