Grade 8

Narrative

Writing Extended Response

Compose Full Texts

Geocaching

Conventions

Development/Elaboration

Organization/Purpose

There is a fragment (“Searching Google for a cache on the cloudy morning, finding results of which I have already found before”).

There are errors with commas, including unnecessary commas (“I decide to narrow down my search, and add in the words”), commas missing to separate compound independent clauses (“Nothing appears to be at this site so I walk away…”), and commas missing after introductory elements (“Through my geocaching carrier I have faced many challenges&#8230;”). There is an apostrophe missing for a possessive (“geoecachers worst enemy”).

There is a missing capital at the beginning of a sentence (“and inside the cache&#8230;”) and a missing capital for the personal pronoun &#8220;I&#8221;.

There are many verb errors, including with verbals (e.g., &#8220;an abandon ally&#8221;) and shifts in verb tense (e.g., “My GPS system tells me I have met my destination but nothing was around”). There are other word-form errors (e.g., “in the distant” instead of “in the distance”), some confusion created by missing or imprecise words (“as a notice on of the brick on the walls happens to be a different color”), and some incorrect prepositions (“clue on” and “of which”). There is an error with plural nouns ([one] “of the brick”) and errors with frequently confused words (e.g., &#8220;wear/where,&#8221; &#8220;alley/ally,&#8221; and &#8220;sleet/slate&#8221;). Overall, the density of errors indicates minimal control of grammar usage.

There are a few spelling errors (e.g., “hwy” (why), &#8220;geoecachers,&#8221; &#8220;carrier,&#8221; and “geocahcing.”

There is some original and creative elaboration of story events (e.g., the refined Internet search terms and the descriptions of the brick wall) that helps illustrate the experience. A few details could benefit from more explanation (How much cash? How did the cloudy weather affect the search?), but overall, the development is adequate.

There are some references to source information, including inferences about bad weather affecting searches, GPS, clues, and “geocaching carrier” (presumably a registered website).

The response relies on effective descriptions (excluding other techniques, such as dialogue). Effective descriptions (e.g., of the abandoned alley) show the experience and contribute to the mood (e.g., “nothing but sirens and car engines in the distant;&#8221; &#8220;nothing was around, not a box, not a letter, nothing”). Some other descriptions characterize the narrator (e.g., “I have a feeling”; “while walking my OCD kicks in as a notice”; and “I take it on anyway”). The rapid, almost list-like presentation of events creates a sense of urgency that is appropriate for the task.

The overall language use is uneven. There are some examples of strong vocabulary (“persevere”) along with some weaker or imprecise choices and some repetition (“I decide”).

The writer shows some awareness of narrative style, but the attempt to execute effective style is not always successful. For example, some statements are more perplexing than engaging (e.g., “I endure a plethora of challenges”; “what it came to be”; and “finding results of which I have already found before”). Furthermore, the repeated subject/verb/object sentence order produces a somewhat tedious story. While not engaging, the style is nonetheless adequate for the writing purpose.

The narrator takes on a clear challenge, and details (such as narrowing geocache search terms by adding “the words difficult and impossible”) enhance the plot by adding intriguing complications. Overall, the story is unified.

The narrator is clearly introduced, with the story told through the narrator’s perspective. The setting (isolated) provides details that enable the story to unfold and establish the mood.

The word “but” is repeated. However, there are few other transitions (e.g., “so,” “this is [why],” and “and”), and many connections are uneven.

The story is told chronologically, but the progression of events is choppy (“I decide/I find/I take it on/I leave/I take/I enter/l Iook/I move&#8221;).

The beginning establishes the suspenseful mood, with the first sentence (“Today is the day something good happens”). The continued clandestine references to “challenges” do engage the reader’s attention despite becoming repetitive. The one-line ending repeats the first sentence of the story except that the verb tense changes from present to past. This seemingly purposeful strategy is somewhat effective only if the reader recognizes the shift.

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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.

Evidence/Elaboration

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: Narrative – Geocaching - ID: 5303

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