Using R.A.C.E Writing Strategy

So it goes without saying that when teachers, regardless of content area, give students a short response or free response question, we expect a minimum paragraph response. One sentence is not going to hack it!

Teachers worldwide have struggled with getting students to do more than a one-sentence answer for our questions that required some sort of insight. With that said, teachers also expected depth in the responses. Not just some half-baked, “let me just jot an idea down” on a paper kind of answer. That has not happened.

Likewise, I’m sure students have been frustrated in giving the teacher exactly the quality of work they need and therefore getting the good grades they deserve.

It is with this in mind that teachers have realized that the R.A.C.E Writing strategy (or as I call it The Writing Mantra) works well for these moments.

Once students figure out what this is and how it works, they realize writing and responding to comprehensive questions and free response questions on exams are not so hard. What is R.A.C.E?

Let’s delve deeper.

R.A.C.E. is an acronym for Restate the Question, Answer the Question, Cite Evidence, and Explain with Examples. This prompts students to complete short responses with longer, more in-depth comprehensive answers.

It is basically a template/graphic organizer/guide or model for struggling writers to construct paragraphs, and eventually, essays.

Here’s what the acronym R.A.C.E. stands for:

RESTATE the Question: Borrow words from the prompt that you may need to use. One way to do this is to restate the question into a statement. Away from being able to paraphrase, students will be able to prove they understood the question if they can rephrase it into a statement. Next, students should scratch out the QUESTION WORDS such as How is…Why…Could…Should…Is…Can…etc.

ANSWER the Question: Identify all the parts of a question. Some questions may have multiple parts you will have to answer. Remind students that if after they’ve restated the question and now know what is means, and they have a response, they’re almost done; this was the aim all along – getting students to answer the question. They just have to make it more comprehensive and in-depth.

Also, because some questions have multiple parts, students need to search for the tasks to complete the question accurately. For example, look for words like and, also, this could be…or…, etc.

CITE the Evidence: Prove it! Where’s the proof of what your answer is from the text? Identify the parts of the text that will help you to answer the question. This textual evidence needs to be quality, sound information that backs up whatever you claim the answer is. Students need to practice finding and using the right support for their answers.

Remind students that evidence cannot stand on its own, so you must introduce it to your readers.

Use signal phrases to “signal” that evidence is coming next. For example, use phrases like:  (1) According to the text, (2) In [name of text], the author…(3) [Author] proves this by stating…(4) [Author] states…etc.

Explain Your Answer...Using Examples: Now, what does all this mean? What is the author trying to say? What are you trying to say? This is where students try to make sense of the question and their answer. They can do this by using examples from their background knowledge, common knowledge, society, the news, other classes, their school life, etc.

Remind them to use TRANSITIONS OR CONJUNCTIVE ADVERBS to set off your examples. Words and phrases like: Indeed, for example, to illustrate, and others.

In the end: R.A.C.E. puts together all the different components of a paragraph, so essentially, they must now WRITE the paragraph. Now they have thought through or completed the provided chart [see below]; now, combine the parts to make the whole.

Educators everywhere will notice the improvement in free response answers (FRQs), as students R.A.C.E towards getting amazing points on their paper.

If you need help with figuring out what this will look like, check out the FREE product below.