I first learned about RAFT writing assignments during EDT 446 (Content Literacy). RAFT is an acronym – it stands for Role, Audience, Format, and Topic. RAFT writings are great way for students to, creatively, demonstrate their comprehension of a certain topic.
Some examples of RAFT writings I assigned to my Biology class were:
DNA/Mitosis (Role = DNA molecule in a skin cell, Audience = Ms. Smith’s Biology class, F = Letter, Topic = What happens to you, a DNA molecule, during the cell cycle.) This was a great activity for students to demonstrate comprehension of what occurs to the DNA within the cell during mitosis. It was also a great assessment tool for me to see who actually understood what was going on with DNA as opposed to describing a step-by-step essay of what happens during each phase of mitosis that is in any textbook.
mRNA/Protein Synthesis (Role = mRNA, Audience =voters, F = campaign poster/script to a campaign commercial, Topic = Why you, mRNA, should be elected as the United Protein Synthesizers and everything that you currently do in the process of protein synthesis). Some students got really creative with this and ended up turning in some great campaign posters :).
While RAFT writing assignments aren’t the “cure all” to demonstrating comprehension of a concept, it is definitely a great alternative to a traditional essay which requires students to simply restate the textbook or notes.
Teacher’s Favorite: My favorite part of RAFT Writing Assignments are how useful they are to give to students when you’ve run out of things planned for the day. We all know that sometimes students take much less time than you allotted for an activity and you need to think on your feet and come up with something. RAFT writings are simple to conceptualize and great activity to assign to students as an alternative to a unit essay or in a moment’s notice as a homework/classwork assignment.
– Ashley Smith
thescienceteacher 