RAFT

After Reading Strategy
Created by Nancy Vandervanter in Adler 1982

RAFT Papers give students a fresh way to think about approaching their writing. They are a nice middle ground between standard, boring essays and creative writing. They also can be the way to bring together students' understanding of main ideas, organization, and elaboration. RAFT Papers have four main components and students should consider each in planning their essay:

• Role of the Writer
Who are you as the writer? Are you Malcolm X? A Black Panther member? A student? A government official? A police officer from the south?
• Audience
To whom are you writing? Is your audience the American people? A friend? Your teacher? Readers of a newspaper? A speaker at a national conference?
• Format
What form will the writing take? Is it a letter? A classified ad? A speech? A poem?
• Topic
What's the subject or the point of this piece? Is it to the national government to provide equal protection under the law? To plead to a jury? To call for stricter regulations racist offenders?

This strategy should be used after a reading. In this unit it will be used after Lesson 1 on Marcus Garvey and students will be assigned a writer, audience, etc.according to their reading and learning ability. Feel free to allow your students to creatively choose writer, audience, format, and topic.

Download and Print a RAFT Concept Map

Return to Pathfinder.