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.

The word “earth” should be capitalized.

There are no grade-relevant errors with grammar usage.

There are few spelling errors: “wink” (weak); “excersize.” There are also some misspelled words that are beyond grade level (“mustles”).

Evidence is relevant, specific, and well-integrated with selection of details from both sources.

There are clear references to source materials but none are attributed

A variety of elaborative techniques are effectively used (scenarios/examples: if the ship breaks down or catches on fire they can try to fix it&#8230;; commentary: This is a once in a lifetime event, and Can you imagine that?; and speculation: you might be saying “Yay! Yippee!&#8230;”; When you grow up you will be an astronaut, too).

There is some precise vocabulary used (“actually;” “pre-astronauts;” “being a fixer”) that enhance the response.

Phrases such as “can you imagine that?”, “You might be saying ‘Yay! Yippee! This is the fun part!’”, and the final appeal at the end—“Maybe when you grow up you will be an astronaut too”—all contribute to an engaging style.

This response is fully sustained and purposefully focused.

Overall, the transitions are effective and varied. For example, “After school…” moves the reader from paragraph one on “education” to paragraph two about actual “training.” Other transitions (“also”; “Another thing”; “Finally”) successfully move the reader through the complex response.

The introduction begins and ends with grade-relevant rhetorical questions, with background information about astronaut education in between. The conclusion effectively wraps up the article, speculating on the reader’s possible desire to become an astronaut.

The response is effectively organized to move the reader from background information about educational preparation to information about astronaut training, followed by details about life in space.

Content Explorer

Sample Items Website

Tools for Teachers

Smarter Reporting

Remote Teaching and Learning

More Resources for Teachers

Privacy

Diversity, Inclusion & Equity

Web Accessibility Statement

Policy

Instagram

YouTube

Pinterest

Twitter

Facebook

Connect

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

Donec sed odio dui. Aenean eu leo quam. Pellentesque ornare sem lacinia quam venenatis vestibulum. Nulla vitae elit libero, a pharetra augue. Nullam id dolor id nibh ultricies vehicula ut id elit. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit.

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: 5593

More Resources for Teachers

Connect

Policy