Best Practices | TeachingHistory.org

Welcome to Best Practices

Photo, George Gaskell and Colm Muircheartaigh, c1980s, LSE Library

Quantitative data, although seemingly daunting and impersonal, can help you understand the past.

Making Sense of Numbers

In Using Primary Sources

Photo, Bayard Rustin, 1964, Library of Congress

If students lack historical context, they can miss the substance of a reading. Watch a high school sophomore use what he knows about the 1950s and 1960s to approach a diary extract.

Reading for Context

In Examples of Historical Thinking

Analyzing a massive primary source? Divide it up! Teachers at the Smithsonian American Art Museum examine a Thomas Hart Benton mural.

Smithsonian American Art Museum: "Acehlous and Hercules"

In Examples of Historical Thinking

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

Two Blues Songs

Written primary sources only tell you so much. To learn about history that [...] »

Slave Life at Mount Vernon

How do the buildings and artifacts at Mount Vernon reflect the lives of the [...] »

A Close Look at the Ulysses S. Grant Memorial

Historian Christopher Hamner engages educators in close questioning of the [...] »

An Introduction to Historical Thinking and Reading

Watch this flash movie for a peek at how historians read and question [...] »

Jackie Robinson and Martin Luther King Jr.

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

Teaching in Action

Teachers demonstrate promising teaching practices

Students in the Community

Is a school an island? James Liou talks about working to integrate schools [...] »

Third Graders Analyzing Historical Sources

A 3rd-grade teacher leads her students through analysis of child labor [...] »

Using Primary Sources

Strategies for analyzing primary sources

Scholars in Action: Analyzing 19th-Century Letters

Watch a scholar interpret letters from labor activist and reformer Sarah [...] »

SCIM-C: Historical Source Analysis

Virginia Tech’s short video shows how to analyze primary sources and put [...] »

Teaching with Textbooks

Techniques for promoting historical inquiry

The Grammar of History Textbooks Part II: Questioning the Text

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

Children’s Voices from the Civil War

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

Learning Menus: Textbooks a la Carte

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

Opening Up the Textbook

Make the most of your textbook—engage students in close reading and analysis [...] »

Using Historiography to Analyze the Mexican-American War

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