Creating a RAFT - A Teaching Strategy

Are your students adrift when it comes to developing their writing skills? Why not throw them a raft!  

Rafting adds excitement to learning!

RAFT is a strategy that helps develop creative writing skills, and helps students practice writing for different audiences.

What is a RAFT?

When writers use RAFT techniques, they look at each element of a sentence and use those elements to create a unique perspective. That perspective helps during creative writing. This is how writers will learn how to write for different audiences.

Consider the letters of the word RAFT:

• R - the role  (are you an astronaut, a kitten, a molecule)
• A - audience (are you addressing  a parent, the principal)
• F - format (journal entry, letter, poem, poster, brochure)
• T - topic (what are you writing about?)

How do we use this strategy?

The best way to introduce this strategy is to use it as a whole class exercise.

1 -  Explain each letter of RAFT to your students as an important element to your writing.

2 -  Offer an example of each element

role: a Revolutionary War soldier

audience: your family at home

format: a letter 

topic: what is happening during the Battle of Bunker Hill

3 -Show a completed sentence after the RAFT elements have been put together

This is the  constructed sentence: 

 As a Revolutionary War soldier, write a letter to your family at home that describes what is happening during the Battle of Bunker Hill.

4 - Give students another example with each element identified, and together with the class construct the sentence.

5 - Now give students the constructed example, and see if they can identify each element of RAFT 

4 - Have students choose one of the constructed examples and complete the activity.

When do we use this strategy?

What you want your students to achieve?

to activate prior knowledge - use RAFT before reading

to engage students during a lesson - use RAFT during reading

to assess content knowledge - use RAFT after reading 

This can be a whole class activity, small group activity or individual activity. You can also offer students a choice of RAFT activities by placing several Roles, Audiences, Formats and Topic options in a table. Use your creativity, but if you are at a loss, simply google RAFT strategy, and you will find lots of examples. I found this example for science journaling from www.readingrockets.org: 

Role	Audience	Format	Topic
Plant parts	Plant	Picture	We’re made for each other
Roots	Stem, flower,  leaf, seeds	Letter	You’d be lost without me
Flower	Stem, flower,  leaf, seeds	Ad	I’m more than just a pretty face

Have fun rafting! 

  Queen Bee