Best Practices | TeachingHistory.org

Welcome to Best Practices

What can an inventory tell you about daily life in Delaware in 1804? Curator Barbara Clark Smith asks this document four questions.

1804 Inventory

In Examples of Historical Thinking

painting, George Washington, 1817, John Trumbull, Flickr CC

This website by the Smithsonian Portrait Gallery will help students analyze artistic works.

George Washington, A National Treasure

In Using Primary Sources

How does the Ulysses S. Grant Memorial in Washington, DC, depict Grant and the Civil War? Historians Christopher Hamner and Michael O'Malley take a look.

Ulysses S. Grant Memorial

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

Massive Resistance Political Cartoons

Watch J. Douglas Smith discuss the Massive Resistance policy enacted by U.S [...] »

The Iran Hostage Crisis: Diary of Robert Ode

Diaries give a personal view of historical events. Historian Peter Hahn [...] »

Daily Objects, 19th-century America

With the advent of industry and western expansion, U.S. businesses mass [...] »

Close Reading for Vocabulary, Context, and Tone

Analyzing a source requires context for a more complete understanding.

Seeing (and Engaging in) Historical Thinking: A Tutorial

This interactive tutorial models a four-step process for analyzing [...] »

Teaching in Action

Teachers demonstrate promising teaching practices

Of the Student, For the Student, By the Student

Sixth graders in Prince William County film their interpretations of the [...] »

Teaching Strategies for Museums: Graphic Organizers

Eighth-grade teacher Amy Trenkle keeps students on-task before, during, and [...] »

Using Primary Sources

Strategies for analyzing primary sources

Bringing History Home’s SOCC Analysis Technique

Explore the SOCC analysis technique with this great website.

Making Sense of Films

Work with early twentieth-century film as historical evidence. What [...] »

Teaching with Textbooks

Techniques for promoting historical inquiry

Building a Conversation between Textbooks, Students, and Teachers

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

The Grammar of History Textbooks Part II: Questioning the Text

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

The Grammar of History Textbooks, Part I: Language Analysis

The language of history textbooks challenges English language learners and [...] »

Children’s Voices from the Civil War

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

Using Historiography to Analyze the Mexican-American War

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