Just Get to the Activity

Smagorinsky's section, Extended Definition of Good Literature (56), connects in part with one of the classes my cooperating teacher let me teach this week. Smagorinsky explains that this assignment is a good way for students to reflect on what distinguishes good literature from bad, and think about how specifically they might make these distinctions. He suggests the possibility of "starting with the evaluation of things with which the students are familiar: the qualities that distinguish a good Mexican restaurant from a bad one, a good hip-hop artist from a bad one, a good hair salon from a bad one." (58) This struck me as a great lesson in frontloading, by beginning with concepts that are more closely aligned with student contexts before introducing the activity. I felt that in one of the classes I taught, such an idea would work well for a lesson on foreshadowing, instances of which students would point out in a Stephen King short story called The Man Who Loved Flowers. To frontload, I would have students briefly brainstorm recollections in which foreshadowing was used in things they read or movies they saw, then have them share. Although the students shared great examples from their own experience, and demonstrated that they knew the concept well, I wondered if the frontload portion was completely necessary.

Later, I reflected to my cooperating teacher, Steve, that it seemed as though the students knew what foreshadowing was without doing the frontloading activity. He explained that this may have been true, and that at times they are ready to just get to the activity sooner rather than later.

Although I have always considered frontloading to be a crucial component throughout my coursework in the program, I take this experience as a lesson that perhaps at times it is completely necessary, and other times not so much. Is it better to first gain an understanding of the skill level of the students before frontloading, or to frontload to some extent in any case for good measure? Teaching this class also made me more aware of how valuable each one of those 50 minutes are. Because time is often of the essence in teaching, perhaps frontloading is a tool to be used more selectively, especially if students are already adequately prepared to solve the task at hand.