Grade 3

Informational

Writing Extended Response

Compose Full Texts

Astronauts (Informational)

Conventions

Evidence/Elaboration

Organization/Purpose

There is a single run-on sentence: “There is 3 levels of training you must pass them all before you leave earth….”

There are no grade-level errors.
Note: the use of the ellipsis to show a pause is well beyond this grade).

There is one capitalization error.

There are no grade 3 errors in grammar usage. Note that several kinds of errors are beyond grade 3 relevant conventions (e.g., pronoun shifts and agreement errors – “There is 3 levels…”).

There are no spelling errors: &#8220;whwen&#8221; is very likely a typing mistake.

The paraphrasing and integrating of source-based details are generally adequate, although, the details in the middle of the paragraph are copied (but not attributed or quoted).

There are unattributed references to source materials, and some of these are direct copies that fail to use quotation marks or citations.

There is little specific elaboration or development of the details; however, some commentary on relevant details does serve as one elaboration strategy (“another bad part…”; “your bones and muscles shrink strange&#8230;but true”).

Although not inappropriate, the language is somewhat repetitive and general (“cool”; “good/bad parts”; “different kinds”); however, occasional phrasing such as “strange&#8230;but true” is more effective.

The style is somewhat uneven with the awkward/repetitive beginning (“I’m going to talk about the bad parts first and when I’m done with the bad parts I’ll talk about the good parts”) but also some appeals to the reader (“Have you ever felt the feeling…”) and editorial comments (“strange…but true”) that engage the audience.

This response has an evident organizational structure, though some minor flaws are demonstrated (the idea that different kinds of astronauts get different training seems to be neither good nor bad). Overall, however, the focus is adequately sustained despite some copied text.

Transitions such as “Also…”; “One of…”; “So…”; and “When…” are used to connect ideas, although, it’s not entirely clear where the promised “bad parts” end and the “good parts” begin.

The introduction states a general opinion that being an astronaut is &#8220;cool!&#8221; Although the main idea is vague, (good and bad parts); the conclusion repeats this vague main idea.

The writer tells the reader what the organization will be: bad parts first, followed by good parts, although it isn’t clear when the transition occurs (the training is introduced as a bad part, but scuba diving and riding rovers are presented as presumably good aspects).

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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: 5581

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