Summary of Article's First 150 Words

Total word count: 2625

As a group of children walked slowly around the block near our school, they stopped often to look up at the tall trees in the neighborhood. Each time Ella came to a new tree she would reach her arms in the air, forming them into either a triangular or circular shape. "Look," her teacher said to the rest of the group, "Ella's noticing the shape of the tree branches. She's showing us that some trees are shaped more like triangles and some more like circles. Isn't that right?" Ella nodded. Other children began forming shapes with their arms as well, following Ella's lead.

At first glance there may not seem to be anything remarkable about this vignette, but for Ella something very special was happening. She was learning that she could communicate her observations about the world around her in a way that was interesting to other children. And ...