Welcome to Best Practices
Spotlight on Elementary Education
Example of Historical Thinking
Jefferson, surprised by the Louisiana Purchase? Maybe not. Historian Leah [...] »
Letters from U.S. soldiers during the Philippine-American War reveal [...] »
Textbooks describe segregation in a few pages, but these artists share [...] »
Watch Suzannah Niepold of the Smithsonian American Art Museum guide teachers [...] »
What do slave receipts reveal? Ever considered using similar documents to [...] »
Teaching in Action
An 8th-grade teacher asks: Was early 20th-century America a "melting pot" or [...] »
Eighth-grade teacher Amy Trenkle keeps students on-task before, during, and [...] »
Using Primary Sources
So you don't live near Gettysburg or the Alamo—can you still teach with [...] »
This website by the Smithsonian Portrait Gallery will help students [...] »
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 [...] »
Allow students to see that history as we know it is interpretation, [...] »
Turn your textbook into a conversation by scanning its language for biases [...] »
Show your students how to challenge the authority gap between the textbook [...] »