RACE- Not Just an ELA Thang

Marzano’s research on high-yield strategies put nonlinguistic representations on the map. Since his 2001 publication, teachers have increased their implementation of graphic organizers, movement, 3D models, mental images and manipulatives in their classroom.

RACE is a graphic organizer and writing strategy that helps students remember to Restate the question, Answer the question, Cite evidence and Explain their evidence when completing constructed responses in English Language Arts (ELA). Well, what’s good for ELA is good for math (at least in this case). We created a RACE graphic organizer to help students with constructed responses in mathematics. Similar to the ELA strategy, students have to Rewrite the question, Answer the question, Check the answer and Explain the answer.

When modeling RACE, we show educators how to incorporate manipulatives to provide opportunities for students to express algorithms with multiple representations. This is a procedure rooted in the Standards for Mathematical Practices.

We love the way RACE implements two forms of nonlinguistic representations- graphic organizers and manipulatives- and are excited about sharing this helpful scaffold with other educators. To learn more about RACE for mathematics and to see it modeled, please join the Hands-On Mathematics session at our free virtual conference entitled Nuggets for New Teachers. You will fully see that RACE is not just an ELA thang!