Grade 3

Informational

Writing Extended Response

Compose Full Texts

Astronauts (Informational)

Conventions

Evidence/Elaboration

Organization/Purpose

There is a run-on sentence and a fragment, but both are arguably purposeful. “Ever want to see the moon up close?” is a rhetorically effective fragment, which may or may not have been intentional. Likewise, “But do not worry, space staitions have gyms set up…” is technically a run-on but seems intentional here.

There is a missing apostrophe in a contraction (“Thats”).

There are no errors with capital letters.

There is an error with a simple plural (“hundred of hours”) and an error with simple subject/verb agreement (“Your head get puffy”). Note that unnecessary switches in verb tenses and pronoun use are not grade-relevant errors.

There is a spelling error: “staitions.”

Although most of the information comes from one source, overall integration of information is adequate for this grade level, and the response adequately integrates information to support the main idea.

Unattributed information comes from a single source.

The elaboration is primarily through source summary and commentary. For example, the writer takes text-based details and paraphrases them by posing cause/effect statements (e.g. &#8220;Since there is no gravity in space your muscles are not used as much. When that happens, your muscles get smaller and weaker&#8221;). This is followed by commentary combined with text detail, &#8220;But do not worry, space staitions have gyms set up&#8230;&#8221;.

Some of the language is general and repetitive (“is hard”) or imprecise (“weightless training”), but a few other word/phrase choices are more effective (“But do not worry”).

There is a sense of style. The response begins with rhetorical questions that draw the reader in. The writer also changes the point of view from “they” to “you,” making the audience feel personally addressed (“Have you ever want to go to space?&#8221;; You can do this if you are an astronaut”; “When you get into space strange things happen. Your head get puffy&#8230;..&#8221;). The writer also uses the pronoun “we,” adding credibility.

The response focuses on the job of being an astronaut, with details that consistently support the idea that being an astronaut is “hard work.”

Transitional strategies are adequate (“When&#8230;”; “But&#8230;”; “&#8230;too”).

Effective rhetorical questions strengthen the introduction by drawing the audience in, but the one-line conclusion is too limited (“work hard&#8221; and &#8220;adventure”, with “adventure” being a new idea).

The progression of ideas moves from explaining 
what happens to astronauts in space, to training, and back to what happens to astronauts in space, which is mildly confusing. Nonetheless, the overall organization leads to a sense of completeness.

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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: 5574

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