ACE Writing Strategy

ACE Strategy =Answer |Cite | Expand

What is ACE? 

ACE is a strategy for Demonstrating Learning with Short Answer, Extended 

Response Items. The ACE strategy helps students ‘show they know or can do’ the

learning standards as evidenced in a brief, constructed response.

Why ACE?

The trend in national testing is to remove the ability for kids to guess their

answers!

*They are being required to provide evidence for how they got their answers

*Tests are looking for application of learning

*A great deal of effective writing is being required of our students.

 

How does ACE help?

ACE is a strategy to help students when answering questions. ACE helps students

with a mnemonic and a framework for responding to questions. They should 

support their answer with information from the text and extend their answer by:

Backing up information from the text with their personal experience or prior

knowledge they have about the topic

And/or Explaining why this information is important or significant:

“This means... In otherwords.... I know this because....”

What actually is the ACE STRATEGY? 

Answer the question 

a) Make sure that you completely answer the question.

b) Use key words from the question in your responses.

Cite evidence from the text to support your answer

a) Cite evidence from the readings, graphs or illustrations to support, prove

    or explain.

Expand; extend; explain your answer

a) Extend your response by explaining the connection between the

    information that you cited and the answer.

b) Make it clear that you know the answer because of the evidence