Iremember the class clearly. It was my second year of teaching seventh-grade science, and my students and I were about to begin a unit on cell organelles and their functions. Although I wanted students to have as many handson experiences as possible, there came a time when they need more information than a lab could provide. As I asked students to pull out their textbooks, I heard a collective groan, but I was determined to remain positive. I put on my brightest smile, began explaining the project and made sure students understood the purpose for reading and what type of information we were looking for. We read the first paragraph together, and I modeled summarizing the important information and adding it to the brightly colored, foldable flaps in students' lab notebooks. Students read the next paragraph as a group, and when we stopped to review, students seemed to have all the right information. I assumed they were ready to begin on their own.
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