What is RAFTS?

RAFTS stands for Role + Audience + Format + Topic + Strong Verbs/Words. It is a flexible writing structure that can be used across various curricular areas and different learning contexts. RAFTS allows students to demonstrate “what they know” at an applied level, where either teachers or students can design the format of the writing to create a unique project. It can be used in narrative, informative, or argumentative writing contexts.

Tips on How to Use RAFTS:

Teachers: Come prepared with a topic in mind when using this writing method, as well as an understanding of the writing parameters. You can guide students through several RAFTS writing exercises to build their familiarity with the strategy before using it for a summative writing assessment.

Students: RAFTS can be used by independent, experienced writers, though younger students or those still developing their writing skills may benefit from guided practice and modeling to maximize the effectiveness of the strategy.

Strategy in Practice:

  1. Introduce the concept of different perspectives: Explain to your students the various perspectives they need to consider when completing a writing assignment. Discuss the different roles, audiences, formats, and topics.
  2. Collaborative creation of a class RAFT: Decide on a current area of study in your classroom and collaborate with students to create a class RAFT. Discuss the basic premise of the content, but allow students to help choose the role, audience, format, and topic. Which connects to the teacher UVic competency 5)  practise effective communication appropriate to the context and audience, enabling responsiveness to diversities of learners.
  3. Class think-aloud: Lead a class think-aloud to generate ideas for the piece of writing you will create as a group.
  4. Prompt students to respond: Give students another writing prompt (with a pre-determined role, audience, format, and topic). Have students react to the prompt individually or in small groups. It’s most effective if all students follow the same process, so they can learn from each other’s responses. Which connects to the teacher UVic competency
    7)  practise working collaboratively and collegially as well as independently.
  5. Share and discuss student work: Choose a few students to read their RAFTs aloud. Have a class discussion about how each student interpreted the prompt and created their own version of the RAFT, even with the same role, audience, format, and topic.
  6. Give students more control: As students become comfortable responding to RAFT prompts, provide them with a list of options for each component (role, audience, format, topic) and allow them to choose their own.
  7. Independent student creation: Eventually, students may choose all components (role, audience, format, and topic) independently.

Connection to BC Curriculum:

Grade 4 Big Idea: Texts can be understood from different perspectives.

Using the RAFTS strategy, students must consider different perspectives of the role and audience to create an accurate and creative piece of writing. Additionally, various texts can serve as topics to inspire the students. For example, I used a picture from a children’s picture book, but you could also use digital texts, poems, articles, novels, photographs, and more, there are endless possibilities!

An added bonus: RAFTS is a fantastic strategy for cross-curricular learning!

My Example of RAFTS:

During my field seminar class, we learned how to use the RAFTS method. Before we started writing, the teacher instructed us to create a cardboard spinner numbered 1-4. She then provided us with pictures and explained that these images would be the topics for our writing. We decided to focus on a picture of plants and magnifying glasses, where the characters were inspecting petri dishes.

We went through the RAFT statement on the board, identifying the four components for each category. For example:

  • Role: Dad, Little girl, Plant, Petri dish
  • Audience: We decided not to focus too much on the audience, as it was just each other.
  • Format: Letter, Poem, Wanted poster, Dear diary
  • Topic: The given photo (the plants and magnifying glasses in the petri dish)

I used my spinner to determine my role and format. I ended up with the role of the Dad and the format of a letter.

Here’s what I created!

Personal Reflection: I thoroughly enjoyed using the RAFTS writing strategy. As someone who loves creative writing, I felt this method sparked my creativity and provided the perfect amount of inspiration. At first, I found it a bit confusing due to the multiple components to consider, but once I grasped the task, I had a lot of fun with it. I plan to try using this strategy with my Grade 4 class during my practicum, as I think it will be a lot of fun. However, I don’t think this strategy would be as effective with younger students (primary grades), so that’s something to consider if you’re planning to try it out!

Resources: Using the RAFT Writing Strategy | Read Write Think

Teacher Education Program Competency Guide | UVIC Teacher Education