Grade 11

Explanatory

Writing Extended Response

Compose Full Texts

Sunflower

Conventions

Evidence/Elaboration

Organization/Purpose

The final paragraph contains a run-on sentence (comma-splice: “The use of the sunflower is continuing to be overlooked, it can be used well if we study and take the time to bring for new biofuel”). In addition, sentences such as “One of which that could be an anwer to many issues of today’s need for new sources of biofuel and alternative engergy than oil and gasoline” and “These wonderful yellow flowers can be used to create the biofuel we need to sustain our society’s better and economically more efficient” lack parallel structure, a new-to-grade skill, and cause confusion.

There is some unnecessary use of the passive voice (e.g., “In an artcile from NPR recently it was explained…”). There are some errors forming comparatives/ superlatives (“we need to sustain our society’s better and economically more efficient”), a below-grade level skill. There is a lack of agreement between pronoun and antecedent in paragraph two (“Sunflowers…” “It’s…”).

There are many spelling errors (e.g., “efficently,” “develpment,” “artcile,” “anwer,” “engergy”).

There are no errors in capitalization.

There are errors with missing commas after introductory elements (e.g., “When this is done economically countries can use…”). The two words “far overlooked” should be hyphenated, a new-to-grade skill.

This response includes specific evidence from two sources. There is some citation/attribution to source materials (e.g., “From an article of the U.S. Departnment of Agriculture it was stated&#8230;”, “In an artcile from NPR&#8230;”).

The response shows some attempts at elaboration via inference although those inferences are often either rather obvious (e.g. “When this is done economically countries can use this new fuel efficiently and better provide for their people and families”) or inaccurate/over-simplified (“In other words currently diesel fuel is only used for 1% of all of it that is produced”).

Language use is somewhat uneven with some nice vocabulary (“prevalent”) and then some less appropriate and repetitive vocabulary (“contraption”).

The style is uneven, using techniques such as an effective rhetorical question (“So why not use much more of it that can be produced efficently and for a cheap price?”) and imperatives (“We must unite”) but is also flawed by confusing sentences such as, “However the present time isn’t helping them because of the lack on attempting to study the sunflower oil.”

There is a thesis of sorts in paragraph two (“[Sunflowers’] potential as a bio-source for ethanol should be the new focus for all [research/development].”)

The progression of ideas is not immediately obvious although some transitional strategies help (e.g., “In other words&#8230;”, “For farmers as well&#8230;”, “However&#8230;”). The essay begins with a somewhat general introduction, is followed by a paragraph that moves toward a specific thesis, and is then followed by a paragraph used to support the thesis. This progression builds to a relatively strong conclusion that issues a call-to-action.

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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: 1178

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