Creative Alternatives in #Writing

Are you looking for alternatives that incorporate writing but are more creative and rigorous?  Try the RAFT Strategy.

Perhaps you would like your students to write a paragraph about the solar system (the topic you have been teaching in class). This is a standard, lower-level assignment that requires students to restate or summarize the information that you have covered. We can increase the rigor and teach point of view using the RAFT strategy (Santa, Havens, & Macumber, 1996). RAFT stands for role, audience, format, and topic. Using this strategy, students assume a role, such as an astronaut, and write from that perspective to a more authentic audience, such as a people who read his online blog. In this case, students are required to understand the topic at a higher level in order to complete the task.

                                                RAFT Examples

Role	Audience	Format	Topic
White Blood Cell	Red Blood Cell	Romantic Letter	I Will Keep You Safe
Prepositional Phrase	Author	Persuasive Speech	How I Can Help You Express Yourself
Lawyer	US Supreme Court	Appeal Speech	Dred Scott Decision
Chef	Television Audience	Script	Wonders of eggs
Treble Clef	Students	Commercial	Purpose

A terrific example of RAFT in Action for math classrooms is found in this article.  It's really a great way to motivate students and engage them in understanding math concepts.