Welcome to Best Practices
Spotlight on Elementary Education
Example of Historical Thinking
Chandra Manning discusses the song “John Brown's Body,” and how music can be [...] »
Analyzing a massive primary source? Divide it up! Teachers at the [...] »
Smithsonian Barbara Clark Smith looks at what a colonial newspaper article [...] »
![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 [...] »
With the advent of industry and western expansion, U.S. businesses mass [...] »
Teaching in Action
Watch 4th-graders analyze cartoons about Virginia and Brown v. Board of [...] »
Daunted by teaching the Bill of Rights and its complex vocabulary to [...] »
Using Primary Sources
National Park Service lesson plans, teaching materials, and vibrant images [...] »
Analyze art in the classroom with these resources from the Picturing [...] »
Teaching with Textbooks
The language of history textbooks challenges English language learners and [...] »
Make the most of your textbook—engage students in close reading and analysis [...] »
Turn your textbook into a conversation by scanning its language for biases [...] »
Show your students how to challenge the authority gap between the textbook [...] »
Help students identify with the past via children who lived through the [...] »