#teacherblogs

Feel like drowning when students don’t seem to like writing? Get on a R.A.F.T.

I have been teaching for a while, but each year, I try to do something different depending on the general vibe I get with my students. I feel blessed that my 5th-7th grade students like English/Language Arts enough that they’re willing to actually write stories, paragraphs, etc.

I did some research, and one of the books my principal got from her brother is about writing and there I found this thing called R.A.F.T.

R.A.F.T. or R.A.F.T.S stand for Role, Audience, Form(at), Topic, and Strong verb. It is a way for the students to write in different voices (role)—depending on the audience—in different formats.

I’ve noticed that my students don’t have their writing voice developed yet, so I introduced this method with them. Well, they had so much fun writing that one of them kept asking if we can do R.A.F.T.S. again. It wasn’t perfect the first time, though, as some still not getting that to write to an audience of kids doesn’t mean your writing and thoughts are all over the place.

My latest “official” writing assignment with them is due today. I’ve only read their paragraph writing at a glance while they did the peer reviews the other day. I have yet to see if they finally understand to get the “writer voice” but I’m not holding my breath. =)