Grade 8

Argumentative

Writing Extended Response

Compose Full Texts

Penny

Conventions

Evidence/Elaboration

Organization/Purpose

Considering the brevity of the response, there are frequent run-on sentences (&#8220;Its the most pointless thing in the world it would help get rid of some of our odd prices&#8221;; &#8220;&#8230;so if we got rid of them the only odd price we would have was a nickel, then we could soon and hopefully get rid of them too&#8221;; &#8220;And that is what i think we should do with the penny we could get rid of them any way and get them out of our registers&#8221;).

Comma errors are frequent, including missing commas in compound sentences (e.g., &#8220;All it is is just one cent and nothing even costs one cent&#8221;; &#8220;I mean I would understand if something costs one cent but nothing does so why do we still have it?&#8221;), and/or missing commas after introductory clauses (&#8220;If canada is willing to get rid of their pennies we should to&#8221;; &#8220;the pennies are what is giving us odd prices so if we got rid of them the only odd price we would have was a nickel&#8221;).

Errors include &#8220;canada&#8221; and the personal pronoun &#8220;i&#8221; as well as the failure to capitalize at the beginning of sentences (e.g., &#8220;the pennies are&#8230;&#8221;).

There are grammar usage errors including with frequently confused word (&#8220;its&#8221; instead of &#8220;it’s&#8221;; &#8220;to&#8221; instead of &#8220;too&#8221;), unclear pronoun references (&#8220;We need to just eliminate all penny from our cash registers to give it more room for a different coin like a fifty cent peice&#8221;), errors with agreement between pronoun and antecedent and verb mood (&#8220;&#8230;the only odd price we would have was a nickel, then we could soon and hopefully get rid of them too&#8221;), and plural verb forms (&#8220;eliminate all penny&#8230;&#8221;).

There are few spelling errors (peice).

There are few source-based details used; the response instead consists of marginally relevant and repetitive commentary (e.g., &#8220;&#8230;nothing even costs one cent&#8221;; &#8220;Its the most pointless thing in the world&#8221;).

Use of available source details is weak (limited to Source #1) and unattributed.

There are some weak attempts to elaborate, including inferences based on inaccurate use of source material (&#8220;&#8230;if we got rid of [the pennies] the only odd price we would have was a nickel, then we could soon and hopefully get rid of them too&#8221;), and a reliance on emotional appeal and marginally relevant commentary (&#8220;We need to just eliminate all penny&#8230; everyone scrap the pennies to get themselves some cash&#8221;).

The language/vocabulary is not convincing for the audience or purpose. The language is repetitive and limited (&#8220;thing,&#8221; &#8220;it,&#8221; &#8220;get rid,&#8221; &#8220;them&#8221;).

There is no evidence of an appropriate style.

The claim (&#8220;get rid of the pennies&#8221;) is repeated 7 times, including at the beginning and the end of this brief paragraph. As presented, other details are related to the topic but fail to maintain an argumentative focus.

No transitions are used, primarily because the same idea is simply randomly repeated with no clear connections.

The first sentence essentially states the claim and can be argued as a weak introduction. Similarly, the last sentence summarizes (again) the position to provide a weak conclusion.

The response has an unclear progression of ideas (&#8220;&#8230;just get rid of the penny&#8221;; &#8220;most pointless thing in the world&#8221;; &#8220;&#8230;just eliminate&#8221;; &#8220;&#8230; get rid of odd prices&#8230;&#8221;) and includes information that is either extraneous or lacks sufficient explanation to be relevant (&#8220;fifty cent peice,&#8221; &#8220;get rid of [the nickel]&#8221;).

Arguably, there is a very weak acknowledgement of an opposing argument: &#8220;I mean I would understand if something costs one cent&#8230;.&#8221;

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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 8: Argumentative – Penny - ID: 4187

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