RAP Paraphrasing Strategy Developed by Schumaker Knight Deschler

RAP Paraphrasing Strategy Developed by Schumaker, Knight & Deschler (University of Kansas)

What is RAP? Read the paragraph Ask yourself: What were the main ideas and details of the paragraph? Put the main idea and details in your own words.

RAP and Paraphrasing Pretest: Prior to starting teaching the technique, a pretest is conducted (a passage has to be paraphrased) to assess whether the child needs to learn the paraphrasing technique. Paraphrasing from small to big units Paraphrasing words: Synonyms are used to replace words in sentences. If after replacing a word the sentence makes sense and has the same meaning, the word is accepted as correct. Paraphrasing Phrases: Students are taught to paraphrases. Paraphrasing Sentences Paraphrasing paragraphs Defining a paragraph Identifying topics, main ideas, and details in a paragraph Paraphrasing the main ideas, details, and topics in a paragraph Paraphrasing multiple paragraphs

More About Paraphrasing When teaching paraphrasing of small units (words) to big units (multiple paragraphs) similar steps are followed: Learn-by-Watching activity: teacher demonstrates by verbalizing what he/she is thinking and how she is paraphrasing (e. g. , does it make sense? , can I use this word? ) Learn-by-Sharing activity: Guided practice. Teacher and child work together with teacher providing feedback and assistance Learn-by-Practicing activity: teacher provides directions, explains, supervises, but the child works alone (under teacher’s supervision) The child uses cue cards to remindhim/her what to do

Cue Card Example Characteristics of a good paraphrase: A paraphrase must be correct A paraphrase must include one’s own words A paraphrase must make sense