Invisible ink will hook any reluctant writer! Teach like a pirate and teach your students to record their thoughts without stress or judgment. My students are in the midst of the Lucy Calkins unit Navigating Nonfiction. I amped up the lesson about mentally recording main idea and details on your hand by calling it The Invisible Strategy!
Not only did the lesson reinforce main idea and supporting details, but I was able to extend the lesson and teach Common Core vocabulary. Sometimes the main idea isn't called the main idea!
Students added the graphic reminder to their reading notebooks.
During independent reading the students practiced using the strategy.
The Invisible Strategy was a memorable introduction to the formal reading strategy of Boxes and Bullets and helped them grasp it more easily.
The students' understanding of main idea transformed from invisible to concrete!
