Using the RACE strategy is an effective way to help students answer constructed response reading questions. Read tips for using this strategy in this post.
There's no excuse not to blog - I am sitting at home on a snow day :) I was called with the cancellation yesterday just before 5:00...it was so nice to know early! I've been thinking about what I could share on this blog, and pondering what has really worked in my ELA classroom. I realized after my students took their first "Common Assessment" test created by the district that I could not just tell them to "write a complete short answer". I had to teach them how to do it by breaking down each step and setting expectations. This is not my original idea, but if I've learned anything as a first-year teacher it's to not reinvent the wheel! The acronym, RACE, stands for each part of a complete constructed response. There are a few versions out there, but I like this one best: R - restate the answer A - answer all parts of the question C - cite evidence E - explain how your evidence supports your answer. We've practiced this by writing responses to whole-class texts, stand-alone prompts, and even questions like "what was the best part of your weekend?" Of course, the "citing" would have to be examples from the weekend instead of text evidence. Now that my students know how to use the RACE response, I can just say "don't forget the RACE method!" when we are taking a test :) I have seen such an improvement in their responses from the beginning of the year.It makes me so happy to see my students scrawl "RACE" at the top of their answer page, or even to see them planning out their response with each letter before they write it. There are a few products I've used for this that have been really successful: These strategy cards are great for responding to any prompt! Each part of the response is broken down for the students. I think this would be great to use when you are first introducing this strategy. Here is a free writing response that has students responding to a Henry Ford quote using the RACE method. We did this activity shortly after I introduced the acronym. Here is a great explanation of the strategy (complete with a rubric) from Mrs. Sol's classroom. I love this resource for the visual of setting up a notebook page! Oh, and I've had a few students tell me that they've used this short-answer method in other classes, too! Yay for cross-curricular connections! Because I love things to match, I've created a version that you can use in your own classroom to match some of the neon chalkboard items I've made. Click on the picture to get this FREE download at my TpT store. Do you use a constructed-response format in your classroom?
This graphic organizer can be used to teach and reinforce the RACES strategy. It gives an explanation of each step as well as sentence starter to support students in their extended response. This really helps my students organize their thoughts before writing their final response. I give this to a...
The biggest challenge with teaching middle school is the race against the clock! Ideas for how to structure a 60 minute class period.
With the RACE writing strategy, students Restate and Answer the question, Cite the text, and Explain their quotation. Plus download a free...
A fun activity like The Amazing Race Classroom Edition will have students completing a range of creative tasks in a more interactive and hands-on manner.
The biggest challenge with teaching middle school is the race against the clock! Ideas for how to structure a 60 minute class period.
Today is day five of my hands-on math games and activities series and today's post is a new favorite for my kids. We played a game that I named the Graphing Race. How To Play
This is a Slope Race Partner Activity . This activity will give your students practice with finding slope and it requires them to use their expressive and receptive language skills to share information with a partner. There are 4 problems for students to complete. Step One : Break your class up into pairs. (I like to partner students who have more mastery over slope with students who are struggling.) Hand out blank race packets to the students and explain to them that they will need to work as a team to win the race. Step Two : Once the first team finishes, check their answers but encourage the other teams to keep going for 2nd and 3rd place. You could also vary this activity by setting a timer and having students race against the clock. The first team that finishes with correct answers before the time ends are the winners. This makes a great review activity at the end of the math unit. An answer key is included. I hope you enjoy! Take A Look at My Best Sellers: Yearbook Staff Handbook Manual Pride and Prejudice Student Handbook Great Scientists Poster Pack Compare and Contrast Archimedes & Euclid Learning Packet How a Bill Becomes a Law Hexagon Project Sense and Sensibility Color by Code Worksheet You can find more resources at my storefront here: https://teachsimple.com/contributor/the-comprehensive-teacher Slope Race Partner Activity
Fun-filled 20" x 26" (51 x 66 cm) Blueprint for Health pediatric anatomy poster shows how cuts heal and details fun things to try in the classroom or at home. Children‘s hearts will beat with excitement as they learn about the circulatory system that challenges them to “Run a Race with their Blood” – a fun way to illustrate how the blood works its way through the body. The Blueprint for Health poster collection is perfect for teaching human anatomy to kids. This is a great laminated anatomy posters for pediatricians and cardiologists. ©2003 Fun for 8–12 year old children With hygienic satin UV lamination
Our first book ABCs of Racing is available in Spanish! And this book has 10 different illustrations and racing terms distinct from the English version. ABC de Carreras te enseña conceptos de carreras mientras Red Racer te acompaña como tu guía. Los libros están llenos de ilustraciones increíbles inspiradas en carreras actuales y circuitos de todo el mundo, con el propósito de conectar con hijos y padres. ¡NO ES TU TÍPICO LIBRO DE ABC! Descubre el emocionante mundo de las carreras con nuestro libro 'ABC de Carreras: Mi Primera Guía de Carreras Fórmula 1' 34 páginas ilustradas con colores vívidos siguen el orden alfabético con explicaciones detalladas sobre cada nuevo concepto de carreras Es perfecto para niños de todas las edades, infantiles y especialmente para aquellos entre 3 y 8 años de edad Es una manera ideal para presentar conceptos básicos sobre autos de carreras a tus hijos, ¡además de que es muy divertido para adultos también! Acompaña a tus pequeños en esta emocionante aventura llena de aprendizaje y diversión ¡Prepárate para acelerar junto a 'ABC de Carreras' de Red Racer Books! Está disponible en inglés y en español, con más de 10 diferentes definiciones e imágenes a través de los dos libros. Check out : Custom Red Racer Canvas Gallery Wrap: Fondo de podio 18x24"
Exploring the Alaskan wilderness by dog sled is a topic that has captivated my students for over ten years now. Each February and March we take a deep dive into the Last Great Race on Earth, the Iditarod. I first learned about the Iditarod when I was student teaching in Ohio. It was a brief...
This checklist helps navigate students through the process of citing evidence in a short answer written response using the RACES method. RACES stands for Restate, Answer, Cite, Explain, and Summarize. The checklist includes information that needs to be met in order to cite evidence; such as using ...
Blending stark realism with the surreal and fantastic, Eve L. Ewing's narrative takes us from the streets of Chicago to an unspecified future, deftly navigating the boundaries of space, time, and reality. Ewing imagines familiar figures in magical circumstances, and identifies everyday objects - hair moisturizer, a spiral notebook - as precious icons.Her visual art is spare, playful and poignant: a cereal-box decoder ring that allows the wearer to understand what Black girls are saying; a teacher's angry, subversive message scrawled on the chalkboard. Electric Arches invites fresh conversations about race, gender, the city, identity and the joy and pain of growing up.
Fun and easy large scale viscosity race. Explore how thicker liquids flow more slowly than thinner liquids. Great fun viscosity experiment for kids.
This super-cool beginning reading activity uses a fun racing printable and miniature race car to reinforce phonetic blending ("sounding out").
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Our first book ABCs of Racing is available in Spanish! And this book has 10 different illustrations and racing terms distinct from the English version. ABC de Carreras te enseña conceptos de carreras mientras Red Racer te acompaña como tu guía. Los libros están llenos de ilustraciones increíbles inspiradas en carreras actuales y circuitos de todo el mundo, con el propósito de conectar con hijos y padres. ¡NO ES TU TÍPICO LIBRO DE ABC! Descubre el emocionante mundo de las carreras con nuestro libro 'ABC de Carreras: Mi Primera Guía de Carreras Fórmula 1' 34 páginas ilustradas con colores vívidos siguen el orden alfabético con explicaciones detalladas sobre cada nuevo concepto de carreras Es perfecto para niños de todas las edades, infantiles y especialmente para aquellos entre 3 y 8 años de edad Es una manera ideal para presentar conceptos básicos sobre autos de carreras a tus hijos, ¡además de que es muy divertido para adultos también! Acompaña a tus pequeños en esta emocionante aventura llena de aprendizaje y diversión ¡Prepárate para acelerar junto a 'ABC de Carreras' de Red Racer Books! Está disponible en inglés y en español, con más de 10 diferentes definiciones e imágenes a través de los dos libros. Check out : Custom Red Racer Canvas Gallery Wrap: Fondo de podio 18x24"
Learn About the 7 Continents! Exploring the 7 Continents has never been more exciting! It’s a Small World Continent Study is filled with over 35 activities to help your students gain a greater understanding of the seven continents. This 130+ page unit is filled with great resources, posters, printables, activities, and projects that will open […]
Students choose different ways to create the longest paper chain out of one sheet of construction paper in this easy to prep and complete STEM Challenge.
Learn how to make a flying paper helicopter that will spin in the air. This paper helicopter experiment is great for young kids to learn about air resistance.
The racing paper caterpillar game is a fun activity for all ages! All you need is paper, scissors, marker, and straw to make the caterpillar.
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Here’s a game that I use with my piano students that is always fun to play! All you need are two tokens of some sort (I use game pieces) and letter cards (A-G, including sharps and flats if y…
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We had so much fun using The Amazing Race as our Expanded Core lesson! It was a great way to do community based instruction (CBI). You can get all kinds of ideas for The Amazing Race activities online. I love Pinterest so I started there but there are a lot of great online resources to help plan. This particular Amazing Race was for our students and siblings of kids with vision impairments. To make this work as an effective ECC CBI, think about your skills and your location. It should be a good challenge but doable (this allows you to focus on meaningful instruction). I selected a mall that was not very large and didn't have an overwhelming amount of pedestrian traffic (this allowed me to really work on OM skills). We also went to a main street that had a good amount of stores and Walmart. Of course one of our first challenges was for everyone to learn about the ECC! I bought a ton of those onesie PJ costumes and my staff dressed up so we would be obvious for our students to find for challenges. That just made things fun and silly for all. In addition to the clues pictured in the post, students had to work on their ECC skills such as time management, compensatory skills, a lot of different OM skills (using landmarks, monoculars, directionality) and self-determination. The teams needed to work on communication and team building skills. Each staff member had a lesson plan so that we could provide direct instruction on all these ECC topics. Clues were printed in large print and a Braille copy. As always, be mindful of areas that should have some pre-or post teaching. If students have to figure out a ton of items, the main objectives of the lesson get lost. Each group had a (staff) coach who provided some 5 minute instruction as the students played the game. We also wanted to work in transportation skills but it was a challenge to work in public transportation. We used our school bus and named it the "rendezvous point". The bus was parked somewhere along the route and students had to use their mapping skills to locate it. No Amazing Race challenge would be complete without a food challenge. Enter the simulator kits and Oreos! This was for everyone. I bought every kind of Oreo cookie and students had to identify the flavor. It was actually a fun way of doing sensory efficiency because we had to work the other senses for sure! This could easily be a repeated activity and not just a stand alone one day program. You can even give skill level of beginner, intermediate and advanced. There is so much potential and I can't wait to do it again! It also doesn't even need to be just a blind school camp activity, families can do this as well! Just remember some of the points that I shared so that it is accessible and fun.
These free ELA downloads are some of my most popular. These downloads range from the RACE writing strategy to vocabulary in context, and much more. These freebies will get your students started with important ELA
FUN Turkey Game that is both Thanksgiving activities, Fall STEM, and a physics science experimetn too! Try Turkey Races in November!
These RACES Response posters are perfect for displaying as a bulletin board in your classroom or to use as an instructional resource to supplement your constructed response lessons. You may also want to teach just the RACE strategy, in which case you can easily leave off the "S." You can also print them 2- or 4- to a page for students to keep in their journals or interactive notebooks! Each poster has the letter with the word it stands for, a graphic, and a quick description of the step. This set includes full color and black and white downloads for posters of the following steps: Restate Answer Cite Explain Summarize Looking for more posters for your literacy instruction? Check out more: Library Posters Reading Comprehension Skills and Strategies Posters Genre Posters Writing Process Posters
RACE Writing Strategy.This document has 3 different formats. Each format explains what the strategy is, tips and sentence starters and what an example rubric is to check work. This is a great resource to teach students what the RACE Strategy is, for students to use while writing their response and ...
$1 | Teach counting skills with race cars! Great for teaching 1:1 counting skills and number recognition for numbers 1-5. No prep and great for math centers!
Students can use these guided notes to practice informational writing. The RACE strategy is used to answer text-dependent questions. The RACE acronym standards for the following: R - Restate the question A - Answer the question C - Cite text evidence E - Explain: Give a clear explanation for your response. Students are prepared with guided notes to fill-in-the blanks during the lesson, examples, sentence starters, and practice space for writing. This resource is great for students who may require additional support in writing well thought-out, detailed responses to TDQs-- including our English-Languager Learners!
Using the RACE Strategy in the classroom is great for writing practice. This post gives suggestions on how to use it effectively.
