Secret Messages Revealed In History Class

Joseph’s eyes widened as he applied grape juice and heat to what appeared to be a blank piece of paper — but instead held a secret message in invisible ink, written as part of a course designed to teach multilingual learners like himself U.S. history and English at the same time.

That was the scene in a sheltered content U.S history class on a recent Friday morning at Hillhouse High School. Sheltered content courses teach core subjects like history, math, science, and English with a specific focus on improving English fluency.

The class of 20 students is made up of multilingual sophomores, juniors, and seniors at the city’s second largest high school. The class includes students who speak English, French, Spanish, Pashto, or Arabic.

During Friday’s class, veteran history and TESOL (Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages) educator Kaitlyn Goodwin called on students at random to read through a five paragraph excerpt about the use of invisible ink as a means of secret communication during the American Revolutionary War.

As students read aloud the passage, Goodwin helped along the way to offer them synonyms to unfamiliar words. She also walked the students through answering the passage’s follow up questions. 

After reading the text, the students flipped their sheets over to answer review questions. Goodwin asked the questions aloud. She also guided the class in how to write their answers in a complete sentence. ​“How do we start the sentence?” Goodwin asked. 

A group of students looked at the question: ​“How does a person reveal the secret message?” Then, in unison, they responded: ​“A person reveals the secret message by using heat.” 

Goodwin annotated and wrote the class’s responses down along with the students while projecting her work on the classroom’s whiteboard. 

She explained the meaning of words used in the text as students read, informing them that ​“brittle” means thin and that ​“timely manner” means on time, and that cotton swab is a synonym for a Q‑tip.

After Goodwin taught her Hillhouse students about spies using invisible ink, the group went on to write their own invisible ink messages for their peers to decipher.

Just before the students got to making their own invisible ink, they first wrote down the four step process it would take. 

1. Water and baking soda and shake

2. Write secret message with q tip 

3. Brush grape juice on message 

4. Apply heat from hair dryer

Once securing a blank piece of paper and a container of water and baking soda mix, the students shook the contents of the mix. They then used Q‑tips to write a few vocabulary words using the mix as ink. After letting the secret messages dry to then appear as a blank sheet of paper again, they each traded their papers with a classmate. Using a new Q‑tip dipped in grape juice the students rubbed the messages with the juice. Then Goodwin applied heat using a blow dryer. 

Soon enough, words like ​“rifle,” ​“bayonet,” ​“minuteman,” ​“cannon,” ​“taxes,” ​“sugar,” and ​“tea” appeared on the students’ papers. All of those were vocabulary words the class had learned from the American Revolution unit. 

With excitement, some went off to do the activity again on a new piece of paper. Others took a picture of the steps on their worksheets to repeat the activity at home. 

Goodwin estimated that Hillhouse has about 250 multiligual learners.

Ghofran, a senior, told this reporter she enjoys practicing her English while also learning history. It allows for her to not just learn vocabulary from the American Revolution but also be more confident in speaking English. ​“Everyday she tells us ​‘you can do it’ and helps us to not be afraid to read,” she said of her teacher, Goodwin. 

For the past 11 years that Goodwin has worked at Hillhouse, she has taught sheltered content classes for multilingual learners. Hillhouse has sheltered content courses for all of its core subjects.

This year is the first year Hillhouse has also introduced a Pashto course to help students improve their native language skills in order to learn a second language. That course was also introduced at Cross this year thanks to a partnership with Integrated Refugee & Immigrant Services (IRIS).

On Friday, Hillhouse student Ndella said the U.S History class is her favorite course this year. ​“I like that they ask us how we feel and let us talk about our life so she can understand us,” Ndella said. ​“This class makes U.S history very fun.” 

Her classmate Joseph said the class has inspired him to learn global history beyond the history of Congo, where he learned his first language of French, because of the many new connections he’s made in his classes at Hillhouse, including with students like Ndella, who is from Senegal. ​“I want to know everything, it’s amazing,” Joseph concluded.

Reached for comment Thursday, Hillhouse Principal Antoine Billy told the Independent: ​“Our students at Hillhouse know they will be coming to an environment that cares for them and will protect them. I am confident in my staff in providing such a space for all students, including our students who worry about their livelihood and current situation with the incoming federal government. It is a testament to the core values that I trust my staff to instill in all of our students about what it means to be an ACADEMIC (Accountable, Courageous, Ambitious, Determined, Empowering, Mindful, Integrity, Creative, Selfless).”

He continued, ​“Ms. Goodwin is just an example of all our teachers who are working hard to instill the courage and determination for our students to come to school every day, regardless of the circumstances and to change their lives through education and continuing to dream to be the best every day. At Hillhouse, we ​‘Strive for Greatness” every day.’ ”