Teaching Students the RACE Writing Strategy

Teaching students the RACE writing strategy can greatly improve their writing skills. RACE stands for Restate, Answer, Cite, Explain and can be used for short-answer or paragraph responses. Teachers can use the I Do, We Do, You Do method to directly teach this skill and provide examples of what a RACE response looks like.

To use the RACE strategy effectively, teachers should create constructed response questions that refer to a text and require students to cite evidence. Anchor charts with brief descriptions of each step and sentence starters can help students organize the skill in their minds. Students should practice the RACE response strategy with a variety of reading materials and understand key vocabulary such as constructed response question, evidence, and quote.