Best Practices | TeachingHistory.org

Welcome to Best Practices

Smithsonian Barbara Clark Smith looks at what a colonial newspaper article says—and doesn't say—about a Patriot protest.

1775 Colonial Newspaper Article

In Examples of Historical Thinking

With the advent of industry and western expansion, U.S. businesses mass produced dreams of affluence and progress.

Daily Objects, 19th-century America

In Examples of Historical Thinking

Watch Suzannah Niepold of the Smithsonian American Art Museum guide teachers in analyzing four works of art.

Smithsonian American Art Museum: Teaching with 19th-Century Art

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

The U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum: Personalizing History

Make large-scale historic events like the Holocaust personal with artifacts [...] »

Slavery at Jefferson's Monticello: Paradox of Liberty

Educators tour the NMAAHC exhibit "Slavery at Jefferson's Monticello: [...] »

Reading Place with the National Building Museum

What does architecture say about the past and the present? TAH teachers [...] »

Cross-checking Sources and Testing Hypotheses

Challenge students to gather evidence from multiple primary sources. Here, a [...] »

Herman Melville's "Bartleby, the Scrivener"

Is reading a piece of historic literature once enough? Not if you want to [...] »

Teaching in Action

Teachers demonstrate promising teaching practices

Teaching the Bill of Rights

Daunted by teaching the Bill of Rights and its complex vocabulary to [...] »

Recreating the Cuban Missile Crisis

Ninth-grade teacher Jamie Kimbrough asked her students to stand in Kennedy's [...] »

Using Primary Sources

Strategies for analyzing primary sources

Making Sense of Letters and Diaries

Source and approach letters and diaries with historical thinking.

Teaching with Monuments and Memorials

Every town has a scattering of historical markers and statues. Discover what [...] »

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 [...] »

The Grammar of History Textbooks Part II: Questioning the Text

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

Building a Conversation between Textbooks, Students, and Teachers

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

Learning Menus: Textbooks a la Carte

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