Grade 3

Narrative

Writing Extended Response

Compose Full Texts

Astronauts

Conventions

Development/Elaboration

Organization/Purpose

Traditional sentence structure errors (run-ons and fragments) are not part of the grade 3 CCSS skill set.  However, grade 1 students are expected to “use end punctuation for sentences.” In this case, a lack of punctuation end marks causes reader confusion and interferes with meaning (e.g., “so me and marli went in the spaceship we got in are close on and we went so fast and all you hear is screaming and bbbbbbbbb ooooooo mmmmmmm we stop on the yard and at a good time gracie was falling from the sky and on to a tree she broke it cause she went fast”). In addition, when end marks are used, subsequent sentences too frequently begin with “And” or “But”—again, not an error per se in sentence completion, but certainly a weakness with sentence structure.  In addition, failure to use apostrophes with contractions (thats) and lack of punctuation with dialogue (“maril say yup thats gracie alright”) do reflect gaps grade 3-appropriate conventions.

Note: 3rd graders are not accountable for errors with frequently confused words (“are” instead of “our”; “tuck” instead of “took”; “wood” instead of “would”; “close” instead of “clothes”). Likewise, 3rd graders are not accountable for pronoun case (“…so me and marli went in the spaceship…”). Some verb errors could have been avoided by using more simple verb tenses (e.g., “…this always been are [our] dream, and dad been working…”).

There are missing capitals for proper names (e.g., gracie, marli) and unnecessary capitals for “First Once” and “Last Are….”
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There are very few spelling errors (i.e., “intale”).

Attempts to connect to sources are awkwardly integrated and therefore cause mild confusion (e.g., Gracie came out of space with no helmet on no suit on ,and her legs were as skinny as bird legs and her neck was  so puffy and then her blood was flowing inside of her brain and she tuck a few steps back and she fell…).

Other details seem random or irrelevant, and they do not advance the narrative (e.g., gracie was falling from the sky and on to a tree she broke it cause she went fast. Gracie got much better.But it took 7 days intale gracie got better. So in all of are rooms we took pictures before gracie fell and we hung them up. And we all said that was the best time of my life. Alana said it was funny when gracie fell.).

Other details are relevant but, as presented, do not enhance the plot (e.g., the colors of girls’ space suits).

Attempted indirect dialogue (”maril said this always been are dream”) fails to “show” the events.  The language is often vague or general (“And then we went to go get more stuff to get for are spaceship and then we have to decorate it. It was so much fun”).

There are occasional glimpses of a distinctive style (“And me and maril say yup thats gracie alright because gracie in such a troublemaker like always”) but overall, they do not enhance the narrative enough for a higher score.

The story’s beginning presents the characters (sisters) and a conflict (taking dad’s space craft). However, the narrative rushes to the finish (and….and then….and after…and), then tacking on a detail that doesn’t fit at this point (“And when we got older we had to go to the ISS to go practice to go to space and we did”), providing minimal closure.

The sequence of events for this adventure story is too uneven for a score higher than a 2.

There are few narrative transitions other than “and,” “and then,” “so,” and “but” to advance the story. Note: the words “First,” “Next,” “Last,” and “Finally” are distracting and do not work with a narrative; however, they are not confusing enough to significantly interfere with meaning.

The story does include basic narrative elements (characters, conflict).

The plot does not progress evenly and is confusing in key places. For example, there are some significant gaps in time/location such as at the end of paragraph 1: the characters “blasted off to space,” but at the beginning of paragraph 2, they “came out of space with no helmet on no suit on.”

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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.

Evidence/Elaboration

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: Narrative – Astronauts - ID: 608

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