It's Pacer Time, Baby!

You may not be from Indy, but you've definitely heard of us. Maybe you think of the Indy 500, or maybe it's Indiana Jones (like the Irish lads I taught nearly 20 years ago). Maybe it's corn, or nothingness, or somewhere near Chicago. But more than likely, and very hopefully, you are thinking about Indy right now because of our awe-inspiring, jaw-dropping, fun-loving, clutch-moment men's basketball team...the Pacers.

(We love our Fever, too, but they're not currently in the NBA finals--plus their acronym might push my creativity to capacity).

Though I frequently admit that acronyms alone do not/will not/cannot develop deep critical thinking in response to reading, a reliable acronym is a helpful surface scaffold when starting a process. Many folks out there have fallen in love with RACE as a acronym--but honestly, I think it's limited.

Students are almost always expected to provide more than one piece of evidence, make connections, and paraphrase their thinking--and I don't see that RACE gets us there.

I do think, however, that PACER might just be the strategy that will take our students all the way (to the end of the paper).

PACER asks us to: Paraphrase your answer, connect to evidence, explain your thinking, and repeat. REPEAT! Yes!

Below is a sample poster or graphic to use when modeling this with your students.

 (If you happen to be from OKC, NYC, Cleveland, or Milwaukee--maybe disregard?)

And if you want a simple printable to use with students (so they can write on the paper) you can print this sample!

There's space at the top for students write down the prompt or to pick out key words.

Here's to hoping this little tweak from RACE to PACER will help your students make some simple shifts in their constructed response. Asking students to paraphrase their answer is actually a tough skill, and it's the same as restate your answer (RA). The difference is--paraphrase is the correct process and term to use. We also want/need students to paraphrase evidence, so using paraphrase from the start is helpful.

So here's to cheering on all the teams that capture our hearts, model integrity, and inspire greatness.

But especially--for the next 16 days--here's to the PACERS.

Vroom Baby!