Grade 11

Explanatory

Writing Extended Response

Compose Full Texts

Sunflower

Conventions

Evidence/Elaboration

Organization/Purpose

There are relatively few errors with sentence structure, although there is a problem with parallel structure, a new-to-grade skill (“…they could end up losing it all or with more money in their pockets then they have seen in a long time”).
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There are errors with verb use (e.g., “began” for begun in two places). There are missing words in a couple of sentences, which make the sentences awkward and difficult to understand on the first pass. There are errors with the frequently confused word “then” instead of than.
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There are a few spelling errors (e.g., “Community’s,” “becuase,” and “recieving”).
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There are no errors with capitalization.
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There are relatively many missing commas throughout the response. For example, there are missing commas in compound sentences (e.g., “They were promised a chance at being paid more and in the process they would help the community and country”), missing commas after introductory elements (“In the small town of Dove Creek Colorado farmers have started…”), and a missing comma with an interrupter (“Farmers however, …”). There is also an error with hyphen use, which is a new-to-grade skill (“strong willed”), and a failure to use quotation marks to indicate a source title (Biofuel from Sunflower).

Because there is no strong unifying thesis in this response, the details provided seem randomly selected and weakly integrated. There is a single use of attribution of source material (e.g., “In Biofuel from Sunflower&#8230;”); however, that attribution is inaccurate: the ideas in paragraph two of the response actually come from source #2, “Sea of Sunflowers.”

Attempts at elaborating source ideas is mostly via summary of two sources: paragraph 2 summarizes Source #2, and paragraph 3 largely summarizes Source #3. However, the information provided for paragraph 3 fails to include the shift from biodiesel fuel to sunflower [cooking] oil, a critical omission.

The language use is somewhat inconsistent (e.g., “embrace” and “strive” vs. very general language such as “becoming something very great”).

The response shows some awareness of an appropriate explanatory style (e.g., “Across the United States we are beginning to see a change; people are looking for new and cheaper ways to produce fuel and sunflowers could be the next thing”).

Although the response is generally focused, the response lacks a clear thesis to guide it. Instead, there is a controlling idea that is somewhat vague (e.g., “Across the United States we are beginning to see a change; people are looking for new and cheaper ways to produce fuel and sunflowers could be the next thing”).

The progression of ideas relies on linking two paragraphs loosely dealing with “planting sunflowers” but with no clear relationship between the two examples.

There are a few transitional strategies (e.g., “In the small town of Dove Creek Colorado farmers have started to embrace the idea of planting sunflowers as well.”, “However&#8230;”).

The introduction is weaker than the conclusion: the introduction fails to provide a thesis (“many ways” is a self-evident main idea, not a thesis). Although the conclusion is not strong, it does provide some sense of closure (“showing signs of becoming something very great” and “excited to see what comes next…”).

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An annotation is the educator’s explanation of how a portion of the student’s response relates to the rubric and contributes to that trait’s score. For example, the educator might explain how the response meets the expectations of a specific score point. An annotation can also describe aspects of a student response that relate to multiple score points on the rubric to demonstrate nuance when determining a score.

Annotation

One of three traits scored for the ELA performance task full write, this trait measures a student’s ability to demonstrate command of grade-level conventions of standard English: grammar usage (including sentence formation), capitalization, punctuation, and spelling.

This trait measures students’ ability to select and integrate details that support, explain, illustrate, or develop ideas. Students should elaborate these details—that is, explain and connect them, guided by the writing purpose and audience needs.
For informative/explanatory and opinion/argumentative writing purposes, these details come from source materials.
For narrative writing, this trait is called Development/Elaboration, and students are expected to integrate and develop grade-appropriate story elements such as descriptive details and dialogue. For these tasks, events and experiences are inspired by source materials.

This trait measures students’ ability to establish and sustain a focus for the writing. This focus should be consistent with the task’s designated purpose and the intended audience. Strong introductions and conclusions (or, for narrative writing, beginnings and endings) and transitions help to create coherence.

Performance tasks measure a student’s ability to demonstrate critical-thinking and problem-solving skills by challenging students to apply their knowledge and skills to complex, real-world problems. In the performance task, students are presented with a collection of questions and activities connected to a single theme or scenario. These activities ask students to demonstrate capacities such as depth of understanding, writing and research skills, and complex analysis, which cannot be adequately assessed with traditional assessment questions. Performance tasks are taken on a computer (but are not computer adaptive) and take students one to two class periods to complete.

Performance Task

The prompt is the text provided to the student that requests their response. It includes some contextual information, but also includes a specific task that students complete in their writing response.

Prompt

For a deeper dive into the content behind this student response, navigate to the Sample Items Website to access the writing prompt or visit the Content Explorer to learn more about this content area.

Prompt & Target

“Purpose” is the context for a piece of writing, or what the writer intends to accomplish. Students write texts with the following purposes:
<ul>
<li>Narrative (grades 3–8): tell a story</li>
<li>Informational (grades 3–5): present facts or data using source material</li>
<li>Explanatory (grades 6–11): explain a topic or concept by analyzing source materials</li>
<li>Opinion (grades 3–5): present and defend a position</li>
<li>Argumentative (grades 6–11): present an argument using research to form and support claims</li>
</ul>
Purposes have subtle differences depending on grade, and each writing purpose has its own scoring rubric.

Purpose

This text was written by a student in response to a Performance Task writing prompt.

Response

A rubric is a set framework for scorers to reference when determining the quality of student writing. Each trait has its own rubric, and every point value is defined in detail with examples of what to expect from student writing at each level.

Rubric

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Sample Term One

Sample Term Two

Traits are different dimensions of a student response that educators evaluate when scoring. For example, an educator will assess grammar and spelling as part of the Conventions trait (maximum of two score points) but not take grammar or spelling into account when assessing the other traits. This approach ensures that scorers evaluate student writing from multiple angles.

Example for Grade 11: Explanatory – Sunflower - ID: 1175

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