A.C.E. Your tests! Writing a strong Open-Ended Response

What’s next? It’s time to take your work up a level. You need to explain your thinking in your answer.

A.C.E. A.C.E. is a strategy you can use to answer questions in response to any text (not just stories or articles in English class).

A is for Answer the Question This replaces BOTH the Restate and Answer portions of the RAP strategy. Your answer should share a complete thought with your original ideas. Do NOT start with “Yes”, or “No”, and do not start with pronouns. Assume your reader has not seen the question, so your answer needs to be easily understood.

C is for Cite the Text This means that you should provide a direct quote from the text to support your answer. Make sure to include some transition words or phrases either before or after your quote to make the paragraph make sense.

WATCH OUT! It is extremely important that your answer be in YOUR WORDS and that the quote be in support. If your answer and quote are essentially the same, you will not get any credit for your answer. That’s right, no credit at all.

E is for Explain or Expand Add detail to your answer. Why are you right? How does the quote you chose prove that your answer is correct? Remember that space is limited, so this should only be a sentence or two.

A solid example using A.C.E.

What is wrong with this one?

What’s wrong with this one?

Answers The first passage did not have a good answer. The answer makes no sense without the question. Also, there is no original idea. The idea comes directly from the text. The evidence cited mirrors the answer almost exactly. The explanation only copies the idea that the modified plane was “good.” There is no real original thought in this entire answer. The second passage was better but did not include any direct quotes. The answer seemed to ramble on and was not focused on any one central idea.

Let’s practice! Read this passage: There once was a speedy hare who bragged about how fast he could run. Tired of hearing him boast, Tortoise challenged him to a race. All of the animals in the forest gathered to watch. Hare ran down the road for a while and then paused to rest. He looked back at Tortoise and cried out, “How do you expect to win this race when you are walking along at your slow, slow pace?” Hare stretched himself out alongside the road and fell asleep, thinking, “There is plenty of time to relax.” Tortoise walked and walked. He never, ever stopped until he came to the finish line. The animals who were watching cheered so loudly for Tortoise, they woke up Hare. He stretched and yawned and began to run again, but it was too late. Tortoise had won the race.

Use the A.C.E. strategy to answer this question: What did the other forest animals likely think of Hare? Highlight the A part of your paragraph pink. Highlight the C part of your paragraph green. Highlight the E part of your paragraph blue.

Use the A.C.E. strategy to answer this question: What lesson can be learned from this story? Highlight the A part of your paragraph pink. Highlight the C part of your paragraph green. Highlight the E part of your paragraph blue.