A Guide to the R.A.F.T. Writing Strategy Across Content Areas

Why is RAFT writing one of the most effective writing strategies, particularly across all content areas and subjects? Before we share how it enables fluency and purpose, incorporates the elements of effective writing, provides students with a choice that is on grade level, and engages students to explain what they know and elaborate, let’s first talk about how different writing styles contribute to learning and understanding.

How Writing Pulls Back the Curtain

Heard often in classrooms: “I know the answer but I can’t explain it!” The problem here is a student who suffers from messy thinking and the simple answer to clearing that confusion might be writing.

Research has proven that writing crystallizes cloudy thinking, yet teachers often miss opportunities to provide students a venue for becoming aware of what they know and do not know. Another missed opportunity arises from a misunderstanding of types of writers.

What many mistake as writer’s block is actually a block in thinking.

Dianne Boehm simplifies this concept in her book Mozartians, Beethovians, and the Art of Teaching Writing. She describes writers as either Mozartians or Beethovians:

• Beethovians are discoverers who discover what they think during the writing process. They actually generate their ideas as they write. These writers are very messy writers who write in a non-directed way. This writing almost always needs a great deal of revision.
• Mozartians, by contrast, are planners. They mentally compose before they ever put pen to paper, working in a linear way focusing on what comes next. As they write they tend to recall what they know and organize that information as they write. Their revision process isn’t nearly as broad because they have mentally composed, revised, and edited throughout the composition process. 

Either type of writer is using writing in a way that contributes to learning and understanding.

Effective Writing in the Classroom

Regardless of which type of writer you or your students are, the implications are the same. Writing is the ideal vehicle for getting at what students understand and don’t understand. Junior Teague wrote that “nothing is so simple that it cannot be misunderstood.” All teachers have an amusing personal anecdote that illustrates the truth of this statement. The stories lose their humor, however, when we are honest about how much misinformation escapes our notice. Students are gifted at staying below the radar of our formative assessments, but writing pulls back the curtain.

Writing can help content area teachers in their efforts to provide students with opportunities to connect prior knowledge. It provides an ideal vehicle for summarizing strategies that benefit both the student and the teacher with shared insights to understanding. Writing helps students organize their thinking, create new knowledge, and make tentative ideas become permanent ones.

R.A.F.T.: The Best Writing Strategy For All Content Areas

Of course, there are numerous writing strategies to choose from.  However, in my opinion, the best writing strategy is the R.A.F.T. strategy.

Effective writing enables students to write fluently and purposefully for an audience. R.A.F.T. can help you identify and incorporate the elements of effective writing. The R.A.F.T. strategy engages students in explaining what they know about a topic and then elaborating. In addition, it provides students with a choice that is on grade level.

What is the R.A.F.T. Strategy?

The R.A.F.T. stands for:

• Role of the writer 
  • Helps the writer decide on point of view and voice.
• Audience for the piece of writing 
  • Reminds the writer that he must communicate ideas to someone else.
  • Helps the writer determine content and style. 
• Format of the material 
  • Helps the writer organize ideas and employ the conventions of format, such as  letters, interviews, and story problems. 
• Topic of writing 
  • Helps the writer focus on main ideas. 

R.A.F.T. Procedure: 

1. Think about the concepts or processes that you want students to learn as they read a selected passage. Consider how writing in an interesting way may enhance students’ understanding of the topic. 
2. Brainstorm possible roles students could assume in their writing.
3. Decide who the audience would be as well as the format for writing.
4. After students have finished reading, identify the role, audience, format, and topic (RAFT) for the writing. Assign the same role for all students or let them choose from several different roles.

R.A.F.T. Scoring Rubric: 

Table of Contents – R.A.F.T Writing Examples

1^st Grade RAFT Example for English/Language Arts: How to Write a “How To” Paragraph

2^nd Grade RAFT Example for Math: How Do People Pay for Things

2^nd Grade RAFT Example for Science: Lesson on Living Things: Plants

3^rd Grade RAFT Example for English/Language Arts: Charlotte’s Web

• Role: You will assume the role of Wilbur or Charlotte.
• Audience: The audience is “himself” or “herself.”
• Format: In reading this story, we discussed the unusual friendship between a pig named Wilbur and a barn spider named Charlotte. When Wilbur was in danger of being slaughtered by the farmer, Charlotte writes messages praising Wilbur, such as “Some Pig” in her web to persuade the farmer to let him live. The format you will use is a personal journal or diary. Assume or pretend that your chosen character talked things over in his or her head, as the action of the story played out. What was he or she thinking? How did it feel? What did he or she think that the farmer should do? How can you describe these things? When you assume the role of Wilbur or Charlotte, you will be using words to describe how you feel—you will become the character.
• Topic: The actions taken to save Wilbur from slaughter.
• Writing Task: Write a response in which you assume the role of Wilbur or Charlotte. You must decide what you think he or she was thinking and feeling, and then describe it in detail. Use specific references to the text. You should have at least four or more references to the text and at least three quotations. Your response should be at least five paragraphs long.

3^rd Grade RAFT Writing Example for ELA: Character Perspective

5th Grade RAFT Example for Math: Decimal

4th Grade RAFT Example for Science: Astronomy

6^th Grade RAFT Example for Geometry Lesson: Types of Angles

7^th Grade RAFT Writing Example for Science: Invasive Species

8^th Grade RAFT Writing Example for Social Studies: Taxation Without Representation

9^th Grade RAFT Example Lesson on Inference Using John Steinbeck’s, “The Pearl”

• Role: You will assume the role of Juana, wife of Kino in John Steinbeck’s, The Pearl.
• Audience: The audience is “herself.”
• Format: In reading the novel, we considered the “Song of Evil” and the “Song of the Family;” now, you are to create Juana’s “Song to Herself.” The format you will use is a personal journal or diary. Assume or pretend that Juana communicated with herself, talked things over in her head, as the action of the story played out. What was she thinking? How did it feel? What did she think her family should do? Now, how can you describe these things? When you assume the role of Juana, you will be using words to describe how you feel—you will be singing the “Song of Herself.”
• Topic: The time you will use is during the action of The Pearl and speculation on what happened afterward—what did the family do after they threw the “pearl of the world” back into the ocean?
• The Writing Task: Write a response in which you assume the role of Juana, wife of Kino in John Steinbeck’s The Pearl. You must decide what you think she was thinking and feeling, and then describe it in detail. Use specific references to the text. You should have at least seven references to the text and at least three quotations. You must also specifically mention all four of the essential questions, which is cake because Juana is an indigenous female in a sexist and racist culture that was neither fair nor just because those in power—including her husband—used it over the powerless, a group of which she is a member. Your response should be at least two typed double-spaced pages in 12 point font.

9^th Grade RAFT Example for ELA: Analyzing Viewpoints Lesson

Writing Task: There are many views on the use of alcohol and tobacco. They range from those vehemently against it to those who believe there should be no laws regulating it. It is important to be able to see and understand viewpoints different than our own. Although understanding does not mean agreeing, seeing the other side allows us to have a deeper understanding of the complexity of these social issues. Based on the US Health Department video we watched to complete your graphic organizer showing the research findings about short and long term consequences of alcohol and tobacco use, complete two of the following R.A.F.T. assignments. Choose one from A and B, and one from C and D. You will be graded based on the rubric displayed on the front board. Please look over the rubric before you begin.This will give you a clear picture of my expectations for this activity. Your R.A.F.T. will be due tomorrow as you enter the classroom.

10^th Grade RAFT Writing Example for Biology: Photosynthesis

Subject Area Examples

Social Studies

Science

Math

English/Language Arts