Committee for Children Blog

The Invisible Boy: Classroom Discussions—Activity

invisible boy activity

Books can offer fun, adventure, learning, and laughs. From an early age, many children understand that reading can help expand their understanding of the world and help them navigate the unknown waters of elementary school. Books can also help illustrate and support the social-emotional learning students are doing in class. That’s one of the reasons we’ve included recommended reading as part of our Second Step Suite*. Topics include empathy, inclusion, and bullying prevention.

One of the books we recommend is The Invisible Boy by Trudy Ludwig, a nationally acclaimed speaker, award-winning author, and the author of several stories you’ll find in Second Step Bullying Prevention Unit lessons.

The following free classroom activity includes before-, during-, and after-reading prompts and instructions to help teachers guide a discussion about how it feels to be excluded and what students can do to help.

View and download this classroom activity.

Read our book review of The Invisible Boy and interview with author Trudy Ludwig, plus another free classroom activity.

Life Lessons—Addressing & Reaching Out to the Socially Excluded, Invisible Child” was prepared by Dr. Rose Reissman, literacy specialist & director of the Ditmas IS 62 Writing Institute. It’s intended for Grades 3–6.

Dr. Rose Reissman is a veteran teacher and educator, whose Writing Institute Program has been replicated in 181 schools nationally. She is the coauthor with Mark Gira of Project Based Literacy (Infoage, 2016).

*Educators teaching the Second Step Suite can find grade-appropriate book lists in the resources section on SecondStep.org.

**The Invisible Boy illustration
copyright (c) 2013 by Patrice Barton

Like This Activity?

We’re adding more K–8 classroom activities to our Free Activities page all the time. They’re easy to find—just visit cfchildren.org/resources/free-activities/ for grade-specific, K–8 classroom activities that align with our Second Step Suite.


Learn more about social-emotional learning, research on the topic, and how it benefits students in the classroom, at home, and in their daily lives.