A. Ragnauth: Expanding the Frame

SORRY! I didn’t mean to startle you, I was just referencing Drake’s album cover that I used as my do now this week. If You’re Reading This Its Too Late was the perfect opener for my lesson. This bold and unique handwritten cover automatically caught the attention of all my students as they walked into my room. Many also immediately recognized the pop culture reference to Drake. This is how every lesson should start, something attention grabbing and thought provoking. Chapter 9 in On Writing Well, Zinsser says ” The most important sentence in any article is the first one. If it doesn’t induce the reader to proceed to the second sentence, your article is dead” (54). The first sentence is expected to hook readers, just like do nows are expected to hook students.

Sometimes, creating a strong do now takes longer than creating the actual lesson. Do nows can’t be too simple else students will get bored, but they also can’t be too complicated else students are going to be confused and be lost before the lesson even starts. You have to find the middle ground that’ll get students engaged and peak their interest. Drake’s album cover allowed us to do exactly that. We examined the typography, colors, and the tone of the album cover. We spoke about the songs in this album and how the album art aligns to them. This allowed students to have a clear model to refer back to when they completed their assignment later in class. It also made them much more engaged as it was relevant to them allowing them to feel connected to the lesson.

While the start of a lesson is important, the end of one is as well. The do now set the flow of our lesson and the activity reinforced their understanding of the design principles we spoke on. As students analyzed album covers on their own, it was clear they used our do now as a guide for how to break down an album cover. They reflected on different design choices and the meanings that came with each choice. The end of the lesson made it possible to students to fully comprehend the work they completed, from start to finish.

Ultimately, the reading this week reinforced my belief in do nows, as I now compare teaching to writing. A strong do now will set the tone of my lesson and determine its success, the same way a strong start or Headlines (get it? *Drake*) in writing will either engage a reader or lose them.