Welcome to Best Practices
![Photo, [Old hermit Roy Ozmer. . . ], 1957, Flickr Commons](/sites/default/files/Reading-and-Thinking.jpg "Photo, [Old hermit Roy Ozmer reading a book at his house : Pelican Key, Florida], December 1957, State Library and Archives of Florida, Flickr Commons")
Spotlight on Elementary Education
Example of Historical Thinking
How does a political cartoon use popular beliefs about women to make its [...] »
Watch Smithsonian curator Barbara Clark Smith discuss John Smith’s Map of [...] »
This interactive tutorial models a four-step process for analyzing [...] »
Diaries give a personal view of historical events. Historian Peter Hahn [...] »
Chandra Manning discusses the song “John Brown's Body,” and how music can be [...] »
Teaching in Action
The fictional Alphonse the Camel provides insight for one classroom.
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A 4th-grade teacher shows strategies for encouraging and supporting student [...] »
Using Primary Sources
Textbook illustrations are often overlooked as historical evidence.
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This source from Cornell University's Olin and Uris Libraries includes [...] »
Teaching with Textbooks
Turn your textbook into a conversation by scanning its language for biases [...] »
Help students identify with the past via children who lived through the [...] »
Class discussion and personal inquiry builds an interactive relationship [...] »
Make the most of your textbook—engage students in close reading and analysis [...] »
Allow students to see that history as we know it is interpretation, [...] »