Writing+Strategies

= __RAFT__ =

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. By using this strategy, teachers encourage their students to write creatively, to consider a topic from several different perspectives and to gain practice writing for different audiences.

I think RAFT is an excellent strategy to use to help students gain confidence in their style of writing as well as their ability to be very creative in their presentation. I would use this strategy because I think it is important to have students construct imaginary yet completely authentic pieces of creative writing.

Students would not only have to do investigative research on their role, they will also need to know their audience. To be able to do this properly, students would need to have background information on the individual that they are creating the role for, that is why this strategy is outstanding for the content area of history.

I would use this strategy a few times a year initially, but as a reflective practitioner, I will see how it goes over with students before I would use it more often.

I would put ROLES, AUDIENCES, FORMATS and TOPICS in a hat and have students randomly pick out what they are going to do.

For Example: If we were studying the Renaissance I would use famous historical individuals ROLES: Leonardo da Vinci, Isaac Newton, Galileo Galilei and Pope Leo X AUDIENCE: Members of Government, The Vatican, The Audience of a Theatre Performance and a piece of marble FORMAT: A Recipe, a Tour Book, an Infomercial and Psychic Hotline TOPIC: How to Chisel, What is God's mind, What is the Deal with Heliocentrism and how many strokes does it take to create a masterpiece

I think that students could have a lot of fun with this. It would be my hope that students would have such a good time writing that they may not think of it as school work and simply enjoy themselves.

I found an excellent source to create an interactive online [|RAFT] form. Students can use the interactive format as a 21st century way to ensure that their work is done quickly and neatly without needing pencils or paper.

This is a brief description of the strategy that I found on [|You Tube]

=__Jigsaw__ =

Jigsaw is an outstanding strategy that works well at every level. I was first introduced to this strategy by Mr. Steve Bold when Cohort 17 was in its infancy. I thought it was a great way to not only use reading and writing methods, but it also forces the students to interact with one another and then each student becomes both teacher and learner. Overall...I think this is a dynamite strategy.

Jigsaw is a co-operative overall learning strategy and by overall learning...I mean it encompasses many aspects of what you want your students to accomplish, but writing is at the top of the list. The strategy enables 1 student of a "base" group to specialize in 1 aspect of a topic as for an example, one group may study the habitats of rainforest animals, while another group studies the predators of rainforest animals. Students meet with members from other groups who are assigned the same aspect, and after mastering the material, they return to the "base" group and teach the material to their own group members. With this strategy, each student in the "base" group serves as a piece of the topic's puzzle and when they work together as a whole, they create the complete jigsaw puzzle.

I would use this strategy exactly the way that it is meant to be used. I do not feel that I would need to modify this particular strategy in any way.

My example would be this:

In a world history lesson while discussing Ancient Greece, I would create 4 "base" groups by using red, blue, yellow and green cards to represent each member of the team.

When the like colors meet together in their "away" group, they will discuss 4 different aspects of Ancient Greece. 1. The Athenian Government 2. The Philosophers 3. The Peloponnesian War 4. Art in Ancient Greece

Each table will have a handout that contains a brief synopsis of each category. Each member of the group reads, discusses and then writes down everything they had read and spoke about with their "away" group.

When the allotted time is up, the members will go back to their "base" group to learn and teach others.

This strategy could be used during reading or as an after reading strategy.

[|I found an excellent video explaining the basic principles of the Jigsaw Strategy]