Welcome to Best Practices
Spotlight on Elementary Education
Example of Historical Thinking

What was it like being a small farmer in the 1700s? Follow a tour group [...] »

What can an inventory tell you about daily life in Delaware in 1804? Curator [...] »

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

Today, we accept paper—and electronic—money as a fact of life. Historian [...] »

Analyzing a source requires context for a more complete understanding.
[...] »Teaching in Action

A 5th-grade teacher teaches historical context through roleplaying [...] »

Watch 4th-graders analyze cartoons about Virginia and Brown v. Board of [...] »
Using Primary Sources

Explore the SOCC analysis technique with this great website.
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When visiting historical sites, sometimes you need a visual/emotional "hook [...] »
Teaching with Textbooks

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

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

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

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

Make the most of your textbook—engage students in close reading and analysis [...] »