Classroom Strategies
RAFT Writing
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 students to write creatively, to consider a topic from a different perspective, and to gain practice writing for different audiences. Students learn to respond to a writing prompt that requires them to think about various perspectives (Santa & Havens, 1995):
- 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?
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 is applicable in every content area thereby providing a universal writing approach for content area teachers.
Create the strategy
- Explain to your students the various perspectives (mentioned above) writers must consider when completing any writing assignment.
- Display a RAFT writing prompt to your class and model on an overhead or Elmo 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 varied responses.
- As students become comfortable in reacting to RAFT prompts, you can create more than one prompt for students to respond to after a reading, lesson, or unit. 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
Mitchell, D. (1996). Writing to learn across the curriculum and the English teacher. English Journal, 85, 93-97.
Santa, C., & Havens, L. (1995). Creating independence through student-owned strategies: Project CRISS. Dubuque, IA: Kendall Hunt.
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RAFT Writing Template
About this printout
Students can utilize this printout to organize their writing as they learn to use the RAFT strategy . This printout enables students to clearly define their role, audience, format, and topic for writing.
Teaching with this printout
More ideas to try, related resources.
By using this printout to organize their writing, students learn to respond to writing prompts that require them to write creatively, to consider a topic from a different perspective, and to gain practice writing for different audiences.
The four categories of focus for a RAFT include:
- 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?
Before having students write their own RAFT, use this printout to model how students should use this technique. Discuss with your students the basic premise of the content for which you’d like to write, but allow students to help you pick the role, audience, format, and topic to write about. Allow student input and creativity as you craft your piece of writing. Have an in-depth discussion specifically about why you chose the different categories that you decided on ( R ole, A udience, F ormat, T opic). Model a think-aloud about why having a certain role and audience might make your stance or ideas about a certain topic different and may alter your writing style and, therefore, your format. See the Strategy Guide titled Using the RAFT Writing Strategy for more information and ideas pertaining to this technique.
- Give students a 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, using this printout. It works best if at first, all students react to the same prompt so the students can learn from the varied responses of their classmates. Hold a class discussion about how students created their personal version of the assignment.
- As students become comfortable in reacting to RAFT prompts, you can create more than one prompt for students to respond to after a reading, lesson, or unit. Or, you may choose to give students a list of choices for each area and let them pick and 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.
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A Guide to the R.A.F.T. Writing Strategy Across Content Areas
Why is RAFT writing one of the most effective writing strategies, particularly across all content areas and subjects? Before we share how it enables fluency and purpose, incorporates the elements of effective writing, provides students with a choice that is on grade level, and engages students to explain what they know and elaborate, let’s first talk about how different writing styles contribute to learning and understanding.
How Writing Pulls Back the Curtain
Heard often in classrooms: “I know the answer but I can’t explain it!” The problem here is a student who suffers from messy thinking and the simple answer to clearing that confusion might be writing.
Research has proven that writing crystallizes cloudy thinking, yet teachers often miss opportunities to provide students a venue for becoming aware of what they know and do not know. Another missed opportunity arises from a misunderstanding of types of writers.
What many mistake as writer’s block is actually a block in thinking.
Dianne Boehm simplifies this concept in her book Mozartians, Beethovians, and the Art of Teaching Writing . She describes writers as either Mozartians or Beethovians:
- Beethovians are discoverers who discover what they think during the writing process. They actually generate their ideas as they write. These writers are very messy writers who write in a non-directed way. This writing almost always needs a great deal of revision.
- Mozartians , by contrast, are planners. They mentally compose before they ever put pen to paper, working in a linear way focusing on what comes next. As they write they tend to recall what they know and organize that information as they write. Their revision process isn’t nearly as broad because they have mentally composed, revised, and edited throughout the composition process.
Either type of writer is using writing in a way that contributes to learning and understanding.
Effective Writing in the Classroom
Regardless of which type of writer you or your students are, the implications are the same. Writing is the ideal vehicle for getting at what students understand and don’t understand. Junior Teague wrote that “nothing is so simple that it cannot be misunderstood.” All teachers have an amusing personal anecdote that illustrates the truth of this statement. The stories lose their humor, however, when we are honest about how much misinformation escapes our notice . Students are gifted at staying below the radar of our formative assessments, but writing pulls back the curtain.
Writing can help content area teachers in their efforts to provide students with opportunities to connect prior knowledge. It provides an ideal vehicle for summarizing strategies that benefit both the student and the teacher with shared insights to understanding. Writing helps students organize their thinking, create new knowledge, and make tentative ideas become permanent ones.
R.A.F.T.: The Best Writing Strategy For All Content Areas
Of course, there are numerous writing strategies to choose from. However, in my opinion, the best writing strategy is the R.A.F.T. strategy.
Effective writing enables students to write fluently and purposefully for an audience. R.A.F.T. can help you identify and incorporate the elements of effective writing . The R.A.F.T. strategy engages students in explaining what they know about a topic and then elaborating. In addition, it provides students with a choice that is on grade level.
What is the R.A.F.T. Strategy?
The R.A.F.T. stands for:
- Helps the writer decide on point of view and voice.
- Reminds the writer that he must communicate ideas to someone else.
- Helps the writer determine content and style.
- Helps the writer organize ideas and employ the conventions of format, such as letters, interviews, and story problems.
- Helps the writer focus on main ideas.
R.A.F.T. Procedure:
- Think about the concepts or processes that you want students to learn as they read a selected passage. Consider how writing in an interesting way may enhance students’ understanding of the topic.
- Brainstorm possible roles students could assume in their writing.
- Decide who the audience would be as well as the format for writing.
- After students have finished reading, identify the role, audience, format, and topic (RAFT) for the writing. Assign the same role for all students or let them choose from several different roles.
R.A.F.T. Scoring Rubric:
Table of Contents – R.A.F.T Writing Examples
- 1st Grade – ELA
- 2nd Grade Math – Money
- 2nd Grade Science – Plants
- 3rd Grade ELA – Charlotte’s Web
- 3rd Grade ELA – Character Perspective
- 5th Grade Math – Decimals
- 4th Grade Science – Astronomy
- 6th Grade Math – Geometry
- 7th Grade Science – Invasive Species
- 8th Grade Social Studies – Taxation
- 9th Grade ELA – Inferencing
- 9th Grade ELA – Anaylzying Viewpoints
- 10th Grade Science – Anaylzying Viewpoints
- Subject Area: Social Studies
- Subject Area: Science
- Subject Area: Math
- Subject Area: ELA
1 st Grade RAFT Example for English/Language Arts: How to Write a “How To” Paragraph
2 nd grade raft example for math: how do people pay for things, 2 nd grade raft example for science: lesson on living things: plants, 3 rd grade raft example for english/language arts: charlotte’s web.
- Role: You will assume the role of Wilbur or Charlotte.
- Audience: The audience is “himself” or “herself.”
- Format: In reading this story, we discussed the unusual friendship between a pig named Wilbur and a barn spider named Charlotte. When Wilbur was in danger of being slaughtered by the farmer, Charlotte writes messages praising Wilbur, such as “Some Pig” in her web to persuade the farmer to let him live. The format you will use is a personal journal or diary. Assume or pretend that your chosen character talked things over in his or her head, as the action of the story played out. What was he or she thinking? How did it feel? What did he or she think that the farmer should do? How can you describe these things? When you assume the role of Wilbur or Charlotte, you will be using words to describe how you feel—you will become the character.
- Topic: The actions taken to save Wilbur from slaughter.
- Writing Task: Write a response in which you assume the role of Wilbur or Charlotte. You must decide what you think he or she was thinking and feeling, and then describe it in detail. Use specific references to the text. You should have at least four or more references to the text and at least three quotations. Your response should be at least five paragraphs long.
3 rd Grade RAFT Writing Example for ELA: Character Perspective
5th Grade RAFT Example for Math: Decimal
4th grade raft example for science: astronomy, 6 th grade raft example for geometry lesson: types of angles, 7 th grade raft writing example for science: invasive species, 8 th grade raft writing example for social studies: taxation without representation, 9 th grade raft example lesson on inference using john steinbeck’s, “the pearl”.
- Role: You will assume the role of Juana, wife of Kino in John Steinbeck’s, The Pearl.
- Audience: The audience is “herself.”
- Format: In reading the novel, we considered the “Song of Evil” and the “Song of the Family;” now, you are to create Juana’s “Song to Herself.” The format you will use is a personal journal or diary. Assume or pretend that Juana communicated with herself, talked things over in her head, as the action of the story played out. What was she thinking? How did it feel? What did she think her family should do? Now, how can you describe these things? When you assume the role of Juana, you will be using words to describe how you feel—you will be singing the “Song of Herself.”
- Topic : The time you will use is during the action of The Pearl and speculation on what happened afterward—what did the family do after they threw the “pearl of the world” back into the ocean?
- The Writing Task: Write a response in which you assume the role of Juana, wife of Kino in John Steinbeck’s The Pearl. You must decide what you think she was thinking and feeling, and then describe it in detail. Use specific references to the text. You should have at least seven references to the text and at least three quotations. You must also specifically mention all four of the essential questions, which is cake because Juana is an indigenous female in a sexist and racist culture that was neither fair nor just because those in power—including her husband—used it over the powerless, a group of which she is a member. Your response should be at least two typed double-spaced pages in 12 point font.
9 th Grade RAFT Example for ELA: Analyzing Viewpoints Lesson
Writing Task: There are many views on the use of alcohol and tobacco. They range from those vehemently against it to those who believe there should be no laws regulating it. It is important to be able to see and understand viewpoints different than our own. Although understanding does not mean agreeing, seeing the other side allows us to have a deeper understanding of the complexity of these social issues. Based on the US Health Department video we watched to complete your graphic organizer showing the research findings about short and long term consequences of alcohol and tobacco use, complete two of the following R.A.F.T. assignments. Choose one from A and B, and one from C and D. You will be graded based on the rubric displayed on the front board. Please look over the rubric before you begin.This will give you a clear picture of my expectations for this activity. Your R.A.F.T. will be due tomorrow as you enter the classroom.
10 th Grade RAFT Writing Example for Biology: Photosynthesis
Subject area examples, social studies, english/language arts, share this post:.
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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!
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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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Example of a Raft Writing Strategy
- Assignment Help
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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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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How to Use the RAFT Strategy in the Classroom to Develop Reading and Writing Skills?
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Use the RAFT strategy in the classroom to encourage creative and organized writing. This writing activity will help develop the writing skills of students in a fun and creative way.
What is the RAFT strategy?
Writing is not easy for all students. In our classrooms, we see students struggling with the different phases or processes of writing. This strategy is used to help students understand the process of writing better. It teaches them the important concepts to consider when writing or reading a text. RAFT is an acronym that stands for Role, Audience, Format and Topic.
Why use the RAFT strategy?
This strategy is referred to as a “complete/one-stop” strategy, as it helps to address the most important concepts faced with writing. The application of the RAFT strategy has numerous benefits including helping students to:
- Understand their role as a writer
- Consider a topic for writing and analyze it from different perspectives
- Consider the audience/reader they are writing for and understand what needs to be conveyed
- Explore the different forms and styles of writing best suited for the assignment
- Effectively communicate their ideas and thoughts so that the audience/reader is able to easily comprehend the writing.
In a nutshell, the RAFT strategy enables students to identify their voice in writing and to write creatively considering different perspectives for a variety of audiences.
What does RAFT stand for?
The acronym RAFT stands for the following prompts:
- Role: Who is the writer?
- Audience: To whom are you writing?
- Format: Are you writing to persuade, entertain, inform, or describe?
- Topic: What are you writing about?
How to use the RAFT strategy in the classroom
Write down the RAFT acronym on the board and explain each prompt with examples. Pick a portion from your current reading assignment and decide with your students what role, audience, format and topic you can write about. For example, pick a portion from The Tempestand ask your students to do a writing assignment with these prompts using the RAFT strategy:
Role: Miranda
Audience: To herself
Format: Diary
Topic: Being on the island
The students are now able to follow the prompts to help them write creatively. After the students are finished they are able to read aloud to the rest of the class what they wrote. This will show all the different stories that the students created. This develops the text they are reading while practicing their creative writing skills. Over time, encourage students to apply the strategy individually, choosing their own RAFTs and applying it across different classes.
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Raft Writing Strategy With Example
RAFTS (Role, Audience, Format, Topic, Strong verb) is a writing method that encourages students to consider their role as writers, the audience they will address, various writing forms, and the topic they will write about.
How to use RAFT in writing:
- On the overhead projector, show a completed RAFT example.
- Use simple examples to describe each of these: role, audience, format, and topic...
- Demonstrate how to compose responses to the prompts and have a class discussion about the main elements.
- Have students practise responding to prompts in small groups or individually..
Why to use RAFT:
- It comprises writing from a variety of perspectives.
- It assists pupils in developing crucial writing abilities like audience, primary theme, and organisation.
- It encourages pupils to think about writing in new ways by asking them to react to the following prompts:
- Writer's Role: Who or what are you as a writer? a pilgrim? A soldier? The President?
- Audience: To whom are you addressing your writing? A friend? teacher? newspaper reader?
- Format: What is the format in which you are writing? Is it a letter? Is it a poem? A speech?
- Topic with a powerful verb: What exactly is it that you're writing about? Why? What's the point or what's the subject?
- It can be utilised in a variety of assignment content areas.
RAFT Strategy
- Deborah Dean notes in her book Strategic Writing that writing for diverse objectives and audiences may necessitate the use of different genres, information, and tactics.
RAFT Paragraph
Scholars are attempting to improve their writing by including more evidence and clarifying it.
The RAFT format aids them in this endeavour.
R stands for "Restate The Prompt Or Query."
A is for Answer The Question.
F stands for "discover and explain the evidence."
T is tie up the loose ends of what you've written.
RAFT writing prompts
Santa, Havens, and Valdes established the RAFT (Role, Audience, Format, Topic) writing method to assist students understand their role as writers and convey their ideas clearly by creating a sense of audience and purpose in their writing.
RAFT Education:
It teaches pupils how to think about key themes when writing or reading a text.
RAFT stands for Role, Audience, Format, and Topic.
Why should you utilise the RAFT strategy?
This technique is referred to be a "complete/one-stop" strategy because it addresses the most significant writing concepts.
Use of RAFT strategy with example:
Explain each prompt with examples.
For example, using the RAFT technique, select a section from The Tempe stand and ask your students to complete a writing project based on that prompts.
Students can now follow the prompts to help them write in a more creative manner.
When the pupils have finished, they can read what they have written to the rest of the class.
This will display all of the students' various stories.
This helps them to understand the literature they're reading while also allowing them to practise creative writing.
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Elementary Assessments
25 Great RAFT Writing Prompts
Integrate writing and reading in a non-traditional way using RAFT writing prompts.
These writing assignments provide students context for writing purposefully and fluently for an audience.
What Is the RAFT Strategy?
The RAFT technique, great for both fiction and nonfiction texts, aims to demonstrate what students know about a topic.
This flexible method helps students to understand their role as a writer, the audience they will address, the format in which they will write, and the topic that they will share.
The RAFT writing strategy helps students understand content from various points of view and present the information in many formats.
Approaching writing this way prompts students to analyze concepts, ideas, or events through different lenses and voices.
What Does RAFT Stand For?
- R stands for Role . – Who is the writer’s voice, and what is her/his point of view?
- A stands for Audience . – To whom is the writer writing?
- F stands for Format . – What form will the writing take?
- T stands for Topic . – What’s the subject of this piece of writing?
RAFT Writing Prompts
RAFT writing prompts are written assignments that encourage students to write about topics from a perspective other than their own.
RAFT writing prompts engage critical thinking and creativity as students use their imaginations plus knowledge to mold information in new ways.
Following you will find many great RAFT writing prompt examples.
Role: Butterfly
Audience: Flower
Format: Book report
Topic: Life cycle of a butterfly
Writing Prompt: Write a book report from the viewpoint of a butterfly that explains to a flower a butterfly’s life cycle from egg to adult.
Role: Travel Guide
Audience: Tourists to your city
Format: Tourist Guide
Topic: The best sights to see in your city
Writing Prompt: Create a travel guide that highlights must-see locations in your city to current and prospective tourists.
Role: Student
Audience: Pen Pal
Format: Friendly letter
Topic: Getting to know you
Writing Prompt: Draft a friendly letter that introduces yourself and asks questions about the pen pal’s life, hobbies, interests, etc.
Role: Presidental Candidate
Audience: Country’s citizens
Format: Speech
Topic: Issues that will be solved if elected
Writing Prompt: Write a convincing presidential campaign speech that outlines what types of issues the candidate is promising to solve if elected. Mention any prior experience that supports his or her position.
Role: Pet Owner
Audience: Local Community
Format: Lost Dog Advertisement
Topic: Dog is missing and owner needs help finding
Writing Prompt: Create a “missing dog” ad that provides characteristics of the dog and tells what reward will be given to the person who finds it.
Role: Teacher
Audience: Parent
Format: Kind Note
Topic: Child’s good behavior in school this week
Writing Prompt: Write a kind note to a parent of a child who has demonstrated good behavior at school all week.
Role: Restaurant
Audience: Patron
Format: Menu
Topic: Special of the Day
Writing Prompt: From the perspective of a restaurant, persuade patrons to purchase the delicious “special of the day”. Describe all parts of the meal.
Role: They’re
Audience: Student
Format: Comic
Topic: understanding the differences between and how to use these homophones their , they’re , and there .
Writing Prompt: Sketch and label a comic that explains the differences among the homophones their , they’re , and their .
Role: Cloud
Audience: Lightning
Format: Legend
Topic: The origins of lightning
Writing Prompt: Write a legend that explains the origins of lightning from the viewpoint of a cloud.
Example #10
Audience: Pillow
Format: How-To-Guide
Topic: How to make a bed
Writing Prompt: Draft a how-to-manual that explains in detail how to make a bed.
Example #11
Role: Astronaut
Audience: NASA
Format: Scientific Log
Topic: Making entries about each planet you visit while in space
Writing Prompt: Make a scientific log that details key information that you gather after visiting a planet.
Example #12
Format: Poem
Topic: How to use figurative language to bring writing to life
Writing Prompt: Write a poem that teaches students how to use figurative language such as similes, metaphors, onomatopoeia, etc. to bring clarity to writing.
Example #13
Role: Library
Audience: First-Grade Classroom
Format: Book Recommendation
Topic: Type of book that would be great on a first-grade classroom shelf
Writing Prompt: From the viewpoint of a library, share a good book recommendation that should be checked out for a first-grade classroom.
Example #14
Role: Flower
Audience: Sun
Format: Love Letter
Topic: Showing gratitude and appreciation
Writing Prompt: As a flower, draft a heartfelt letter to the sun, thanking it for giving you growth and life.
Example #15
Audience: Classmate
Format: Post-It Note Response
Topic: After-school plans
Writing Prompt: Outline or scribble on a post-it note your after-school plans. Ask if your classmate would like to join you.
Example #16
Role: Letter E
Audience: Letter Z
Format: Book of Positive Affirmations
Topic: Seeing your value even if not greatly used
Writing Prompt: Make a book of positive affirmations that encourages the letter z to be thankful for his contributions to the alphabet system. Emphasize the fact that lower usage does not equate to less value.
Example #17
Role: Earth
Audience: Moon
Format: Reader’s Theater Script
Topic: Characteristics of the eight planets
Writing Prompt: From the perspective of Earth, draft a fun reader’s theater script that teaches the moon about the characteristics of the eight planets.
Example #18
Role: Waterfall
Audience: Tree
Format: Interview
Topic: Life story and a typical day in your life
Writing Prompt: Generate a list of interview questions (with responses) that you would ask a tree if you were a waterfall. What is a typical day like in its life? What is its life story?
Example #19
Audience: Rudolph the Reindeer
Format: Biography
Topic: Santa’s life from birth to now
Writing Prompt: From the viewpoint of an elf, tell Rudolph Santa’s life story, starting from the day Santa was born up until the time he became Mr. Claus.
Example #20
Role: Notepad
Audience: Pencil
Format: Grocery List
Topic: Ingredients needed for a Thanksgiving feast
Writing Prompt: Create a grocery list from the viewpoint of a notepad that includes everything needed to make a fabulous Thanksgiving dinner.
Example #21
Role: Journalist
Audience: Senior Citizens
Format: News Article
Topic: Attendance at a local event this weekend
Writing Prompt: Draft a news article informing and inviting senior citizens of the local community to a special event this weekend.
Example #22
Role: Square
Audience: Cube
Format: Email
Topic: Reaching out to a “relative”
Writing Prompt: Write an email from the viewpoint of a square that reaches out to a “relative” it hasn’t spoken to in a while explaining how they are connected.
Example #23
Role: House Plant
Audience: Self
Format: Diary Entry
Topic: Day without sunlight
Writing Prompt: Write a diary entry from the perspective of an indoor plant sharing its day without any sunlight.
Example #24
Audience: Sloth
Format: Motivational Speech
Topic: Tips for being more productive
Writing Prompt: Produce a motivational speech from the perspective of an ant that offers tips to sloths on being more productive on a daily basis.
Example #25
Role: Human Body
Audience: Junk Food
Format: Complaint
Topic: Effects of a poor diet
Writing Prompt: Write a complaint about the negative effects of junk food on the body. Explain how junk food changes the body.
Final Thoughts On RAFT Writing Prompts
Students improve their writing skills, creativity, and critical thinking skills when using the RAFT method.
These RAFT writing prompts provide students with opportunities to put into practice this meaningful writing technique.
So try a few of them in writer’s workshop soon.
Related: See more RAFT writing prompt ideas .
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Learning to Go With the Flow, in Rafting and in Writing
Andrew j. graff on the hard work of staying loose.
“You just have to stay loose,” he said. “Go with the boat, the flow, loosey goosey.” It was my first day on the job as a raft guide in training on Wisconsin’s northern border, and Jack was offering me last minute advice. I think he sensed my rigidity during the morning’s run down this same stretch when I wedged both feet up to my ankles between the raft’s inflated thwart and floor, let go of my paddle, and clung to the gear bag. This afternoon I was determined to do better. Find the flow. I nodded and took a deep breath of the cedar trees and river rocks, looked ahead at the horizon of the waterfall where the river disappeared except for a spray of sunlit mist rising from “the tongue”—a river-wide V, our point of aim, three thousand cubic feet of water per second folding itself into a ten-foot drop before erupting over boulders and ledges for an eighth of a mile.
“Go with boat,” I reminded myself. “Loosey goosey.”
Jack had been guiding several seasons and was tan as a river carp, shoulders the size of snapping turtles. He had a tattoo of a heron that took up the entirety of his back. He looked born into the back of a raft, so when it came to how to sit in one I figured he ought to know.
I plucked my feet loose of their anchor, gripped my paddle, and rolled my neck like a boxer might, or a runner, loose jaw, easy breath.
Jack bellowed an “all forward,” and the customers hooted with glee and dug in with their paddles. The horizon opened, the boat dropped, and in the space of one paddle stroke I fell out of the raft. Darkness. Breathless tumbling. Gone.
I was taking gen-eds at a community college that year, a non-traditional student back home after a tour in the United States Air Force. Not long after that first season on the river, I transferred to nearby Lawrence University in Appleton, Wisconsin, and started trying to be a writer. What I learned about not staying loose on the river quickly translated to my studies. When Jack finally yanked me out of the whitewater that day—he was laughing and told me I had the fear in my eyes—I quietly decided I would never stay loose in a boat again. I’d wrestle that river, resist its surprise spins, ignore its boils and eddies and angles. I’d plow the water, with my feet tucked beneath thwarts I made sure to inflate extra tight. It was one way of doing it.
At Lawrence, I’d sometimes spend eight hours writing on the fourth floor of the Seeley G. Mudd Library, and then as a senior even got to use my own small office. I was writing a novel about my time in Afghanistan. I’d lock the office door, click on my small green lamp, and stay in there until I came out winded and blinking. I had a few other English major friends who were similarly driven, and all have become novelists. Plowing was productive. But forcing a page count and plot line into a predetermined path also felt unhealthy in some way, the way wrestling a river felt unhealthy. It’s like fighting the weather, an adamancy in the act that just leaves a person tired.
When I defended my undergraduate honor’s thesis, a completed draft of a novel, one of the writing professors—an older novelist who smoked cigarettes before class in his flannel and jeans on the steps of Main Hall—asked me a question I was unprepared to answer.
“How much of this project did you experience as exploration?” he asked, in a way I felt suggested, perhaps, just a hint of disappointment. “And how much of it did you experience as control?”
I swallowed. All of it, I thought. I controlled every word. I had heard, of course, professors talk about the joys of a freer mode of storytelling, writing as exploration, loosey goosey. But I always resisted it. To me, writing that way seemed to be no way to write at all.
Years later, I’m a busy dad and a writing professor at Wittenberg University in Ohio. In summer, I drive four hours into the heart of West Virginia to get my rafting fix. The rivers are big there. I guide rafts part time on the Lower New, and once a year if life permits I reconnect with a handful of guides from Wisconsin who make the trip down to raft the Upper Gauley River. During the months of September and October, the dam above the Gauley releases high water, turning a classic summertime run into a world class stretch of Class V rapids. I once heard a West Virginia guide describe the Upper Gauley to guests while handing out beers after a day spent on the Lower New. He was inviting them back to try the Gauley in fall, making the pitch.
“The easy class five on that river is a fourteen-foot waterfall,” he said.
They call the Upper Gauley the “Beast of the East,” and for my money, I consider Gauley guides some of the best on earth. Many of them have grey beards, grey braids flying from their helmets. I dream of becoming one.
The first time I ran the Upper Gauley was during a river festival with a guide named Jay. He was older, permanently tanned, chewed Skoal and wore a bright orange helmet covered in river stickers.
He carried a wooden paddle instead of the more common carbon or fiberglass. He told us—a group of guides from Wisconsin and the East Coast—while we were getting ready to launch from the put-in, that he’d spent the festival weekend eating mushrooms in his tent, but that he felt “alright.” He looked upstream at the dam releasing its heap of water, then at the sky, then downriver. “Let’s go,” he said, and we pushed off.
It quickly became apparent, psilocybin aside, that Jay was more than just alright on the water. He didn’t just aim and plow the river, as I had done up north, yelling for more paddle power. Jay guided quietly. He slow-danced with the river, and told us between rapids how he considered the most successful runs to be those requiring the fewest possible paddle strokes. It was a better way to raft, he said. To do so, he had to find the flows, read the river instead of fight it. As we tumbled down the opening Class III and IV rapids—we hadn’t yet reached the storied Class V named Pillow Rock—I witnessed Jay finding flow. Mid rapid, he’d nose the raft’s bow into an eddy, let the current swing the stern, stop the rotation with a gentle pry, and call a forward paddle, perfectly aligned for the next big wave or drop with the perfect amount of momentum. And he didn’t just use current. He used the whole canyon, at times lightly pinballing the raft off of house-sized boulders to set up his next move.
“They’re all about the spin down here,” said one of my Wisconsin friends, smiling. I nodded and smiled too, impressed.
“Hey Jay,” I said, turning back for a moment. He raised his eyebrows in the back of the raft. “Thanks for taking us out on the river. Awesome whitewater,” I said, and others nodded in agreement.
Without taking his eyes from the river he said, not unkindly, “You can thank me when we’ve been through some whitewater.”
Around the next bend was Pillow Rock, where Jay danced the raft up a twelve-foot high pressure pillow of water, and danced it right back down. And he did this all day, explosive rapid after explosive rapid. It was one of the most skillful, gentle, enjoyable days on any river I’ve ever experienced.
I’ve long heard of writers, and now know a few, who write the way Jay guides. Marilynne Robinson is one. She once described her process to our graduate workshop as one that sounded purely exploratory— sitting down with a blank page and a pen, discovering her way to that page’s end. I’d love it if writing and guiding rafts someday felt that way to me, but the reality is I may never become a Gauley guide. I have made progress, felt at times the possibility of genuine flow.
I still can’t enter a blank page without some sort of outline. I still need a point of aim in a rapid. But I don’t only plow anymore. I try to dance, to accept and integrate a surprise spin—an unforeseen decision made by a character, for instance—and allow it to change my aim. I’ve felt it on rivers too, been pushed off my plan to go right of a boulder instead of left of it, revised the run in real time, nosed the boat into an eddy and let the stern sweep around. It’s definitely easier on the shoulders, and ultimately a more fruitful expenditure of energy than trying to adamantly muscle everything back the way it was.
As with living into the second half of life, I suppose it’s really a matter of experience. We can’t stay loose while learning. Who can? We don’t know when or how to stay loose, and if we try too soon we swim. We have to plow straight lines first, become good and tired of it, and then wonder if there’s a better way than making adamant demands of writing, life, rivers. I believe the telltale characteristic of Gauley guides, those holy ones with grey beards and braids, is that they have more fully yielded to the inevitability of co-laboring—lightly, forgetfully, fruitfully—with the inexhaustible forces of abundance that were there all along.
_______________________________________
Raft of Stars by Andrew J. Graff is available now via Ecco.
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BREAKING NEWS
What does raft mean in writing.
Table of Contents
Role, Audience, Format, Topic
What is the raft technique?
The RAFTs Technique (Santa, 1988) is a system to help students understand their role as a writer, the audience they will address, the varied formats for writing, and the expected content. It is an acronym that stands for: Role of the Writer Who are you as the writer? Are you Sir John A.
What is raft in reading?
This strategy is used to help students understand the process of writing better. It teaches them the important concepts to consider when writing or reading a text. RAFT is an acronym that stands for Role, Audience, Format and Topic.
How does the raft strategy work?
The RAFT Strategy (Equity indexed insurance contracts) provides minimal limits on contributions and has two options for investing. The investor can choose annually either the fixed interest rate option or follow a specific index, such as the S&P 500.
What is the purpose of a raft?
RAFT is a writing strategy that helps students understand their roles as writers, the audience they will address, the varied formats for writing, and the topic they’ll be writing about.
What does raft mean in English?
noun. a more or less rigid floating platform made of buoyant material or materials: an inflatable rubber raft. a collection of logs, planks, casks, etc., fastened together for floating on water.
How do you use raft in a sentence?
Raft sentence examples2 From rates, a raft or flat-bottomed barge. 4 He is the leader of some animals on a raft on a shoreless sea. Molly asked from where she was standing in the doorway, holding a raft of papers. I suppose you had a raft of this abuse stuff back in Pennsylvania. And if not, a raft of who and why questions.
How many is a raft?
The Average raft that rafts on the American river holds 6 rafters, This is what we tell folks when they make a reservation.
How do you build a raft?
Building a RaftGet four large pieces of bamboo. Place the longer pieces in the bottom, then the shorter ones on top to form a square.The long pieces will extend from each side by 4 feet and act as stabilizing pontoons.Lash together everything together tightly with rope or vine.
What makes a good raft?
Your raft will require six basic things: floatation, a deck, propulsion, steerage, safety and teamwork. Rafts can be built from a whole host of materials, so long as they naturally float. Wood, foam and barrels are all good materials to make a raft with, but in this case we’ll mostly be using wood and styrofoam.
How do you make a floating raft?
6:02Suggested clip · 119 secondsDIY How to Build a Floating Swim Platform or Raft with 55 – YouTubeYouTubeStart of suggested clipEnd of suggested clip
How does a raft float?
When an object enters water, two forces act upon it. An object will float if the gravitational (downward) force is less than the buoyancy (upward) force. So, in other words, an object will float if it weighs less than the amount of water it displaces. This explains why a rock will sink while a huge boat will float.
Why do boats float kindergarten?
Boats float because they are less dense than water. A pushing force, called the buoyant force, pushes up against the object with a force equal to the weight of the object, which is what makes the object float; this is called the Archimedes Principle and explains the concepts related to displacement.
Does gold float in water?
Gold is hydrophobic: it repels water. Because of this, even if the piece of gold is first completely submerged, if it gets near the surface it will throw off the water above it and float. Since most placer gold is flat and thin, its weight is small relative to its circumference so it will usually float.
Does crumpled aluminum foil float?
Your foil ball, crumpled into a tight clump, has more density because its pennies are crowded into a smaller space than those in the foil boat. Things float when they have less density than water, but sink when they have more.
Does a paperclip sink or float?
A paper clip will normally sink in water because it has a greater density than water and weighs more than the water it can displace. However, a paper clip can be suspended on top of water because of the water’s surface tension.
Why does a ball float?
Many objects that are hollow (and so generally contain air) float because the hollow sections increase the volume of the object (and so the upwards push) for very little increase in weight force down. However, it is not necessary for an object to contain air in order to float.
Can wood float on water?
The answer depends on the type of wood and determines whether that wood would float or sink. This ratio between weight and volume is called density. An object that is less dense than water can be held up by water, and so it floats. It still will float, but some of the wood is submerged into the water.
What type of wood doesn’t float?
Lignum vitae
Why do materials float or sink in water give some examples?
Objects with tightly packed molecules are more dense than those where the molecules are spread out. Density plays a part in why some things float and some sink. Objects that are more dense than water sink and those less dense float. Hollow things often float too as air is less dense than water.
Reading Strategies that WORK
A fine wordpress.com site, raft writing.
The RAFT writing strategy is used after reading to improve comprehension and writing skills. RAFT stands for role, audience, format, and topic. Students use this strategy to demonstrate what they know about the material (books, topics.)
- Based on the content that the class is studying, consider the various roles and audiences that would allow writers to consider different perspectives.
- Vary the format for the RAFT prompt.
- When students are first introduced to RAFT, everyone responds to the same prompt.
- As students become increasingly familiar with writing RAFTs, vary the prompts so that different students are responding to different, but related, writing assignments.
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
The RAFT writing strategy is a creative way for students to reflect on how the different characters in the text may feel. This strategy would allow the students to connect to the text and the author for a better understanding of the material. The RAFT’s could be used as an assessment tool to see if the students are able to relate to and understand the text.
RAFT Writing . (2013). Retrieved from Adolescent Literacy: http://www.adlit.org/strategies/19783/
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With no rules, Netflix’s Outlast spawns brilliant, odious, predictable play
Netflix newest reality competition is a survival series with a $1 million prize. Its name is one-third of Survivor ’s “Outwit. Outplay. Outlast” tagline, but it’s cribbed from so many survival shows I’m surprised it’s not called Survive Alone Afraid Outlast XL .
Outlast starts very much like Survivor : people divided into teams, given basic supplies, and sent to a designated area to build their own camp. Some appoint themselves leaders, others separate themselves, and many of them chafe at each other’s mere presence.
So far, this is quite familiar, to the point of boredom. What Outlast has to add to the genre is actually a subtraction: rules. The result is eventually fascinating and atrocious, shocking but predictable. (This review discusses events from all eight episodes.)
Like other survival shows, there’s no host, but unlike those, there’s no structure nor any rules. Well, there is a basic, overarching guideline: to win the “potential” $1 million, players must be part of a team.
“The only way out is to personally give up,” the very limited rules say, adding that “you must remain part of a team” and “you can change teams at any time.”
Without a host or structure, there’s also no real action for several episodes. These episodes may scratch your Alone itch, with scenes of survival in the Alaskan wilderness, and some beautiful drone photography of the area near Juneau.
Yet you can feel the producers straining. The narration, with its bizarre breaks (“While most players. Do not know whom. Or from which camp. The flares were shot. One team. In particular. Does.”) offers Probstian levels of unnecessary exposition. “A helicopter hovers above Team Delta’s camp,” the narrator says, as a helicopter hovers over Team Delta’s camp.
And its cast is, on the whole, not equipped for such a survival challenge. Players drop out fast, for various reasons.
Javier expresses surprise at how little survivalist experience people have, and he solves for that by micromanaging his teammates. It’s hard to blame him, though; one actually says his survival knowledge comes from watching survival reality TV shows.
The producers—excuse me, “game masters”—introduce a few challenges, including the final trek to the prize.
The first challenge gives teams raft-building materials and a map noting that there are crab pots on a small island. They must navigate tides and then, if they make it, decide how many crab pots to take.
It’s a great open-ended challenge, and Angie’s successful trip is the highlight of the first part of the series, as she finds her way into the current and flies past the cocky man, who misses the island completely.
In these early episodes, Outlast ‘s players don’t immediately take the producers up on the offer of being able to craft their own game.
An initial attempt comes from 25-year-old Jordan, who says “either follow me or go against me.” He goes to another camp with an even emptier threat, pretending that his team is eating well, and they see through his lies immediately.
The narrator—who, like another host , just won’t shut up, even interrupting people’s sentences—highlights the first real transgression: using a cotton ball from a medical kit to start a fire.
The previews, at the start and end of the first episode, make it seem like this will all swiftly devolve into Lord of the Flies , with a camp on fire and things being stolen.
But it’s not until the third episode that some heat shows up, with the idea of alliances between camps surfacing. Dawn says, “It’s a game, Paul, we’ve gotta play the game.” But Dawn is the one about to get played first.
The first big move comes two weeks in—and it really does feel like two weeks of TV—when Paul bails from Delta. He joins Charlie, which embraces this defection and the supplies he brings.
Joel says it was “cowardly [to] grab his things and defect,” while Dawn calls it a “chickenshit way to leave” and calls him a “dirty, despicable, asshole.”
Joel tells us “you really could see, very quickly, how easily the wheels could come off the bus.” Oh, he has no idea.
Team Alpha, which consists of Jill, Amber, and Justin, senses an opening, and decides to use dynamite to get through it.
While they have some conflict among themselves (Jill: “Jesus Christ, Justin!” Justin: “You might want to check your tone.”). But Jill says, “I’ve had so many traumatic experiences in my life that I distrust human beings in general” but she has “1,000 percent of my confidence in” Justin.
Jill declares “it’s time to get some people out.” Justin says, “Let’s expedite the process.” Amber adds, “Now it’s time to engage and play the game.”
Their first idea is to convince Bravo to reject Charlie and Delta to reject new team members. “Let’s just cut their heads off,” Jill says, presumably speaking metaphorically, although the narrator does not step in to tell us whether or not beheadings would be allowed.
They talk to Bravo’s remaining team members, Brian and Javier. “If they do you wrong first, you’re done,” Jill says, proposing they get Charlie and Delta team members to quit the game by making their lives miserable, and then refusing to let them join their teams. “Put your integrity on pause until we get home,” Jill says.
This is truly brilliant strategy, because they’re not on, say, Alone where the game is to outlast each other. Why sit around and suffer?
“There’s nothing wrong with playing dirty,” Justin says. He then proposes stealing their sleeping bags, though he dismisses it at first as “just a thought.” Jill says, “I like the thought, I just think it’s dangerous”; Justin says it’d be “catastrophic” for that team.
Perhaps I’m desensitized after two decades of watching competition reality TV, but while taking a way a team’s ability to stay warm at night is devious and almost sure to end those players’ games, it’s also perfectly acceptable and smart game play.
Of course, there’s no actual risk to people. If you browse social media, you’d think Alpha wrote death warrants for Delta—even though in the very same episode, after Jordan passes out, we hear a radio call from “Safety Four” saying “we need a medic on scene at location Delta,” and we see crew members helping evacuate Jordan.
Speaking of social media: Consider whose idea this is (Justin), and who does the stealing (Justin), and then scan Twitter to see which two players are being called the c-word. Netflix really makes bank inflaming misogynists on social media, doesn’t it?
The strategy works. Joel is ready to leave, and Dawn wants to fire the flare up someone’s ass. Dawn eventually finds the raft Justin tried to camouflage, and pops the inner tubes in the raft, and tries to find him.
The narrator then tells us that “Delta players commandeer the production’s equipment in a desperate move to find answers.”
This, too, is brilliant: They’re on a reality show, so of course everything will be taped! Dawn eventually finds footage of Justin stealing their sleeping bags. (Of course, the production ultimately made the decision to let them look at the footage.)
Javier watches from across the river: “It’s Lord of the Flies here.” Then, despite having encouraged his teammate to join in this game-playing, he decides to disassociate himself from everything: “You are batshit crazy; we don’t have an alliance.”
His teammate, Brian, is the one who actually quits because he doesn’t want to be associated with this, leaving Javier alone.
And then the fan really hits the shit: Jill and Amber prevent him from joining another team by destroying both his shelter and raft. Then Justin leaves Jill and Amber, destroying Alpha’s tarp, which eventually prompts Team Charlie—who’ve known what’s going on this whole time—to reject him as a teammate.
All of this is drenched in hypocrisy and sexist condemnations of Jill and Amber, with players rejecting each other’s behavior while justifying their own. I’m not going to defend any of the players, but I also won’t attack them for playing the game they were presented with.
Whatever you think about what happens, it’s allowable, smart, and exactly what Outlast was designed to create. If Netflix wanted a show where survivalists sat around and waited to outlast either other, they would have cast actual survivalists, and then just ripped off Alone ’s format.
They also wouldn’t have ended the show with a hike to the prize, they would have just waited for people to actually, you know, outlast each other.
While Outlast ’s format resulted in exactly the kind of drama one would expect from a rule-free game for $1 million, the producers are distancing themselves from it.
“We didn’t want to handcuff people by any means,” executive producer Grant Kahler told Rob Owen . “I told them I was not going to give them any rules. Did I think that there would be some foul play, some dirty play? Yeah, because we gave them the opportunity. But I didn’t expect it like it happened.”
What kind of foul play would one expect? Poisoning? Knife wounds?
The only rules are that players have to 1) choose to drop out themselves and 2) be part of a team to win, so players trying to stop others from doing those two things is a logical, foreseeable outcome.
Kahler did tell EW , “I’m not some completely innocent bystander here. It would’ve been very easy to make rules to avoid things like stealing from each other or burning down your shelter, waving knives at whatever… but as long as someone didn’t feel like they were going to be physically threatened, I was okay with it. As long as everyone was safe.”
Even if nothing was scripted or staged, the producers and Netflix manufactured exactly what they wanted: behavior that’s spurred outrage.
And by spending several dragged-out episodes on just the survival part, Outlast acts as if its turn into Lord of the Flies is some kind of surprise.
Ultimately, Alpha’s Jill and Amber lost the game to Charlie’s Nick, Seth, and Paul, meaning their behavior did not pay off.
Is there something to be learned from this? Is there a moral to this story? For me, it’s that you can hate the players’ game, but you’re hating them for playing the game they were given.
Netflix’s Outlast is an average survival show that has shocking but predictable behavior to get its $1 million prize. C
What works for me:
- The cinematography
- The creative game play, however awful
What could be better:
- The expository. Narration. And it’s. Unnatural pauses.
- Not pretending that this isn’t exactly what the producers wanted
All reality blurred content is independently selected, including links to products or services. However, if you buy something after clicking an affiliate link, I may earn a commission, which helps support reality blurred. Learn more.
More great stories
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About the author
Andy Dehnart is the creator of reality blurred and a writer and teacher who obsessively and critically covers reality TV and unscripted entertainment, focusing on how it’s made and what it means.
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RAFT is a writing strategy that helps students understand their roles as writers, the audience they will address, the varied formats for writing, and the topic they'll be writing about.
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.
RAFT writing is applicable in every content area thereby providing a universal writing approach for content area teachers. Create the strategy Explain to your students the various perspectives (mentioned above) writers must consider when completing any writing assignment.
Using the RAFT Writing Strategy 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. Grades Grades K - 12 | Strategy Guide Shared Writing
R.A.F.T. can help you identify and incorporate the elements of effective writing. The R.A.F.T. strategy engages students in explaining what they know about a topic and then elaborating. In addition, it provides students with a choice that is on grade level. What is the R.A.F.T. Strategy? The R.A.F.T. stands for: Role of the writer
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.
The method of RAFT 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.
Begin by explaining the RAFT writing system to students. RAFT is a system for making sure students understand their role as writer, their audience, the format of their work, and the expected content of their writing. These key ingredients are included in every RAFT writing assignment: Role of a writer: You must decide who (or what) you will be.
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.
What is RAFT? The RAFTs Technique (Santa, 1988) is a system to help students understand their role as a writer, the audience they will address, the varied formats for writing, and the expected content. It is an acronym that stands for: R ole of the Writer - Who are you as the writer? Are you Sir John A. Macdonald? A warrior? A homeless person?
RAFT is an acronym that stands for Role, Audience, Format and Topic. Why use the RAFT strategy? This strategy is referred to as a "complete/one-stop" strategy, as it helps to address the most important concepts faced with writing. The application of the RAFT strategy has numerous benefits including helping students to:
RAFTS (Role, Audience, Format, Topic, Strong verb) is a writing method that encourages students to consider their role as writers, the audience they will address, various writing forms, and the topic they will write about. How to use RAFT in writing: On the overhead projector, show a completed RAFT example.
approaching their writing. It occupies a nice middle ground between standard, dry essays and free-for-all creative writing. RAFTs combines the best of both. It also can be the way to bring together students' understanding of main ideas, organization, elaboration, and coherence . . . in other words, the criteria by which compositions are most
The RAFT writing strategy helps students understand content from various points of view and present the information in many formats. Approaching writing this way prompts students to analyze concepts, ideas, or events through different lenses and voices. What Does RAFT Stand For? R stands for Role.
Simon (2012) believes that RAFT is a writing strategy that helps learners understand their role as a writer and learn how to effectively and clearly communicate their ideas in order to make the reader understand what has been written. Barry, Campbell and Daish (2006) pointed out a good writing is clear, ...
RAFT Writing Cards. by. Tessa Maguire. 4.9. (119) $3.00. PDF. RAFT Writing is a great way to build creative writing skills in students as students experiment and explore different writing formats, audiences, topics, and points of view. The RAFT Writing strategy can also help students analyze a prompt they are given.
RAFT is a writing strategy (writing center) that supports students in understanding their role as a writer and how to effectively communicate their ideas clearly so that the reader can easily understand all of their written work Subjects: Creative Writing, Writing, Writing-Essays Grades: K - 9th Types: Activities, Bulletin Board Ideas Add to cart
By Andrew J. Graff. March 23, 2021. "You just have to stay loose," he said. "Go with the boat, the flow, loosey goosey.". It was my first day on the job as a raft guide in training on Wisconsin's northern border, and Jack was offering me last minute advice. I think he sensed my rigidity during the morning's run down this same ...
Contents of this video:1. What is RAFT?2. Sample list3. Example (letter)Presentation template: MS Powerpoint
What is raft in reading? This strategy is used to help students understand the process of writing better. It teaches them the important concepts to consider when writing or reading a text. RAFT is an acronym that stands for Role, Audience, Format and Topic. How does the raft strategy work?
The RAFT writing strategy is a creative way for students to reflect on how the different characters in the text may feel. This strategy would allow the students to connect to the text and the author for a better understanding of the material. The RAFT's could be used as an assessment tool to see if the students are able to relate to and ...
RAFT strategy only helps students to pass choosing topic and drafting which are parts of pre-writing; c. Climbing and Diving strategy does not always give students enough time to write the drafts ...
The first challenge gives teams raft-building materials and a map noting that there are crab pots on a small island. ... It was created in 2000 by Andy Dehnart, who's still writing and publishing ...