Grade 8

Argumentative

Writing Extended Response

Compose Full Texts

Penny

Conventions

Evidence/Elaboration

Organization/Purpose

There are no sentence formation errors.

There are missing commas after two introductory elements (&#8220;Even though the penny cost 1.6 cents to produce it the penny’s worth…&#8221; and &#8220;…if they eliminated the penny then it would&#8230;&#8221;) and the last sentence of the response is missing a period.

There are capitalization errors with the first words of two sentences (e.g., &#8220;but in the future the worth&#8230;&#8221; and &#8220;so don’t discontinue&#8230;&#8221;).

There is a subject-verb agreement error in the first sentence of the second paragraph (“the penny cost 1.6 cents to produce&#8230;”).

This response has a couple of spelling errors (“nearst” and “nickle”).

Of the available source material, this response includes few details, and they are mostly copied (&#8220;The first penny in the series was created to commemorate the 100th anniversary of Abraham Lincoln’s birth&#8221;; &#8220;The penny has captured many meaningful images over its long history&#8221;). In addition, some details are inaccurately copied (e.g., &#8220;the penny cost 1.6 cents to produce&#8221; – it costs 1.6 Canadian cents).

Use of available source details is minimal (from Source # 1) and unattributed.

There is little or no attempt to elaborate or develop these ideas. In fact one inference (&#8220;In the future the worth of the penny will increase&#8221;) is not accurate as explained and provides more confusion than development.

The vocabulary that is not copied is general.

There is little evidence of a style appropriate for the argumentative purpose.

There is a clear claim stated at the beginning (&#8220;the penny should be preserved…because there is a lot of history&#8221;). The first paragraph maintains a weak focus on “history,” but paragraph 2 drifts.

While there are some appropriate transitions (&#8220;Even though,&#8221; &#8220;Also,&#8221; &#8220;so&#8221;), they do not clarify relationships nor connect ideas. For example, the word “So” leading into the conclusion does not represent a logical conclusion based on the preceding sentence.

The introduction is simplistic and the conclusion (&#8220;don’t discontinue the production of the penny&#8221;) is abrupt.

The progression of ideas is weak and confusing. Details, which are frequently copied from the source materials, are presented somewhat randomly, moving from history to cost to history and back to cost again. Many of the ideas are copied and/or repeated (e.g., worth of penny will increase).

Acknowledgment of an alternate/opposing argument is attempted but is confounded by repetitive rebuttal that is not text-based (&#8220;Many people want to eliminate the production of the penny because it costs too much&#8230;but&#8230;the worth of the penny will increase&#8221;).

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 8: Argumentative – Penny - ID: 4196

More Resources for Teachers

Connect

Policy