Best Practices | TeachingHistory.org

Welcome to Best Practices

Absolving the guilty and punishing the innocent. Historian Elizabeth Reis looks at primary sources recording testimony in witchcraft trials.

The Salem Witch Trials

In Examples of Historical Thinking

Is reading a piece of historic literature once enough? Not if you want to get the most out of literary sources.

Herman Melville's "Bartleby, the Scrivener"

In Examples of Historical Thinking

Is a school an island? James Liou talks about working to integrate schools into the community, as practiced at Boston Community Leadership Academy, Boston, MA.

Students in the Community

In Teaching in Action

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

Women's Suffrage: Jane Addams's Article

Who was Jane Addams, and how is her article "Why Women Should Vote" still [...] »

Primary Sources as Windows into the Past

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

Smithsonian American Art Museum: Close Observation

Close observation and an inquisitive mind are all the tools you need to [...] »

The Election of 1932: Photographs of FDR

What can a photograph of Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1932 reveal? Donald A. [...] »

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

Geo-Literacy Project: Students Explore Their World

Teacher Eva La Mar's third graders become historians, writers, and [...] »

Integrating Language Arts and History

Elementary teacher Karen Eanes hooks her students with engaging historical [...] »

Using Primary Sources

Strategies for analyzing primary sources

Making Sense of Maps

What questions should you ask when viewing maps as historical evidence?

Making Sense of Films

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

Teaching with Textbooks

Techniques for promoting historical inquiry

Using Historiography to Analyze the Mexican-American War

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

Questioning Textbook Authority

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

Learning Menus: Textbooks a la Carte

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

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 [...] »