RAFT as a teaching strategy

The Objective

My objective for the Maths class that I am engaged in is encapsulated very well here:

 “If we want diverse learners to benefit from reform-mathematics instruction, we must find ways to structure classroom experiences such that all students actively engage in problem-solving tasks and discussion of mathematical ideas” (Bray, 2005, p.1).

The difficulty

My difficulty is the prevalence of “Math phobia” (The Hindu, 2012) in our society.

One of the ways I counter it is by integrating Maths with creative expression. This method ensures that the learners who are below average level in Maths find a way to express their understanding. However, it often gets monotonous and all students are not able to express themselves creatively. I needed a way to bring variety in this strategy.

The New Technique: RAFT

A good technique that I discovered and will help me to further develop this method far and above my attempts is “RAFT: Role, Audience, Format, Topic” (Taylor, 2015, p.7). “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” (Reddick, 2019). It gives “…a way to check on students’ understanding and determine whether they need remediation or can continue moving forward”. (Taylor, 2015, p.7).

My planning using RAFT

I would be using this for a concept in Maths that is difficult to grasp, and that is a part of fractions. “Why are fractions so difficult to learn?” (School, n.d.) gives the reason as the number of rules and if the students “… try to memorize these rules without knowing where they came from, the rules will probably seem like a meaningless jungle”. However, as this is an important topic, they need to know it well without letting fear eat into their enthusiasm.

My use with RAFT is not just for written expression, as all my students are not good at written expression, but also include vocal or oral expression. In this way I am modifying the strategy to ensure multiple learning styles are covered.

My lesson-plan with RAFT

Students will engage in RAFT: choose their Role, the role of the Audience, the Format of the expression and the Content.

1. Students can work alone or in pairs or a group of maximum 3. This is to allow their choice of working strategy to come forth. Some prefer to work alone and some in groups.
2. The presentation can be (a) written - they can speak or record themselves and play – or (oral) - they can write on a white paper or coloured. This is to allow the verbal or visual learners to have choice. The ones who are artistic can make use of the coloured paper or colours and express themselves through it.
3. The content can be chosen from (a) adding fractions with same denominators, (b) adding fractions with different denominators, (c) multiplying fractions or (d) dividing fractions. These are the areas that cover the topic.
4. Every topic must be covered by at least one group. I will have a chit system so in a democratic set up they have 1 component each of the content and all content would be covered.
5. They would have 1 lesson of 50 minutes to plan and 2 lessons will be kept aside for presentations. This is to have time management as a skill.
6. Finally, they would have 3 minutes to write about the experience in their journals. This is for me learn how they felt about the whole exercise.

Conclusion

My expectation from this exercise is to ensure (a) learning of this topic is complete, (b) there is no fear of the concepts learnt and (c) the expressive space given to them through RAFT would bring a fresh engagement with Maths as a subject.

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