Grade 3

Opinion

Writing Extended Response

Compose Full Texts

Islands

Conventions

Evidence/Elaboration

Organization/Purpose

There are no sentence structure errors. Note that phrases such as “Even adults” are deemed stylistic, not errors.

The few errors in punctuation do not reflect grade 3 requirements.

There are no errors in capitalization.

There are no errors in grammar usage.

This essay does integrate details from both sources primarily by drawing relevant comparisons (“You wouldn’t want to do this on a cold island because…,” “interesting plants on both…but it’s warmer…so plants might thrive…”).

The references to source materials are attributed.

There are a variety of effective elaborative strategies employed throughout. For example, paragraph 2 begins with an analogy about a zoo to help readers connect to the variety of wildlife in the tropics. Paragraph 4 turns negatives into positives, addressing the downsides of the rainy season first (lots of rain and hurricanes) and then contrasting by pointing out the upsides of the season (playing in puddles and homes built to withstand hurricanes). The response also includes commentary and comparisons such as “You wouldn’t want to do this on a cold island because that the water would probably be cold…”.

The language used is mostly effective with words (e.g., “thrive” and “relaxing”) and phrases (e.g., “sipping from a tall glass of ice-cold lemonade”), although there are occasional lapses (some repetitions, e.g., “tropical islands are better/best…”).

The style is mature for a third grader with the introduction serving as a good example of mixing effective rhetorical questions/answers, inviting readers to “imagine” themselves in this environment. Wording such as “Well…” show further evidence of an intentional conversational style.

This response has an engaging introduction that effectively defines “tropical,” invites readers to imagine themselves in the setting, and states a clear position on the question of hot or cold. The conclusion is not as effective as the introduction, although it does offer clear closure.

The essay progresses from tropical animals, to nature, to activities. That progression of ideas is sustained with two exceptions: Arguably, the middle of paragraph 2—about swimming—should have been in paragraph 5—about activities, and sentences 4 and 5 in paragraph 5 (“You can look at wildlife…Beautiful places everywhere.”) should have been in paragraph 2.

This response has an engaging introduction that effectively defines “tropical,” invites readers to imagine themselves in the setting, and states a clear position on the question of hot or cold.

Some transitions seemed forced, especially between body paragraphs. For example, the sentences “tropical islands are better”; “Tropical islands are the best!”; “Now do tropical islands seem comforting and warm?”; and “Obviously, you should either visit or move to a tropical island” appear to be tacked on: they are mildly distracting and more characteristic of a 3 paper than a 4. Internal transitions are appropriate and varied (“For example,” “But,” “In fact,” “Well,” “Now…”).

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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 3: Opinion – Islands - ID: 441

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