how to do a raft writing assignment

Using the RAFT Writing Strategy

About this Strategy Guide

This strategy guide introduces the RAFT technique and offers practical ideas for using this technique to teach students to experiment with various perspectives in their writing.

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Strategy in practice, related resources.

The more often students write, the more proficient they become as writers.  RAFT is a writing strategy that helps students understand their role as a writer and how to effectively communicate their ideas and mission clearly so that the reader can easily understand everything written.  Additionally, RAFT helps students focus on the audience they will address, the varied formats for writing, and the topic they'll be writing about. By using this strategy, teachers encourage students to write creatively, to consider a topic from multiple perspectives, and to gain the ability to write for different audiences. In the book, Strategic Writing , Deborah Dean explains that writing for differing purposes and audiences may require using different genres, different information, and different strategies. Developing a sense of audience and purpose in writing, in all communication, is an important part of growth as a writer.

RAFT assignments encourage students to uncover their own voices and formats for presenting their ideas about content information they are studying.  Students learn to respond to writing prompts that require them to think about various perspectives:

• R ole of the Writer: Who are you as the writer? A movie star? The President? A plant?
• A udience: To whom are you writing? A senator?  Yourself? A company?
• F ormat: In what format are you writing? A diary entry? A newspaper?  A love letter?
• T opic: What are you writing about?

Santa, C., Havens, L., & Valdes, B. (2004). Project CRISS : Creating Independence through Student-owned Strategies . Dubuque, IA: Kendall Hunt.

Dean, Deborah. 2006. Strategic Writing: The Writing Process and Beyond in the Secondary English Classroom . Urbana, IL: NCTE.

• Explain to your students the various perspectives writers must consider when completing any writing assignment.  Examples of different roles, audiences, formats, and topics can be found in a list of Picture Book RAFTs by Doug Fisher and Nancy Frey .
• For instance, if students are reading To Kill a Mockingbird , you may have students respond to the issues in the story as various characters to different audiences in multiple formats.
• Have a class think-aloud to come up with ideas for the piece of writing that you will create as a group.  Model on a whiteboard, overhead projector, or chart paper how you would write in response to the prompt.  Allow student input and creativity as you craft your piece of writing.
• Give students another writing prompt (for which you have already chosen the role, audience, format, and topic) and have students react to the prompt either individually or in small groups. It works best if all students follow the same process so the students can learn from the varied responses of their classmates.
• Choose a few students to read their RAFT aloud.  Have a class discussion about how each student created their own version of the RAFT while using the same role, audience, format, and topic.
• As students become comfortable in reacting to RAFT prompts, give students a list of options for each component and let them choose their role, audience, format, and topic.
• Eventually, students may choose a role, audience, format, and topic entirely on their own.  Varied prompts allow students to compare and contrast multiple perspectives, deepening their understanding of the content when shared.
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RAFT Writing

The RAFT strategy encourages students to write creatively, consider a topic from a different perspective, and to gain practice writing for different audiences.

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RAFT is a writing strategy that helps students understand their role as a writer, the audience they will address, the varied formats for writing, and the topic they’ll be writing about. 

• R ole of the Writer: Who are you as the writer? A pilgrim? A soldier? The President?
• A udience: To whom are you writing? A political rally? A potential employer?
• F ormat: In what format are you writing? A letter? An advertisement? A speech?
• T opic: What are you writing about?

Why use the RAFT strategy?

Students must think creatively and critically in order to respond to prompts, making RAFT a unique way for students to apply critical thinking skills about new information they are learning. RAFT writing can be used across disciplines as a universal writing approach.

How to create and use the strategy

• Walk students through the acronym RAFT and why it’s important to consider various perspectives when completing any writing assignment.
• Display a RAFT writing prompt to your class and model how you would write in response to the prompt.
• Have students react to another writing prompt individually, or in small groups. It works best if all students react to the same prompt so the class can learn from each other’s responses.
• As students become comfortable in reacting to RAFT prompts, you can create more than one prompt for students to respond to after reading, a lesson, or a unit of study. Varied prompts allow students to compare and contrast multiple perspectives, deepening their understanding of the content.

Sample RAFT prompts

R:  Citizen A:  Congress F:  Letter T:  Taxation

R:  Scout Finch  A:  Community of Monroeville, Alabama F:  Eulogy for Atticus Finch T:  Social Inequality

Strategy in action

For more RAFT prompts, review Doug Fisher and Nancy Frey’s compiled list of Picture Book RAFT prompts . You may also find a RAFT scoring rubric and additional RAFT examples helpful as you implement the RAFT strategy in your class. Now, let’s watch as a teacher uses the RAFT writing strategy in her science class.

Tips for success

• It’s important for students to learn how their writing may change for different perspectives. It’s helpful to show students examples of writings on the same topic and format but with different roles of the writer or audience.
• Once students are fluent using the RAFT strategy, they can take any topic and choose the role, audience, and format on their own.

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RAFT Writing

I first heard of RAFT writing several years ago as a strategy for students to show their content knowledge beyond just writing reports.  Most of the suggestions for use have been in upper grades classrooms, especially in middle school and high school.  It’s also a common format for writing in content areas to have students demonstrate their understanding of the topic that has been learned- often as a product at the end of the unit. RAFT Writing has students respond when the Role, Audience, Format, and Topic are laid out for students to do their writing, often showcasing their content knowledge.  It’s also a great tool to help teachers write prompts for those content areas.

Over the years, however, I’ve used RAFT as a writing strategy for analyzing prompts in elementary school with students as young as first grade.  RAFT has allowed me to give students experience and exposure with various writing types, build in creative writing into our writing centers, and give students a tool to use for state testing to analyze the prompts their given and respond appropriately.

RAFT is an acronym identifying the four aspects of a writing prompt:

R- Role (who is the character/narrator and their point of view)

A- audience (who is the writing for), f- format (what type of writing is expected), t- topic (what you are writing about).

Examples of RAFT in content areas could be: ~Write an article as if you were a water droplet going through the water cycle.

~Write a story as a water droplet going through the water cycle.

~Pretend you are a child in 1774 in what will eventually be America. Describe what your life is like.

RAFT Writing is commonly used as essay responses at the end of units to measure students’ content knowledge.  It’s also used in more open ended ways allowing for differentiation; the role and audience may be the only pieces given and students are able to choose the format and specific topic.  Or, students are given the topic and format, but can choose their role and the audience.  This is most often done in intermediate classrooms and higher as the focus is on the subject and content that has been taught, and not on the writing itself.

I’ve used RAFT as a strategy in other ways in my elementary classroom, and with other classes and groups of students, with good success.

RAFT Writing in the Primary Grades

I have used RAFT Writing with students as young as first grade as a way of building creative writing. In first grade I introduce it by explaining each of the components.  We then generate, together, several different items for each component. We generally do about 4-6 and often use students in the class or people in the school as the role and audience. This helps make the task relevant to students. We then roll a dice to choose which item from each category we’ll use.  We do a shared writing of it together, the first time. Then, we select another for the students to complete independently.  After students are familiar with RAFT and how it can be used to generate a writing task, I use my RAFT Writing cards as an option during our centers to build students’ creative writing.

RAFT Writing as a Test Prep Strategy

I also really like using RAFT as a test prep strategy.  On the state tests, students are given an on-the-spot prompt to respond to.  Often, it’s in response to reading, and students are expected to respond from a range of genres.  In my experience, students struggle to identify the proper genre to respond to or miss out on other key pieces of information, such as writing from a character’s perspective.  With my third graders, it’s so important to me that they have a strategy to “attack” a difficult task that is given to them.  RAFT is a strategy that can make them break down the prompt and help them feel ready to respond successfully.

We do our main writing work during our writers workshop four days a week. However, one day a week, we do specific RAFT practice. I begin the year doing various narrative writing tasks with RAFT, though I introduce it with examples of all 3 genres. I want my students to be successful with it so I don’t typically do much of the other genres until we have explicitly done them together. However, I will occasionally do something like a how-to, or something opinion based that I know they have strong feelings about. Our weekly RAFT practice gives my students an opportunity to work through the genres in a more spiral way than we typically do during writers workshop. It also allows me to continue to do focused lessons on specific strategies I want to see in their writing.  This pre-writing step has made a world of difference for my students as they tackle the demands of state testing writing prompts!

After I’ve introduced and practiced RAFT with my students, we begin analyzing prompts. Using the strategy to think through and plan writing with the acronym is why it’s so effective and useful. This easy form is one I use when I begin having students independently analyze their writing prompts.  I have students identify each area of RAFT and then I work to correct any misconceptions.  You can download the free page by clicking the image below.

I also offer a variety of free RAFT writing resources in my free library. As we practice RAFT throughout the year, we move on to students writing based on the the prompt information. These printables and templates have us up and working with a prompt in just a few quick seconds. I have 5 ready to print digital RAFT prompts ready to go!

You can download each of them from my Free Library. To access it, sign up for my newsletter. After confirmation, you’ll receive an email with the link and password to access each of the files for yourself.

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RAFT is such a useful writing strategy that can be incorporated in so many different ways in the classroom.  In addition to our writing block, I also use digital prompt writing and journals to give students much needed practice responding to prompts on a regular basis.  You can read more about that by clicking the link below.

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I'd done it often in 4th grade, but not with much success in 2 nd. They have so much trouble, it seems, with " role" ( writing from that perspective) . I do love the format and the creativity it allows.

I started with silly ones like kindergartener. They were so excited to write with incorrect spelling and backwards letters. I let them do it once, but then they got it! Maybe it's also a developmental shift for them right about that age.

Cute idea! (You know that this is Debi, don't you, not Kelley? I can't figure out how to get her name off the account.)

Yes, I just figured you were on the wrong account 🙂

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How I Successfully Used the RAFT Strategy

RAFT strategy?  What is that?  It is a strategy that can be used in any subject area.  RAFT stands for Role/Audience/Format/Topic, and writing from this aspect will provide students the opportunity to write from a perceptive that shows a better understanding and a higher level in their writing (Blackburn 56).  I read about this strategy while reading Rigor Is Not a Four-Letter Word by Barbara R. Blackburn.  I immediately used this strategy in the fall with my career exploration classes, and students were engaged and able to complete the task. I used this strategy again with my spring career exploration classes, and students were eager to begin this strategy.  The RAFT strategy is a great strategy to assess the student’s knowledge of the lesson you taught.

                Last fall, I instructed the whole class that they were to prepare a brochure on the topic of stress and how to relieve stress for high school students.  Their role was a high school counselor developing a  brochure for 8 th -9 th grade students.  I showed them a model of what was expected and a rubric.  Students had two class periods to complete the tasks and were allowed to use articles and worksheets we used for the topic of stress.  This strategy worked well. The information was correct and informative.  One negative was the design of the brochure.  I work at an art school, and many of the artists are perfectionists.  Although they were given two days and encouraged to work on it at home, they did not finish the artwork. 

                This semester, I deleted the artwork for the RAFT strategy.  Last week, I posted five RAFT worksheets around the classroom.  Students were instructed to write a 75-word speech or letter about work ethic skills.  They were given a rubric for this assignment and discussed the expectations for this assignment in a think-pair-share mode.  I gave students three minutes to walk around the classroom and decide on their RAFT assignment.  I was impressed and shocked by the engagement of the students.  Students quickly chose an assignment and began writing.  Students were discussing which RAFT was better and they started working.  Each class was given 15 minutes to write and instructed to finish it over the weekend. 

I walked around the room to observe students working, and most of the students chose to be the parent or teacher.  The students were adding the 7 As of work ethic skills (attitude, attendance, appearance, ambition, acceptance, appreciation, and accountability) and explaining each skill.  According to Blackburn, “when students are asked to write for a genuine purpose and audience, they tend to complete the assignment more effectively” (56).  I witnessed passion when they were writing because they decided their role and what they wanted to express when writing about the 7 As.   In each class, I gave the opportunity for four-five students to read their RAFT aloud.  I was impressed by how they wrote from their roles. Not only did I provide rigor to the assignment, but also differentiation instruction.  Students chose the area where they were strong and were able to produce successful pieces.  Also, students were writing more than 75 words because they knew they would write more and elaborate on the topic. 

                In conclusion, the RAFT strategy provides rigor and differential instruction because students are able to show what they know and write to an authentic audience.  This strategy can be used for every subject, including math.  I saw a math teacher making copies of a RAFT form for her class. My students appeared to be more engaged and eager to write from a different perspective.  I asked my students if they had ever completed a RAFT, and they quickly said no and continued to work on their assignment.  It’s those moments that make me passionate about students learning and teaching. 

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William S. Jewett (1821–1873) The Promised Land – The Grayson Family , 1850 Oil on canvas 50 3/4 x 64 in. (128.9 x 162.6 cm) Terra Foundation for American Art, Daniel J. Terra Collection, 1999.79

Graphic Organizer: RAFT (Role, Audience, Format, Topic) Writing Strategies

Using raft writing strategies with artworks.

The RAFT (Role, Audience, Format, Topic) writing strategy, developed by Santa, Havens, and Valdes [1] , helps students understand their role as a writer and communicate their ideas clearly by developing a sense of audience and purpose in their writing. Works of art are rich sources of ideas and details for narrative and other kinds of writing. This RAFT strategy lends itself to use with works of art and to helping students develop their ideas and organize their approach before they begin to write.

In the example below, we added “questions to answer” to the RAFT matrix as a way to help students think through the components of this activity.

Download this material as a pdf for classroom use here .

RAFT activity: The Promised Land—The Grayson Family

Directions for teachers:

• Introduce students to the painting The Promised Land—The Grayson Family (or another work of art for which information is available). Have students read about it and discuss the story it tells.
• Show examples of ideas for the RAFT based on The Promised Land .
• Next, project the table below on the board. Ask students to pick a role from the chart, and identify an audience, format, topic, and questions for their written piece to answer.
• Give students a copy of the Role Development Chart worksheet  and have them complete it before they begin writing.

Ideas to get students started on their RAFT:

Audience: family member, friend back home, friend already living in the West, foreigner considering moving to America, oneself (diary), museum

Format: letter, newspaper story, song, poem, diary entry, advertisement poster, caption

Topic: traveling to California, the difference between home and the West, the land/resources of the West, hunting, setting up camp

Questions: How do I feel about my journey? What do we do next? Where will we live? What challenges do I face?

Role Development Chart

Before writing your piece take time to put yourself into the role you have selected. Think deeply about who you are in this role and what you want to include from your reading to make your writing credible. What perspective will you have on the issue you think is most important?

[1] Santa, C., Havens, L., & Valdes, B. (2004). Project CRISS: Creating Independence through Student-owned Strategies. Dubuque, IA: Kendall Hunt.

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HistoryRewriter

Raft writing prompts.

Graham & Herbert demonstrate the necessity of daily writing activities in Social Studies content classes. My students demonstrate their understanding of History standards via MEAL and RAFT writing assignments. As a general rule, a MEAL prompt is designed to help students analyze evidence to support an argument, while a RAFT prompt requires students to inform/explain a historical topic to an audience. This post will feature examples from an 11th grade US History class. See Dare to Differentiate’s wiki for more examples and instructions.

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 and 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 or subject of the piece of writing – helps the writer focus on main ideas.

For this in-class writing assignment, students chose one out of four RAFT writing prompts. Students were allowed to use the book to complete this assignment, in fact it was designed to help them read the text. After a certain amount of time usually 20 minutes, students swapped papers, read each other’s work, then underlined the number of facts from the book included in the RAFT and reported out those numbers. I used this as a goal-setting strategy and it may or may not be used a factor when grading.

You are a 1950’s Police Officer warning a white church group about the dangers of Juvenile Delinquency.

You are a farmer, in favor of the Bracero program. Write a letter to your Congressman persuading him to continue the program, even though the American public is against it.

You are an African American inner-city resident speaking to the NAACP about the assistance needed for the city’s poorest residents.

RAFT assignments can be used regularly to get students writing about texts, responding to texts, and summarizing texts. As a bonus, these writing assignments all have a significant correlation with improving reading comprehension. Please share examples of RAFT prompts, noting the grade level and subject it was used for in the comments section.

Fisher, D., Brozo, W.G., Frey, N., & Ivey, G. (2011). Fifty Instructional Routines to Develop Content Literacy . 2nd Ed. Pearson. Boston, MA.

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I have used these in my classes to a great extent and written about it: http://worldhistoryconnected.press.illinois.edu/7.3/gregg.html

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Example of a Raft Writing Strategy

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Rafts (Role, Audience, Format, Topic, Strong action words) are a composing strategy that urges academicians to consider their job as writers, the crowd for whom they will compose, and different composing styles.

Show a completed RAFT writing example on the overhead projector.

Use simple examples to illustrate each of these: purpose, target, format, and topic

Demonstrate how to create replies to the questions and lead a discussion about the essential components with the class.

Students should practice responding to prompts in small groups or on their own.

RAFT writing includes writing from a range of viewpoints.

• It aids students in the development of critical writing skills such as audience, primary theme, and organization.
• It asks students to respond to the following prompts in order to encourage them to think about writing in new ways:
• Writer’s Role: As a writer, who or what are you? Are you a pilgrim? Or a soldier? Or a President?
• Who is your intended audience for your writing? Is it a friend? Teacher? Or a newspaper reader?
• What is the theme of the paper you are writing in? Is that a letter, or something else? Is it a poem or a prose piece? Is there going to be a speech?
• The following is a topic with a strong verb: So, what exactly are you writing about? Why? What exactly is the point, or what is the topic?
• It can be applied to a wide range of assignment topics.
• Students improve as writers when they write more frequently.
• RAFT is a writing approach that educates students to realize their position as writers and to express their thoughts and mission to the reader in such a way that everything they write is clear.
• RAFT writing technique also helps students focus on the audience they’ll be writing for, as well as the numerous writing genres and topics they’ll be writing about.
• Teachers may use this method to encourage students to write creatively, explore many views on a topic, and write for a variety of audiences.
• Writing for distinct aims and audiences may entail the use of varied genres, material, and strategies, according to Deborah Dean in her book Strategic Writing.

Scholars are aiming to improve their writing by including and clarifying additional evidence.

They can use the RAFT writing format to help them do this.

“Restate The Prompt or Query” is an acronym for R

“Answer The Question” is represented by the letter A.

“Find and explain the evidence” is what the letter F stands for.

T is for tying up the loose ends of your writing.

Santa, Havens, and Valdes established the RAFT writing technique (Function, Audience, Format, Topic) to assist students to understand their role as writers and convey their ideas clearly by creating a sense of audience and purpose in their writing.

When writing or reading material, RAFT Education teaches students to think about significant themes.

It should be used to handle the essential writing principles; this technique is a “complete/one-stop” strategy.

With illustrations, explain each prompt.

Select a passage from The Tempe stand and invite your students to perform a writing project based on the prompts using the RAFT writing technique.

Students can now use the prompts to assist them in writing more creatively.

When the students have completed their writing, they can read it to the rest of the class.

This will show all of the different stories told by the pupils.

It allows children to practice creative writing while simultaneously helping them grasp the books they’re reading.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you go about using the raft strategy.

Ans: The stages for a Raft writing strategy are as follows:

• They should be conscious of their obligations as a writer.
• Consider a writing topic and look at it from several perspectives.
• Consider the target audience/reader and the information that needs to be conveyed.
• Examine the many types and styles of writing that are most appropriate for the job.

What is the RAFT approach, and how does it work?

Ans: The RAFT writing (role, audience, format, and task) approach may be utilized to educate in an interactive and cooperative manner. RAFT is a way to assure that students are aware of their position as authors, their intended audience, the format of their writing, and the information that should be included.

What is the purpose of a raft?

Ans: Use the following hypothetical exercise to describe and discuss the fundamental components of RAFTS: Students are assigned a role that determines the tone of their work. Because of the audience, students are concentrating on the impact of word choice and precise subtleties. Format – may be tailored to a student’s specific interests or abilities. The RAFTs Writing Technique (Santa, 1988) is a technique that teaches students about their job as writers, the audience for whom they will write, the various writing forms, and the material they will write about.

What are the benefits of using writing prompts?

Ans: The benefit of using writing prompts is that a writing prompt’s objective is to pique a student’s interest in a topic and urge them to write thoughtfully and creatively about it. While a good prompt introduces and limits the writing topic, it should also include specific directions on how to complete the assignment.

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RAFTs – Differentiated for Learner Success

by John McCarthy | May 5, 2014 | Differentiated Instruction , strategies , Writing | 1 comment

In the previous two articles, we explored RAFTs (Role, Audience, Format, and Topic + Strong Verb) as an instructional strategy , and how to use RAFTs for coaching writers on writing . RAFTs can ignite engagement and context for learning. Planned with forethought, students can explore a need or problem that exists in the world beyond the classroom walls. An important consideration is: How do I differentiate RAFTs to support my diverse learners? The solution is simple, yet has layers of possibilities when implemented based on an understanding of your students.

Interests are activated by giving students several options to choose from. Take this even further by having a blank option—allowing for students to craft their own RAFTs based on the topic–a great way to foster Student Voice.

Readiness : Differentiating RAFTs based on Readiness requires the most planning, which results in worthwhile learner experiences. Sometimes students have different levels of a skill or concept. One to two prompts are crafted to match the academic level of each group of students. Having more than one prompts encourages student interests because they have choices. Prompts are assigned based on formative assessment data . The learners, individually or in groups, work at the RAFTs that will stretch them appropriately.

• RAFTing the Writing Rapids
• RAFTs: Coaching Writing Tips

Very motivational.

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