Best Practices | TeachingHistory.org

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Photo, Ostrich reads newspaper of caretaker. Flickr

On the website Historical Thinking Matters, a student reads aloud a speech by former Louisiana Governor Huey Long.

Close Reading of a Primary Document

In Examples of Historical Thinking

Two practices help students to make sense of primary source documents on the internment of Japanese Americans while improving their reading skills.

Reading and Thinking Aloud to Understand

In Teaching in Action

The National History Day’s guidelines for defining and locating primary sources.

Primary Sources: What Are They?

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

Close Reading of a Primary Document

On the website Historical Thinking Matters, a student reads aloud a [...] »

Smithsonian American Art Museum: "Inventing a Better Mousetrap"

Take a look at artifacts from the past—what might they be? Teachers model [...] »

Scenes in the Life of Harriet Tubman

Can you trust a biography? Historian Tiya Miles analyzes an 1869 biography [...] »

Women's Suffrage Cartoon

How does a political cartoon use popular beliefs about women to make its [...] »

Primary Sources as Windows into the Past

Excite students by introducing them to primary sources that answer questions [...] »

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 [...] »

The Assassination of Abraham Lincoln

Teacher Bill Kendrat demonstrates the techniques he uses to draw students in [...] »

Using Primary Sources

Strategies for analyzing primary sources

Making Sense of Letters and Diaries

Source and approach letters and diaries with historical thinking.

Interactive Exercises—Analyzing Artifacts

In this series of exercises, students are presented with Native American [...] »

Teaching with Textbooks

Techniques for promoting historical inquiry

Questioning Textbook Authority

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

Children’s Voices from the Civil War

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

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, [...] »

Building a Conversation between Textbooks, Students, and Teachers

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