Grade 3

Narrative

Writing Extended Response

Compose Full Texts

Astronauts

Conventions

Development/Elaboration

Organization/Purpose

There are no errors with grade-appropriate skills; control of pronoun case (“Kailee and me fixed it”) and frequently confused words (are/our) are not required for grade 3.

There are no grade-appropriate problems with sentences.
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There is an error with a capital for Earth (“earth”).
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Correct comma use (e.g., in the list of characters’ names and jobs, with compound sentences, and with introductory elements) is not required for grade 3.
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There is a spelling error (“when,nt” for “went” (&#8220;parachute&#8221; is not a grade 3 word).

The characters are not well-developed. The narrator’s comment “Knowing that we were taking risk of life and death,” shows some characterization, but otherwise the reader knows nothing of the other characters except their names and jobs.

Likewise, some of the jobs listed are referenced in the source materials, but they are unelaborated.

The landing is adequately described (no boat, had to parachute, used own—presumably emergency—boat). Although that detail is not text-based, it is relevant (incorporating relevant details that do not come from source materials is fine, as long as they do not contradict information from sources). More elaboration would be needed for a higher score (e.g., possibilities could include descriptions of their exercise “workouts” or of the conflict—replacing missing “metal covers”).

The language and style are generally appropriate for the task but are not distinctive and do not make up for the weaker elaboration.

The response provides an effective beginning, establishing the setting, engaging the reader (&#8220;…we might not come back to earth….&#8221;), and setting up the mission (&#8220;work on the ISS&#8221;). The ending is adequate, describing landing difficulties and offering some general closure (&#8220;I felt ready to stay home. That was amazing. I wonder if I’ll ever go to space again…..&#8221;).

However, the progression of ideas through the middle is weaker because the ideas are only loosely connected (&#8220;we had to workouts. One morning when I was eating…&#8221;). The big conflict (missing metal covers on the space ship causing breathing problems) is mentioned and then hastily solved (fixed it) leading immediately to “Finally we were heading home….”

There are some transitions that advance the narrative (“When,” “One morning,” “Finally”) and/or show time/place (“On earth we discussed”).

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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: 622

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