RARE, ICE & Textual Analysis

RARE means:

1. Restate (Keywords/Topic/Definitions)

2. Answer (Theme/Thesis/Claim/Main Idea)

3. Reason (Explanation/Elaboration/Analysis/So What?)

4. Examples (Evidence/Specifics/Details/Descriptions/Quotes)

RARE may be modified in many ways: RAER, RAER-ER-ER, etc.

As you progress into the upper grades, it will not be acceptable to simply restate the words or phrases used in the prompt. Instead, you should use your own words to restate the prompt, otherwise it looks like you are parroting the prompt (which comes across as juvenile).

Here is a prompt:

Identify a symbolic physical trait in a character from a work of literature you’ve read. What does the author reveal about the character by giving them that physical trait?

Here’s an answer that uses RARE:

Authors give characters physical traits that reveal important ideas about the characters. In Lois Lowry’s book, The Giver, Jonas has the rare physical trait of blue eyes, which symbolize the fact that he “sees” the world differently from everyone around him. Jonas lives in a world where everyone sees society as perfect, even though it is not. Jonas’s blue eyes symbolize that he will be able to see some of the things his society lacks. Examples of Jonas’s to see ability occur when he sees the color red in an apple, Fiona’s hair, and a sled; he realizes that his friends cannot see red. He learns from the Giver that his society eliminated their ability to see color and now do not realize color is missing.

Here’s an Answer that DOES NOT use RARE:

His eyes are different because he sees things that others can’t.

ICE means:

1. Introduce: Make sure the quote makes sense in the grammar and context of the sentence. Use the speaker’s name or the situation the quote refers to as an introduction for the quote

2. Cite: Put your quote in quotation marks, use the exact words of the quote, use ellipses/brackets when modifying a quote, and include a footnote at the end of the quote.

3. Explain: Use your own words to explain why the quote is important or explain how it helps prove your point. Explain the significance of the quote.

Here’s a question:

How is weather used as a symbol in A Christmas Carol?

Here’s an example of an answer using ICE:

The frigid, icy weather in Charles Dickens’s A Christmas Carol symbolizes the cold, cruel personality of Ebenezer Scrooge. The author uses the weather to emphasize how hard and bitter Scrooge is—describing the weather as “cold, bleak, biting” while on the same page describing Scrooge as “hard and sharp as flint” and saying that “the cold within him froze his old features”(2). Because the descriptions are so similar, the cold harshness of the weather and the cold mean-ness of Scrooge mirror and reinforce each other.

Example of an answer NOT USING ICE:

There is cold harshness in the weather and there is cold mean-ness in Scrooge. The weather: “cold, bleak, biting” and Scrooge: “hard and sharp as flint” and “the cold within him froze his old features.”