Q. At what level is all of this work with the Invisibles the most effective?
A. For me it is with sixth graders. They really get into it. But I think all middle school levels can “go there”. However, if the kids have ever had a year or more of traditional book based verb conjugation type of instruction, many of the kids just don’t have the capacity to do that. But for first year classes, the identification and love of characters seems to go on all year, fueling interest in stories to an almost astonishing level. The teacher has a smorgasbord of characters to choose from and a kind of language acquisition party happens in every class when there is an Invisible character as the guest of honor. Then, since those kids never knew the other way of learning, they are not spoiled and all we have to do as they go to the next levels, and so many more do, is adjust to their changing age interests and end up at the AP level with lots and lots of reading and then we can say that we’ve broken the mould.