The four categories of focus for a RAFT include:
- Role of the Writer: Who are you as the writer? A movie star? The President? A plant?
- Audience: To whom are you writing? A senator? Yourself? A company?
- Format: In what format are you writing? A diary entry? A newspaper? A love letter?
- Topic: What are you writing about?
Discuss with students the importance of considering each element — role, audience, format, and topic — before they begin writing. For example, taking on the wrong role can dramatically affect the response. If a student is supposed to write from the point of view of a flighty teen, but writes instead from the point of view of the strict mother, their RAFT writing would not be accurate because it came from the wrong point of view.
Instead sharing the usual boring biographical research results for a famous historian or scientists, have students imagine what would be on their phone. Have them step into the shoes of their research topic and identify some of the apps, games, pictures, text messages and emails that would be found on his/her phone.
Think about how well they need to know a character to be able to build a social media profile and posts. Either have them recreate a phone, create a social media profile and posts or just have them to identify the following:
1. Screen Name:They should be creative and use what they know about the character. Have them try to think outside the box.
2. Avatar: Their avatar should be an image or photo that represents the text’s character / author / ?? .
3. Quote: Twitter and Facebook users can identify or pin a favorite quote, song lyric or personal sound byte.
4. Playlist: Consider what songs might be on their phone.
5. Contacts: What people would be on their friends list: they can use real people, historical people, or fictional characters.
