Grade 8

Argumentative

Writing Extended Response

Compose Full Texts

Penny

Conventions

Evidence/Elaboration

Organization/Purpose

Sentences are awkward in many places (&#8220;so what effect hasnt it done over the past 100 years , to all o0f a sudden come in effect to our goverment and become a thought to cancel it&#8221;). While awkwardness does interfere with fluency, it is a style problem and not an error per se. However, there are also some needless passive constructions that contribute to awkwardness (&#8220;&#8230;as shown in an article&#8221;; &#8220;&#8230;the cost has been caught up to itself&#8230;&#8221;; &#8220;the penny should continue to be made&#8230;&#8221;).

There are some punctuation errors, including the missing apostrophe in the misspelled word &#8220;hasn’t&#8221; and the unnecessary apostrophe in &#8220;100’s.&#8221; There are also unnecessary commas (e.g., &#8220;…the penny should continue being produced, or be canceled&#8221;). Arguably, there should be a comma in the awkwardly constructed compound sentence (&#8220;It has been around for the longest amount of time so what effect hasnt it done over the past 100 years&#8230;&#8221;), but that “sentence” has style problems that outweigh the missing comma.
Note: The space before periods at the end of sentences is distracting but not an error.

There are no errors with capital letters.

The only grammar usage errors are with frequently confused words (&#8220;To&#8221; for &#8220;too&#8221;).

There are numerous spelling errors including &#8220;tyhen&#8221; and &#8220;o0f&#8221; (both are probably typos but still classified as errors) as well as &#8220;overtime&#8221; (should be over time), &#8220;goverment,&#8221; &#8220;hasnt,&#8221; and &#8220;alot.&#8221;

There are some attempts to support the position by making new claims that are not necessarily source-based. For example, in paragraph 2, the response states that &#8220;overtime the cost [of manufacturing a penny] has been caught up [will catch up] up to itself and will no longer affect our goverment. If the penny costs way to much money , tyhen why is the goverment choosing now to cancel the penny though it has been around for over 100&#8217;s of years?&#8221; Not only is the logic spurious here, but the reader is totally confused by the imprecise language.

There is a passing reference to the source material from the Washington Middle School Chronicle article, but otherwise the use of sources is unattributed. The response does, however, use material from more than one source.

There is little elaboration other than the somewhat weak assertion of opinions (&#8220;I believe&#8221;). In addition, there are places where the response attempts to develop ideas by jumping to conclusions via unsupported generalizations (e.g., &#8220;[The penny] has saved many lives over the past years&#8221;).

The vocabulary is often repetitive (e.g., &#8220;A penny…can make a change&#8221;; &#8220;pennies can make a change&#8221;; &#8220;I believe&#8221;) and confusing (&#8220;…serves many causes and purposes&#8221;).

The style is ineffective and somewhat distracting (e.g., use of confusing rhetorical questions).

There is a general claim (&#8220;penny should continue being produced&#8221;). The focus is somewhat maintained, although it is not always clear how the details support the claim. As examples, the first two body paragraphs are not clearly different in focus, and some details confuse the issue rather than support the argument (&#8220;If the penny costs way to much money, ythen why is the government choosing now to cancel the penny when it has been around for over 100’s of years?&#8221;).

The response has appropriate, albeit formulaic, transitional words and phrases (e.g., &#8220;Second,&#8221; and &#8220;Finally&#8221;).

The introduction provides some vague context (&#8220;debate&#8221;), a brief but clear claim along with a general reference to “many reasons.” The conclusion is clear enough but merely repeats the introduction in general terms.

The progression of ideas is formulaic and not particularly effective with an introduction, followed by three body paragraphs that could be presented in any order. In fact, body paragraphs 1 and 2 are not clearly different in focus.

A weak opposing argument is acknowledged with the statement that the penny does cost more than it is worth.

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: 4201

More Resources for Teachers

Connect

Policy