RACES

To help students get in the habit of answering in a way that backs up their response, I require a strategy referred to as R.A.C.E. S. This strategy is required for most written and verbal responses and students will see this come up again and again in future grades, in different types of classes, all the way through high school and college.

Practically every assignment will lend itself to R. A. and S. and many assignments will also lend themselves to C. and E. Students are taught and expected to answer assignments using this strategy and will lose points if they do not.

R: Restate the Question You Are Answering

A: Answer the Question

C: Cite Evidence (from the text, experiment, observation, notes...)

E: Explain Your Answer using prior knowledge and/or examples from your life experiences

S: Sentences must be grammatically correct and use correct capitalization and punctuation

Example:

Question - What is the main idea of the first paragraph on page 164?

Restate Answer

The main idea of the first paragraph on page 164 is that spiders make several types of silk that have different uses.

(Cite the evidence) In that paragraph, it gives details to explain that spider silk may be used to wrap prey, make egg sacs, or build webs. (Explain or Elaborate) This proves that the main idea about silk and its uses for spiders because the entire paragraph discusses its importance to spiders and how it is created.

Example:

Question - Why is spider silk an amazing substance?

Spider silk is an amazing substance because it is incredibly strong. The author wrote on page 164, "It can be stronger than steal and can stretch twice its own length." If something is stronger than steal and is able to stretch twice its length, that is very tough.