Strategy Implementation Report #5A: RAFT

Name: _Lindsey McKeen Polizzotti____________________ Date: __4/25/16______________ Grade Level: __7______

How does this strategy connect my content and language objectives? How does this strategy facilitate my students ability to access the content? How does this strategy facilitate my students ability
to comprehend the mentor text, build essential knowledge, or produce oral or written discourse connected to the content objective? How does this strategy provide comprehensible input for my
students?

Content Objective:
Lesson Sequence:
This should be a bulleted list that includes one or more SEI I can describe the benefits, risks, and costs associated with building dams along
strategies
rivers.

Prior to the lesson-

Language Objective: Language Objectives should be directly linked to the language skills students will need to
Students have learned about dams being used to be successful in achieving the content objective.
generate clean electrical energy.
I can write a persuasive letter from the perspective of someone living along a river with
Students completed a hands on engineering project a dam and the ways in which it impacts their life.
where they built a model dam
Language Objective Differentiation for Proficiency Levels:
Students watched video clips on when dams fail and
Also used the site Newsela so my ELA and lower level readers were given a version
the process of their construction.
of the article adapted to a lower lexile level, while still giving the same content.
1) Share objectives
Mid Level: Provide a picture of a dam along a river with different people in their roles.
2) 7 Step Vocabulary Have student describe orally how the dam impacts each person.
3) Read article, Dams in quake-prone Himalayas Lower: Provide a picture of a dam along a river with different people in their roles.
hold danger of flood disaster By Scientific Have students match images and short phrases together.
American, adapted by Newsela staff.
4) Content Vocab Round Table
5) Go over RAFT options, guide students in
selection (especially ELL)
6) Give time for students to fill in graphic
organizer.
7) Allow students to type their persuasive letter.
 Strategy Implementation Report #5A: RAFT

Targeted Tiered Vocabulary

1
P0F P from Mentor Text or Source
Tier 2 & Tier 3 words should be integrated into student product/assessment.
Tier 1 words Tier 2 words Tier 3 words
Basic words most children know in their primary language: Essential to comprehension: i.e., process & transition, Low frequency, content specific, typically found in a glossary
may include connectors or compounds specificity, sophistication polysemy, transitional terms, in the back of a text
idioms, clusters, cognates
Reservoirs
Earthquakes Pressure Seismologist (learned earlier in year)
Engineer Stress Plate Tectonics (learned earlier in year)
Dams Regulations Richter scale (learned earlier in year)
Monsoon Season Reinforced
Hydropower
Irrigation

RAFT
1. Teacher models RAFT strategy.
2. Teacher asks students to consider the following guiding questions as they draft their composition.

R = Role: Who are you as a writer?

A = Audience: To whom are you writing?

F = Format: What form will the writing take?

T = Topic: What is the subject?

3. Students are assigned or select the various RAFT components to organize and structure the topic and purpose of their
composition.
4. Students draft the writing piece based on the provided prompts and assignments.

1
For more information on Tiered vocabulary, see Beck & McKeon (1985), Caldern (2007).
 Strategy Implementation Report #5A: RAFT

To complete this SIR, please complete the following table with the RAFT prompts you assigned.

Role Audience Format/Genre Topic Assigned to ELL?

Which level(s)?

Were your students

able to access the
content with this
role?
Farmer who lives Indian and Chinese Letter/ Persuasive Benefits and reasons
upstream of the Government why the dam should
dam and uses the be maintained and
water for farming. repaired.

Person who lives Indian and Chinese Letter/ Persuasive Concerns with living This was assigned to
downstream of an Government downstream of the the ELL as most of
unsafe dam dam and what risks the article was
it poses. focused on the
risks of failure of
the dam.

Engineering or Indian and Chinese Letter/ Persuasive Benefits and risks

Seismologist Government associated with the
dam and suggestion
Or for what should be
done.
Citizens that live
downstream of the
damaged dam
 Strategy Implementation Report #5A: RAFT

Reflection on the strategy implementation:

Each response should be a short paragraph that includes sufficient details.
How did this strategy help my ELLs achieve the content and language objectives?
Initially my ELL student wanted to select the engineer, I talked it out with him and together we came to the conclusion that he would really need
to understand how a dam works and is constructed and realized that wasnt the best choice for him. He then decided hed like to write from
the role of a citizen that lives downstream of the dam. All students were provided with a graphic organizer, shortly after starting he asked for
help and further clarification on the differences between the two paragraphs and needed some help. He was given some support in class and
also worked with a one on one instructor in writing support later in the afternoon.
How did this strategy help the ELLs in my classroom to produce academic language and discourse?
It helped him pick a role that he could relate to, especially since the article was mostly focused on the safety of the citizens who lived in the
towns and cities below and the danger they faced if a dam were to break. He was able to better understand the article as it was at a lower
reading level and they did partner reading and summarizing as they went through the article. Since it is a persuasive letter, the academic
language will be different than is typically used in science class. I hope this doesnt confuse students in the future, as this is a more informal
letter and not the same as a lab report language. This assignment lends itself to allowing more creativity in the writing.

To increase my ELLs engagement and interaction, these are the things I would change the next time I try this strategy:
I think as a class, it would be cool to have students help create a RAFT and after reading something come up with the roles and who we may
write to or the format. I can see this working in a lot of different ways as formal or informal in class moving forward. I think next time my
ELL student may need a graphic organizer that is further broken down with a word bank and possibly some sentence frames to get him
started.