Welcome to Best Practices
Spotlight on Elementary Education
Example of Historical Thinking
Two letters from 1800 Tripoli lead into a story of piracy, privateering, [...] »
Watch Smithsonian curator Barbara Clark Smith discuss John Smith’s Map of [...] »
![Photo, [Old hermit Roy Ozmer. . . ], 1957, Flickr Commons](/sites/default/files/styles/splash_thumb_images/public/Reading-and-Thinking.jpg?itok=f7GCc3Xk "Photo, [Old hermit Roy Ozmer reading a book at his house : Pelican Key, Florida], December 1957, State Library and Archives of Florida, Flickr Commons")
Watch this flash movie for a peek at how historians read and question [...] »
Chandra Manning discusses the song “John Brown's Body,” and how music can be [...] »
Close observation and an inquisitive mind are all the tools you need to [...] »
Teaching in Action
Sixth graders in Prince William County film their interpretations of the [...] »
Watch 4th-graders analyze cartoons about Virginia and Brown v. Board of [...] »
Using Primary Sources
These worksheets from the Library of Congress help students analyze primary [...] »
What questions should you ask when viewing maps as historical evidence?
[...] »Teaching with Textbooks
Class discussion and personal inquiry builds an interactive relationship [...] »
Make the most of your textbook—engage students in close reading and analysis [...] »
Turn your students into 'master chefs' by using learning menus that allow [...] »
Help students identify with the past via children who lived through the [...] »
Allow students to see that history as we know it is interpretation, [...] »