What is the RAP strategy?

Some students struggle with re-writing content in their own words, and may resort to plagiarism. As plagiarism is a big offense, it is important that we teach our students the fundamentals of paraphrasing. RAP strategy is one such paraphrasing strategy.This meta-cognitive strategy is also an acronym mnemonic, and assists students in recollecting facts, with paraphrasing and helps to improve their reading comprehension.
Teaching the RAP method:
The acronym, RAP stands for Read, Ask and Put. To start, create and exhibit a RAP poster, with the acronym and definition of each term written across. Encourage students to voice out their understanding of the poster. Once you have heard their thoughts, explain the purpose, process and steps of the strategy.
As always, for better understanding of the strategy, it is best to model the process. You can also use the “think aloud strategy” to scaffold the learning. Choose a reading portion and model the different steps. While modeling, be sure to mention the following points:
Step 1: Read
Read loudly, clearly and slowly the passage that you have chosen. As you read, pause and voice out loudly your thoughts focusing on unfamiliar words within the passage, their meanings, synonyms, the context they were used in and a general summarization of your understanding regarding the content. If there are diagrammatic representations involved, describe your thought process regarding those too.
In this step, you can encourage students to break up their reading assignments to simpler portions like a paragraph, a stanza or a section. Chunking of these sections aids in recollection of facts and it is easier to comprehend smaller portions instead of larger ones, as they may get lost within the content.
Step 2: Ask
Ask yourselves questions. These questions should be able to help you identify the main ideas and the key details of the particular section that you have read. First off, describe and define what is meant by main ideas and key details. Students are told that the main ideas are the central theme, chief topic or essence of the section, while key details are that information that supports the main idea or serves as additional information.
Next use leading questions like “this paragraph is about; or the central theme of this paragraph is; or the key points in this paragraph are,” to demonstrate this step. You can hand out prepared index cards to help with this step or encourage students to frame a question in relation with the content that you have read out.
The aim of this step is to recall facts. Students are encouraged to write down the points based on memory. Only if needed, are they allowed to re-read the passage to find the details.
Step 3: Put
Put the information in your own words. After you have identified all the main ideas and key details of the lesson, re-frame them in your own words. Think of synonyms for the important words and when framing your sentence, ensure that it is clear, using correct grammar and has the same meaning as the content read out.
In this step, you can start with describing one main idea and its supporting details. Write down your sentence on the board. Ask students to give in their inputs on the different ways the sentence can be framed. You can also create a list of synonyms on one side of the board, so that the words are not repeated. As students understand the process, try expanding on the other information.
To scaffold the learning, practice the strategy in groups, followed by pairs and when all have mastered the practice they can do it individually. Let students reflect on the other areas in which the strategy can be applied to facilitate learning.
RAP activities:

• Create a RAP checklist. When using the strategy, instruct students to use the checklist and to mark out each step after completion.
• Have a RAP print sheet, with a space after each step. In the Read column, students can note down unfamiliar words, the synonyms, etc. Under the Ask column, they can write down their leading questions and answers, the main ideas and details. The Put column will require them to paraphrase the information they have identified in the previous two sections.
• When students are placed in pairs, they can take turns to read, ask while collectively paraphrasing the information. This can then be shared with the rest of the class. Similarly, when in groups, students can be assigned different jobs that of a reader, one to write down synonyms, to frame leading questions and to paraphrase. These jobs can also be circulated among the members so that each familiarizes themselves with the steps of the strategy.
• RAP can be used as an in between activity or closure activity to summarize the information and helps teachers to gain feedback regarding their comprehension.

Discuss here: What are some strategies you use to teach your students to avoid plagiarism?