Best Practices
Engage students and encourage historical thinking in K-12 American history classrooms.
Watch as the song "John Brown's Body" is transformed into a primary source to instruct 4th-grade students about John Brown's raid on Harpers Ferry. By analyzing the song, students are able to grasp how contemporary northerners viewed John Brown shortly after his raid. FIND OUT MORE »
Read and Learn
Examples of Historical Thinking
Scholars, students, and teachers model historical thinking
Historian Chandra Manning analyzes Civil War letters from black and white Union [...] »
Donald A. Ritchie, Historian of the U.S. Senate, asks how a political cartoon [...] »
What can a photograph of Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1932 reveal? Donald A. [...] »
Analyzing a source requires context for a more complete understanding. [...] »
Jefferson, surprised by the Louisiana Purchase? Maybe not. Historian Leah [...] »
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Teaching in Action
Teachers demonstrate promising teaching practices
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Using Primary Sources
Strategies for analyzing primary sources
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Teaching with Textbooks
Techniques for promoting historical inquiry
The language of history textbooks challenges English language learners and [...] »
Help students identify with the past via children who lived through the Civil [...] »
Turn your textbook into a conversation by scanning its language for biases. [...] »
Allow students to see that history as we know it is interpretation, perspective [...] »
Show your students how to challenge the authority gap between the textbook and [...] »
