5 Tips for Teaching The RACE Strategy
Do your students struggle to answer reading response questions? Writing constructed response can be difficult! Students have to find the answer, use evidence from the text to back up their answer, and then explain how it all connects. This was challenging for my third graders who were just getting their feet wet with responding to text. I started using the RACE Writing Strategy to help my students put together their answers and ideas. This strategy not only helped them to organize their ideas, but it also gave them a clear picture of what was expected in their response. I saw a major improvement in their responses.
What is the RACE Strategy?
RACE is an acronym to remember the steps for writing a constructed response.
Restate the Question: Use words from the question to start off your response.
Answer the Question: Make sure to answer what the question is asking.
Cite Your Evidence: Go back to the text to find at least two pieces of evidence that back up your answer.
Explain Your Evidence: Explain how the evidence supports your answer.
Tips to Teach the RACE Writing Strategy
1. Model, Model, Model, and Model Some More:
Helping your students to become RACE writing masters takes lots of practice! Before expecting students to independently use the RACE strategy, they need to see it in action—many times! I like to begin by modeling each step through read-alouds and shared writing. Take it slow and go step by step. Spend time on each letter of RACE separately. This will ensure your students understand how to restate the question, fully answer it, cite evidence, and explain how it all connects. The key is to keep modeling the steps of RACE and then giving your students the chance to practice with read-alouds, independent books, and short texts. Practice makes progress!
2. Anchor Charts, Bulletin Boards, and Reference Sheets:
Creating anchor charts with your students is a great way to display the steps of RACE and also to show examples of what a RACE response should look like. Creating these charts together with your students makes them meaningful and memorable. I also like to have a bulletin board dedicated to the steps of RACE and evidence starters that your students can reference when writing a response. Additionally, I give my students RACE bookmarks to glue in their notebook and I often use RACE templates that have the steps for the students to look at while writing. My students can pretty much see RACE anywhere they look to help them in their response writing!
3. Color Coding:
I have found that color coding the steps of RACE can be very helpful. I give each step a different color and my students use those colors for their response. This strategy allows them to easily see if they have followed the RACE strategy steps when writing their response. This visual approach makes it easy for students to see if they’ve included all the steps. Over time, we gradually move away from color coding since they can’t use it on their state test, but it is a great strategy to get started!
4. Provide Sentence Starters and Frames:
Sometimes students struggle with just knowing how to begin their response and evidence. Using sentence starters and writing frames can help students feel more confident. For example, for citing evidence, you might provide starters like “According to the text…”, “The author states…”, or “In paragraph 3, it says…”. These scaffolds help students focus on content rather than getting stuck on wording.
5. Self Assessment:
A great way for students to improve their short responses is by incorporating self assessment. Have students self assess their responses with a rubric or checklist to make sure they have included all of their steps and have done their best writing before turning in. Self assessment gives students ownership and accountability for their work. You can also have students work in partners to assess other students writing to help each other improve.
Ready to Implement the RACE Strategy?
If you’re looking for ready-to-use resources to make teaching the RACE strategy easier, check out this RACE Writing Strategy Bundle! It includes anchor charts, graphic organizers, bulletin boards, and more—everything you need to help your students become confident writers.
By modeling the strategy, providing visual supports, incorporating color coding, providing sentence stems and frames, and encouraging self-assessment, you’ll set your students up for success with the RACE strategy. Happy teaching!
FREE RACE Bookmark to Get Started!
Grab this free RACE bookmark for your students to reference while writing a reading response. It will be a great reminder to help them write a beautiful response!
