Best Practices | TeachingHistory.org

Welcome to Best Practices

Watch this 9th-grade teacher lead his class in planning, writing, and organizing their own documentary films.

Teaching Historical Interpretation through Planning Documentary Films

In Teaching in Action

In the struggle for women's suffrage, how did African American women represent themselves? TJ Boisseau reads an article by activist Nannie Helen Burroughs.

Women's Suffrage: Burroughs's Article

In Examples of Historical Thinking

Photomechanical print, Young America and the Moving-Picture Show, 1910, L.M. Gla

Analyze art in the classroom with these resources from the Picturing America initiative.

Picturing America

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

A Close Look at the World War II Memorial

Historian Christopher Hamner introduces educators to the World War II [...] »

Creative Memo on Lay's Products

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

Close Reading for Vocabulary, Context, and Tone

Analyzing a source requires context for a more complete understanding.

Ulysses S. Grant Memorial

How does the Ulysses S. Grant Memorial in Washington, DC, depict Grant and [...] »

Smithsonian American Art Museum: "Westward the Course of Empire"

Watch Suzannah Niepold guide TAH teachers through analyzing the differences [...] »

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 [...] »

Historical Context and Roleplaying

A 5th-grade teacher teaches historical context through roleplaying [...] »

Using Primary Sources

Strategies for analyzing primary sources

Secondary Sources: What Are They?

National History Day identifies secondary sources along with [...] »

Making Sense of American Popular Songs

Don't overlook song as a way of understanding the past.

Teaching with Textbooks

Techniques for promoting historical inquiry

Using Historiography to Analyze the Mexican-American War

Allow students to see that history as we know it is interpretation, [...] »

Children’s Voices from the Civil War

Help students identify with the past via children who lived through the [...] »

Questioning Textbook Authority

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

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 [...] »