CLASSROOM CONVERSATION KIT - Facilitation Strategies for Educators - Grades 6-12

Oct 16, 2026

Classroom Conversation Kit provides facilitation strategies for educators to teach the Smithsonian digital exhibition “Becoming Visible: Bringing American Women’s History into Focus” to grades 6–12. It frames key learning objectives and civic themes about whose histories are preserved and why women’s contributions are often missing from mainstream U.S. narratives. The kit includes a digital overview, getting-started guidance, five story kits on featured women, discussion prompts, and additional resources to support inquiry, reflection, and equitable historical learning.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryGeneral

FormatPDF

Pages17

Reading Time26 min

AccessFree to download

Learning Objectives and Approaches

The Big Idea

Driving Questions

Digital Exhibition Overview

Key exhibition themes and questions

Getting Started

Story Kits

Excluded – Elizabeth Keckly’s Memoir

Margaret Knight’s invention of flat-bottomed paper bags

Hisako Hibi’s paintings

Hazel Fellows and the ILC Dover seamstresses

Isabel Morgan’s contributions to the polio vaccine

Discussion Prompts

Additional Resources

CLASSROOM CONVERSATION KIT Facilitation Strategies for Educators Calling all educators! This conversation kit is a resource for incorporating the museum’s first digital exhibition, Becoming Visible: Bringing American Women’s History into Focus, into your curricula. Use these classroom facilitation strategies to dig deeper and expand upon key themesand topics. Best for grades 6-12. Purpose This conversation kit was designed for use with the digital exhibition, Becoming Visible: Bringing American Women’s History into Focus, by the Smithsonian American Women’s History Museum ([becomingvisible.si.edu](becomingvisible.si.edu)). This resource suggests facilitation strategies for teaching the exhibition in a classroom setting for grades 6-12. The exhibition will prompt students to question why women’s history seems tobe missing from common narratives ofU.S. history, even though women have been making history for centuries. The exhibition explores this question through the stories of five American women: Elizabeth Keckly, Margaret E. Knight, Hisako Hibi, Hazel Fellows, and Dr. Isabel Morgan. Through these stories, students will consider how and why historical narratives do not always include women and consider what might need to change to correct that absence. Classroom Conversation Kit Contents: 1. Learning Objectives and Approaches 2. Digital Exhibition Overview 3. Getting Started 4. Story Kits a. Elizabeth Keckly’s Memoir b. Margaret Knight’s Invention of Flat-bottomed Paper Bags c. Hisako Hibi’s Paintings d. Hazel Fellows & the ILC Dover Seamstresses e. Isabel Morgan’s Contributions to the Polio Vaccine 5. Discussion Prompts 6. Additional Resources Learning Objectives and Approaches The Big Idea Students will understand how our choices decide whose histories are preserved in history books, museums, monuments, and more. Driving Questions • Why aren’t the stories of women central to how we learn U.S. history? • How have these histories been excluded and why? • How are people working to recover these histories? • How can we avoid erasing these histories in the future? Grades 6 to 12; This conversation kit may be most appropriate for middle and highschool students. Educators can adapt the content to meet the needs of any learner. Learning Themes Civic learning themes include Civic Disposition and Values, Community Participation, Democratic Principles, Equity, and Rights and Responsibilities. Profiles and facilitation strategies cover History, Social Studies, STEM, and Integrated Arts. Supplemental resources give educators additional background information on the women and topics featured. Facilitation Strategies This conversation kit includes activities found in Project Zero’s Thinking Routine Toolbox. Project Zero provides resources for learning at home, remotely, and in the classroom. The arts and humanities ground Project Zero’s Thinking Routines. They blend theory and practice to support learners. The activities highlighted are available in English and Spanish. Learn more about the Harvard Graduate School of Education’s Project Zero. Digital Exhibition Overview American women’s stories have been in a constant state of becoming invisible. Historians have long documented the lives and work of women. But women's experiences vanish from most popular and influential U.S. history narratives. It is as though women’s history has been written in disappearing ink. Confronting this contradiction is at the heart of the new Smithsonian American Women’s History Museum. Becoming Visible invites audiences into the museum’s work to expand the story of America. The exhibition explores how the achievements of American women have been excluded, forgotten, erased, obscured, and almost lost. By holding the disappearing ink of women’s history up in a new light, the exhibition will illuminate women’s stories. The aim is to transform what we know about the past and our hopes for the fut

FAQs

What is the purpose of this Classroom Conversation Kit for educators?

It supports educators in incorporating the Smithsonian digital exhibition “Becoming Visible: Bringing American Women’s History into Focus” into classroom curricula for grades 6–12 using structured facilitation strategies.

What themes and questions does the kit focus on?

Students examine why women’s history is often missing from common U.S. history narratives and consider how and why historical narratives exclude women, alongside efforts to recover those histories.

What resources are included in the kit besides the digital exhibition overview?

The kit provides five story kits for featured women, discussion prompts for broader reflection, and additional resources to deepen background knowledge and support teaching.

Oct 16, 2026

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