Grade 5

Informational

Writing Extended Response

Compose Full Texts

Ready for a Nap

Conventions

Evidence/Elaboration

Organization/Purpose

Words are spelled correctly with the exception of typos in the words “sometimews” and “the” instead of “they” in sentence 1.
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At times, hibernation is capitalized when it does not begin a sentence.
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There is a missing apostrophe in sentence 1 (“so when its fall…”) and several instances where commas are needed to separate an introductory element (e.g., “When the hibernation is over[,] the cubs will be big…”). Commas are also missing in compound sentences (e.g., “the cubs will be big[,] and they will not need there mother…”).
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Most sentences contain structural flaws, resulting in run-on sentences (e.g., sentence 1) and awkward constructions (“But when they Hibernate the animals take food where they will stay during there Hibernation so they will sometimews wake up have a little snack and times they go to go flush it out the go back to sleep.”).
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In sentence 3, the pronoun “she” does not agree with its antecedent “mother bears.” There are errors with frequently confused words (“its” instead of “it’s” and “there” instead of “their”).

The writer attempts to include some evidence from at least one of the sources, but no attributions are made in this 1-point response. The student is imprecise in using source information, stating “Sometimes mother bears take three cubs to the den” when source 1 indicates that a mother bear usually gives birth to two or three cubs inside the den.

There is minimal evidence of attempts at elaboration in this one-paragraph essay; it is mostly a rundown of somewhat random facts culled from the source material.

The ideas run together, causing confusion and demonstrating a lack of awareness of the audience’s needs. The writer does not show the ability to use an appropriate style.

The controlling idea is relatively ambiguous (“Preparing for Hibernation is a big thing for bears and other animals”).

There is no  introduction present, although there is an attempt at a conclusion (“So next winter think about how you are warm…”).

The reader has to work hard to find a progression in the ideas, which do not flow smoothly from one to the next (e.g., “they have to eat all spring and summer so when its fall the have to find a place to sleep in.”).

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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 5: Informational – Ready for a Nap - ID: 742

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