Best Practices | TeachingHistory.org

Welcome to Best Practices

Daunted by teaching the Bill of Rights and its complex vocabulary to students? Middle-school teacher Christine Valenti explains how she introduces her students to the Amendments.

Teaching the Bill of Rights

In Teaching in Action

Make large-scale historic events like the Holocaust personal with artifacts and stories from individual human lives.

The U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum: Personalizing History

In Examples of Historical Thinking

Class discussion and personal inquiry builds an interactive relationship between students and their textbooks.

Building a Conversation between Textbooks, Students, and Teachers

In Teaching with Textbooks

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

Jackie Robinson and Martin Luther King Jr.

What connections do documents related to the Jackie Robinson Testimonial [...] »

Ford's Theatre: Lincoln's Second Inaugural Address

Ford's Theatre Society's Sarah Jencks leads teachers through Abraham Lincoln [...] »

Monticello: Jefferson's Experiment

TAH teachers get an introduction to Monticello as Thomas Jefferson's ' [...] »

Letters from the Philippines

Letters from U.S. soldiers during the Philippine-American War reveal [...] »

A Close Look at the FDR Memorial

Historian Christopher Hamner visits the original Franklin D. [...] »

Teaching in Action

Teachers demonstrate promising teaching practices

Of the Student, For the Student, By the Student

Sixth graders in Prince William County film their interpretations of the [...] »

Causal Reasoning

The fictional Alphonse the Camel provides insight for one classroom.

Using Primary Sources

Strategies for analyzing primary sources

The Thomas Jefferson Building: Secret Messages

What messages are hidden in art and architecture? Explore the Library of [...] »

Making Sense of Films

Work with early twentieth-century film as historical evidence. What [...] »

Teaching with Textbooks

Techniques for promoting historical inquiry

Learning Menus: Textbooks a la Carte

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

Building a Conversation between Textbooks, Students, and Teachers

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

The Grammar of History Textbooks Part II: Questioning the Text

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

Questioning Textbook Authority

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

The Grammar of History Textbooks, Part I: Language Analysis

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