Grade 6

Argumentative

Writing Extended Response

Compose Full Texts

Clean Communities

Conventions

Evidence/Elaboration

Organization/Purpose

There is a single run-on sentence: “There are boxes of old cellphones and piles of old TV&#8217;s,computers and even printers,with all this waste that don&#8217;t know what to do with it anymore.”

There are many errors with punctuation: mainly with commas, including missing commas to separate independent compound clauses and missing commas following introductory elements (e.g., “Now with all of this new technology and devices that we humans are making the materials and chemicals that are in them are…”). Although these comma errors are frequent and severe, the comma is only one punctuation convention.

There is one error with capital letters.

There are errors with the frequently confused words there/their, to/too, and it’s/its.

Paragraph two summarizes some details from one source. Paragraph 3 also uses text details, but the information is frequently copied, and other details are too closely paraphrased. For example, rather than directly copying information, the response substitutes synonyms and/or reverses the order of ideas within sentences. As just one example, compare the text from the source (“These new products provide a clearer image and take up less space than older models”) with the student’s version (“These new technologies and products take up less space than older devices/models and other than that they provide a clearer image than others”).

There are references to two sources that support the claim, but there are no attributions.

The response supports the claim by summarizing source details, but that summation is often copied, and there are minimal extensions.

The response uses some repetitive language (“These new…”); some awkward phrasing (“the reason in why”); and, in an apparent effort to avoid copying sources, some vague language (e.g., “things” instead of “devices”).

The rhetorical question “Are you asking yourself…?” echoes the rhetorical question used in the source (“What’s behind the tech trash pile-up?”), so although it’s not an original strategy, it does show an understanding of style elements. The appeal to the audience in the conclusion shows additional evidence of an awareness of an argumentative style.

The focus on the problem with techno-waste is clear and mostly sustained.

The transitions are somewhat mixed, with a few awkward connections (e.g., the repeated phrase “These new…”) and then some varied transition strategies (e.g., “Well”; “Now”; &#8220;If…then”; “Since”). Overall, transitions are adequate.

The introduction offers a clear choice (“do a Technology recycling day for our community service project”), presents some background information (“very few ways”), and makes some vague statements (“great way” and “really good for our community”) to set up the argument. The conclusion summarizes the points made and ends with a nice call to action that is appropriate for the writing purpose.

The progression of ideas is unusual because the response details the problems—current and historical—with electronic trash. This approach certainly demonstrates the need for recycling, although there is no explanation of solutions other than the vague “the community can bring bags of all there old electronics”. Nonetheless, the progression is adequate for the task.

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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 6: Argumentative – Clean Communities - ID: 5113

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