Grade 4

Opinion

Writing Extended Response

Compose Full Texts

Thunderstorms

Conventions

Evidence/Elaboration

Organization/Purpose

Although some sentences are long and awkward, there are no grade-appropriate errors with sentence structure.

There are many errors with commas missing to separate compound independent clauses (e.g. “I know that a lot of people don’t like it when it rains but I do because that means we get water. It says in the text that Florida can get more the 60 inches of rain so that means that we get lots of water!”). The incorrect spacing with commas and periods (e.g. “…going to the beach ,playing in the sun ,or just going to the park with your friend .In the article it says that…) is distracting but not a serious error.

There is a minor repeated error with an unnecessary capital letter: in “The Colorado Rockies,” the word “The” needs no capital.

There is an error with the frequently confused words &#8220;your&#8221; and &#8220;you’re&#8221;.

Despite the amount of specific information in the sources, this response relies more on generalities than specific details. Although the response is lengthy, the integration of specific supporting evidence is limited.

Phrases such as “it says in the article” show an attempt to attribute sources, but the attempts are inconsistent and no quotation marks are used to show copied information (e.g., “in a blink of an eye”; “visitors should remember that rain and thunderstorms could be part of their vacation”).

Despite its length, the response relies more on general repetition than on the elaboration of ideas (e.g., “it rains a lot&#8221;: &#8220;means we get water&#8221;: &#8220;60 inches of rain&#8221;; &#8220;that means we get lots of water&#8221;). Additionally, the idea of “going to the beach” is repeated several times, but never really developed.

The vocabulary is general and repetitive overall (e.g., “fun indoor activities”; “better activities”; “fun and exciting things”).

The style is somewhat limited but not inappropriate. The response is wordy (“If I would have to choose in which of those two places I would rather live in I’m pretty sure I would rather live in Florida”), and the repeated formulaic phrasing throughout is somewhat distracting (&#8220;There are three reasons why&#8221;; &#8220;The first/second/last reason why&#8221;; &#8220;The reason I say this is because&#8221;; &#8220;The main reason why I rather live in Florida instead of The Colorado Rockies is pretty much what I said though out the whole story&#8221;). Although not engaging, the style overall is adequate.

There is an opinion stated (“I’m pretty sure I would rather live in Florida&#8221;), and the details maintain support for that choice throughout this lengthy response.

The transitions rely almost exclusively on formulaic phrasing that is awkward in places (“The first/second/last reason”; “it says that”; “…why I would choose&#8230;”). While the repetition is distracting, it is adequate for connecting the ideas.

The introduction is perfunctory but adequate. There is a conclusion albeit weak and repetitive.

There is a clear progression of ideas. The “three reasons why” are presented in order and that focus is sustained. While the supporting reasons are not well-developed, they are structured adequately.

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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 4: Opinion – Thunderstorms - ID: 5342

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