Raft Strategy

So I was so excited about trying the raft strategy with my high school music history class. I really thought it was going to go over great, but to my surprise, it was a big flop. What I did was tell the students they were going to create a journal entry as the composer, Robert Schumann, then I told them to make two different entries 1) how he felt when his mother said he had to study law instead of music 2) once he was allowed to study music he started having physical difficulties in his right hand and could no longer play the piano, how did he feel about being unable to play the piano.

I had a hand out, I demonstrated it, explained it several times, asked for questions, on the hand out it had specific directions and the journal entry I had demonstrated and out of 20 students I had 5 who did the assignment correctly. I then decided maybe I wasn't as clear as I should have been so I explained it a second time demonstrated it a second time, gave them another opportunity to complete the assignment and I still had students not doing it correctly.

Now I cannot figure out if it was me or if the students just didn't care, or really didn't understand. I even read some of the journal entries that were correct outloud and explained that was what I was looking for. I thought about maybe trying it again, but I don't know.

Anyone have any suggestions.