Grade 3

Informational

Writing Extended Response

Compose Full Texts

Astronauts (Informational)

Conventions

Evidence/Elaboration

Organization/Purpose

There are no errors with sentence formation.

There are no grade-relevant errors with punctuation.

There are no grade-relevant errors with capital letters.

There are errors with articles (“a atmosphere”). Some other errors (e.g., shifts in verb tense and pronoun use) are not grade-relevant.

There are a few spelling errors ( “alot”; “exept”), but some (“ordanary”; “oxigen”) are beyond grade level.

The details used to support the assigned task – an article about the job of an astronaut – are inadequate. In particular, details from paragraphs two and three are neither relevant nor source-based (e.g., information about “bad gasses;” “it is not fair;” “Red Giant star”). The few details provided in paragraph one are relevant but insufficient for the task.

There are very few relevant references to source materials, and none are attributed.

Relevant source-based ideas in paragraph 1 are weakly developed (e.g., “Sometimes astronauts just go [to space] for the fun of it” is not a source-based conclusion). Other extensions based on prior knowledge (e.g., the ideas in paragraph three) are acceptable but cannot substitute for the weak development of source-based ideas. Further, elaboration via commentary (e.g., “I think it is not fair to only have one planet with life”) does not support the main idea in this response.

Overall, the relevant vocabulary is general (“they like to jump;” “get sick;” “interesting”), although some vocabulary from irrelevant ideas is more precise (“examine;” “evolve”).

The style reflects an overall misunderstanding about the prompt/task.

This response demonstrates an attempt to organize three different articles with subtitles or headings, which is not appropriate for the given task. Only the first mini-article is marginally relevant to that task.

There are few appropriate transitions (“Most of the time…so…”; “But…”).

The introduction is weak (definition of an astronaut), and there is no conclusion.

The progression of ideas does not match the assigned task (article about an astronaut’s job), and many details are not relevant to the task (e.g., most of the information in the second and third body paragraphs: “Earth has a atmosphere…bad gasses”; “not fair”; “People mistaken the Sun because it looked like it is a round ball”).

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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: Informational – Astronauts (Informational) - ID: 5569

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