<ul>
<li>All released anchors come from the pilot test, which did not specifically ask students to cite sources or to use multiple sources. Current Performance Tasks specifically tell students to use multiple sources and to attribute information to reference materials.</li>
<li>The sources on the pilot test differed from those on the practice test. The pilot test included a video. Information from the video was the basis for Source #1 on the practice test.</li>
</ul>

Grade 5

Opinion

Writing Extended Response

Compose Full Texts

Service Animals

Conventions

Evidence/Elaboration

Organization/Purpose

There is a run-on beginning paragraph 2 (&#8220;The good is that the the men and women who passed the law are right, big service animals can wreck things…that are meant to be quiet&#8221;). Awkwardness due to word choices (e.g., &#8220;enforces service animals…to remain…&#8221;) are stylistic problems but not errors.

There are a few punctuation errors with commas. There is a missing comma after and introductory elements (Paragraph 1 and 2: &#8220;Well if you are not sure this article can help…&#8221;; &#8220;Also animals….&#8221;)
There is a missing comma with independent clauses in the final paragraph (&#8220;…I think the law should change to permit service dogs and monkeys but the monkeys have to be checked…&#8221;). Note: The incorrect use of the semi-colon does not reflect a grade 5 error.

There are no capitalization errors.

There is a missing article in “What if a disabled person goes out to a restaurant and has snake for a helper…” before “snake.” Note that the pronoun/antecedent agreement in the sentence &#8220;Disabled person…their front or back yard&#8221; constitutes an appropriate pronoun reference.

There is a single spelling error, likely a typo, in the final paragraph: &#8220;II n.&#8221;

The evidence used, compared to the overall evidence available, is adequate and generally well-integrated.

The source references come from a single source and are unattributed.

There is some adequate development of ideas including elaboration via posing a hypothetical situation (e.g., &#8220;What if a disabled person goes out to a restaurant and has snake for a helper who is under control and never does anything bad?&#8221;) and logical conclusions (&#8220;The only way [someone with an unapproved service animal] could go out is if they have someone who is staying with them or a friend&#8221;).

Overall, the vocabulary is adequate for the purpose and audience; there is some general/repetitive language (&#8220;good/bad,&#8221; &#8220;control,&#8221; &#8220;I think&#8221;), but also some more precise language used (e.g., &#8220;flimsy and fragile&#8221;).

There is evidence of style that is appropriate and appeals to the audience&#8217;s sense of fairness (e.g., rhetorical questions, and phrases such as &#8220;…but the workers would just say no, no, and no&#8221;).

There is a clear and effective organizational plan, which is sustained throughout: presentation of pros and cons, leading to a qualified position at the end.

The transitions are adequate, if simplistic (&#8220;Then there is…,&#8221; &#8220;also…,&#8221; &#8220;In conclusion…,&#8221; &#8220;but…&#8221;).

The first paragraph introduces the issue with a rhetorical question and then gives the reader a motive to read further (&#8220;…this article can help you decide…&#8221;). The last two sentences of the introduction are needlessly repetitive (&#8220;I personally think it is good but at the same time bad. There are two sides of this law; the good and the bad&#8221;). The conclusion is brief but does clarify the opinion and promotes the sense of completeness.

One reason this response moves into the top scoring category is the effective progression of ideas. The writer explains the pros (which ends up being the opposing point of view) and cons of the issue and then uses deductive reasoning to come to a clear, qualified opinion in the conclusion (expand the law to include pre-screened and trained monkeys). There are minor gaps that mildly interrupt the flow (e.g., unclear referents: &#8220;…but the workers would just say no, no, and no. It would not be fair to them because it is like they have no rights&#8221;) but do not significantly impact the overall effective progression of ideas. Note that “the law,” as stated in the source materials and writing prompt, includes dogs and small horses. This omission, however, doesn’t impact the organization score.

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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 5: Opinion – Service Animals - ID: 4049

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