The “RACE” strategy is one you can use to help students write short responses with text evidence. Some schools remove the R and use “ACE,” while others prefer CER. They’re all similar, and the ultimate goal is the same: for students to answer the prompt, embed text evidence, and explain their thinking.

To be completely honest, the explanation piece is the hardest for students. It often takes a lot of prompting to help them analyze the evidence and clearly express their thinking.

As I mentioned in the video, students may include multiple pieces of evidence, but that also means they must explain and elaborate after each quote.

I do have some RACE resources in my “teacher drive,” but I highly recommend writing an example response based on the text you are currently reading in class. We usually go over this method during the first few weeks of school and use it for every short story/novel we read throughout the year. #teachersoftiktok #newteacher #middleschoolteacher #lessonideas #shortresponses