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Anne- I am not sure that we disagree on our interpretations of the article, "At the Drawing Board."

I believe that having students draw can "zero in on things" that might be difficult to put in words and also "zero in on things that words might conceal." For the former, I found that after the act of creating drawings of the word I chose to describe how I felt about science and the word I chose to describe how my students felt, I more easily found the words to explain to my audience the meaning of those chosen words to me. The latter I have experienced in assessing the models of the cell made by my Grade 7 biology students. Their 3-D models speak volumes about their understanding of the relationships among the parts of the cell and the functions of these parts. The stated goal of the assignment is to create a learning tool for themselves that can also function as a teaching tool for someone who has not studied the cell. We set up the classroom as a museum to enable all students to view one anothers' models. The goal of the assignment for me is to assess each student's understanding. I write an evaluation for each model as feedback to the student. In this way, I can help each student to get the story less wrong.

When I posted the link to the article, I had been struct by the reference to the "literature about the misconceptions people get from illustrations." I have experienced this with both my Grade 7 and AP Biology students. Last school year, one of my seniors insisted that her answer to a multiple choice test question I marked wrong was, in fact, correct. As always, I took her statement seriously, and we met after class. We checked the question together. Based on my answer sheet and understanding, I still found her answer to be wrong. I told her I was open to discussion, and so she opened the textbook to show me the diagram that would support her answer. I asked her to explain the diagram. Clearly, she had misinterpreted it. I admitted that I could see how she might have come to her understanding, i.e., got the story wrong and guided her through a different way of looking at the diagram to get the story less wrong. We also read out-loud through the text that led to the diagram. She had not read it carefully and missed some of the clues that might have prevented the error.

I was happy to share the article as it referred to Felice Frankel. Several years ago I attended a lecture by her at MIT. Professionally, she began as a landscape photographer. Through a series of interactions, she began helping life and materials scientists to create photomicrographs. Many of her equisite photomicrographs have appeared on the cover of Science. She is held in high esteem by the science faculty at MIT and elsewhere.