Grade 4

Informational

Writing Extended Response

Compose Full Texts

Animal Habitats

Conventions

Evidence/Elaboration

Organization/Purpose

There is one minor error with sentence formation: The sentence “The pressure of the deep sea making your eardrums pop like a ballon” is technically a fragment, although changing “making” to &#8220;makes&#8221; would make this a complete sentence.

There is a comma missing to separate independent clauses (Little elf owls make homes….and it is a nice home…”).

There is one capitalization error at the beginning of the sentence that begins with “they.&#8221;

There are two errors with subject/verb agreement: “And the cold wintery artic make you freeze to death” and “There’s…vents.” However, agreement between subject and verb is a progressive language skill (implemented by grade level in progressive levels of difficulty), and grade 4 students may not recognize agreement with inverted structures (verb/subject) such as the lack of agreement with “There’s…vents.”

There are some spelling errors (e.g. “ballon”, “tempture”).

The response includes adequate details to support the main idea, attempting to integrate information from a single source using the writer’s own words (&#8220;blubbery animals&#8221;).

The details all come from source #1 and are unattributed.

The information is adequately developed. For example, the response predicts how humans would survive in conditions that challenge animals (&#8220;if you went to the desert you would toast like a pizza…&#8221;; &#8220;making your eardrums pop like a balloon&#8221;). While the development of ideas causes occasional confusion (&#8220;when there’s water there is heat&#8221;), overall the response does extend text details.

The vocabulary is overall effective (&#8220;vast,&#8221; &#8220;furry,&#8221; and &#8220;blubbery&#8221;) despite occasional awkward use (&#8220;breaking your eyesight&#8221;).

The attempts to create an engaging style are evident: appealing to the reader (&#8220;You might be wondering…&#8221;; &#8220;Paint a picture in your mind&#8221;).

There is a clearly stated main idea (how plants and animals survive in the wild) that is sustained throughout.

There are some transitions (&#8220;and&#8221;; &#8220;…but&#8221;), although they are not consistently used. For example, there are no transitions between referencing human survival skills (&#8220;…you would toast like a pizza&#8221;) and the shift to animals and plants, and there is no transition between the desert and the shift to the ocean.

The first third of the response provides general introductory information explaining how humans would fare in the extreme environments (&#8220;You might be wondering….&#8221;; &#8220;This is the Cruel World!&#8221;; &#8220;The temperature is so hot it would kill you…&#8221;). However, the response lacks any conclusion at all.

Although the response clearly moves from cold to hot and back to cold environments, it merely mimics the order of source #1, listing the animals that live there. The progression of ideas is also somewhat weakened by the longer introduction and abrupt ending.

Content Explorer

Sample Items Website

Tools for Teachers

Smarter Reporting

Remote Teaching and Learning

More Resources for Teachers

Privacy

Diversity, Inclusion & Equity

Web Accessibility Statement

Policy

Instagram

YouTube

Pinterest

Twitter

Facebook

Connect

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

Donec sed odio dui. Aenean eu leo quam. Pellentesque ornare sem lacinia quam venenatis vestibulum. Nulla vitae elit libero, a pharetra augue. Nullam id dolor id nibh ultricies vehicula ut id elit. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit.

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 4: Informational – Animal Habitats - ID: 4013

More Resources for Teachers

Connect

Policy