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If I were standing in front of my class with a stack of these individually created characters, it would be hard for me not to pick this one. I would make the story out of his fear. It’s a wonderful idea for a story: Name: Short Cut Job: He works part time at a gift […]

This is another example of a character that would be easy to do a story about. Generally with these images my mind and heart “glom” onto one aspect of the character, in this case its fear: Name: Bob the Trash Can Job: Trash Collector Likes/Dislikes: Pizza and kittens/mean girls Fear: people will think he stinks

Clyde the Cloud shows us how the best characters are usually the simplest. I am immediately drawn to Clyde’s problem: Name: Clyde the Cloud Job: Shader Likes/Dislikes: Wind Fear: Sun Problem: When he cries people go inside Secret: He wishes he were cotton candy

Dana Miller-Kitch is the person taking the position I had in New Delhi at the American Embassy School this year. Tina and I got to spend some quality time with her in Philadelphia chez Dick Detwiler this summer. Some of the same kids who launched the Invisibles as 6th graders will be able to finish their middle

Here is a character whose problem and secret are plenty enough to get a good story going: Name: Gus the Peach Job: Shoe Salesman Likes/Dislikes: Smell of new shoes/fungus Fear: corn Problem: is hairier than other peaches and has to shave constantly Secret: wishes he were an apple

Here is another strong individually created character that is cohesive. When going through all the drawings, standing in front of class, discussing each one in English, pointing out the good things I like about each one and reading the back-of-the-page descriptors to the class, deciding, asking them which character they would like to make a

This is an example of a cohesive character that would make a good story. It has great colors and an interesting face, and her back-of-the-page information is cohesive and therefore interesting. I would base the story on her problem, which is a problem from which many if not most secondary school kids suffer: Name: Daisy the Flower Job:

We require that the individually created drawings that the kids submit to us for consideration in an Invisibles story have a name, job, likes/dislikes, fear, problem, and secret. This information is put on the back of each drawing and is referred to as the back-of-the-page information. We request that the kids provide cohesive back-of-the-page information,

Here is our team pic from Chicago that included PLC stalwarts Alisa Shapiro-Rosenberg (not pictured) and Sean Lawler (yellow shirt):

Here is our team picture from Cleveland:

It’s amazing how individually drawn Invisibles drawings sometimes become cartoon manifestations of the inner psychological state of the kids. They thus reveal a lot about the kid and this can cause a story to be riveting to the class, once it gets to that level. This, of course, is why I prefer individually created characters

The kids hand in their individually created drawings of their Invisibles, which is done after the first few weeks after we start the year with Card Talk and OWI, at least some of us. We only accept the individually created drawings for consideration into the story if they are (1) big and bright and not