Grade 7

Argumentative

Writing Extended Response

Compose Full Texts

Second Language Learning

Conventions

Evidence/Elaboration

Organization/Purpose

There are no errors with sentence structure, punctuation, or capitalization.

There are several errors in grammar usage including a relatively minor error with “easier” instead of more easily (“they would find jobs easier”).  In addition, there are errors with inconsistent verb tense/mood (e.g., “… If they begin learning now, they will develop and learn the language without an accent. This is helpful because the students would sound more like a native speaker. In the end, sounding like a native speaker will allow…”). There are other verb problems such as “only 18% of Americans currently report to speaking another language other than English…” but these are not errors per se.  There is an unclear modifier: “…educating the students of Pineville and the rest of the U.S. in a second language will help our country catch up to the rest of the world in this area” (as positioned, “area” modifies “world” rather than the area of learning a second language).

There is a single spelling error (“receive”).

This response develops adequate supporting evidence for the argument. Sufficient evidence from the source material is integrated. The elaboration of these text details, however, is just adequate. For example, paragraphs 2-4 are largely elaborated by source summary, often with very close paraphrasing (e.g., “pales in comparison” vs. “far short of” in the source materials) followed by a somewhat self-evident statement of consequence (paragraph 2: “&#8230;sounding like a native speaker will allow the students to communicate to more people in better ways than those who only speak one”; paragraph 4: “If our students know another language, they would find jobs easier”). However, in paragraph 5, source information is nicely synthesized (“there are not enough teachers for all schools,” Source 2) and used to present a logical rebuttal of the counterclaim (“I believe teaching foreign languages at our elementary schools would raise awareness&#8230;would give some students the ambition to pursue a career in the foreign language teaching”). The response fails to include specific references to source materials. However, this lapse alone would not prevent the response from earning a score point 3.

The vocabulary is generally appropriate for the audience and purpose (&#8220;prime age&#8221;; &#8220;pales in comparison&#8221;; &#8220;accomplish&#8221;; &#8220;ambition&#8221;).

The style is appropriate for the task. (“That result pales in comparison; I believe that teaching foreign languages at our elementary schools would raise awareness and interest in the topic. This would give some students the ambition to pursue a career in the foreign language teaching industry, thus creating more people to fill the role as teachers”).

The introduction is adequate. The statement of claim is clear enough (“when deciding what programs to have in elementary school, you should really consider foreign language studies”). The rest of the introduction, however, is mildly confusing: “many benefits” is clear if general; however, the final sentence (“Also, it would help Pinesville become better educated”) seems to be an afterthought, leaving the reader to wonder why “being better educated” wouldn’t be one of the “many benefits.” The conclusion is weak.

The transitions are mixed. The words &#8220;First,&#8221; &#8220;Second,&#8221; and &#8220;Lastly,&#8221; are distractingly formulaic and do little to advance the argument. However, there are a few transitions within paragraphs that are more effective in showing relationships (“In the end”; “For example”).

Each body paragraph maintains its focus, which is fairly easy to do given that the progression of ideas is a simple summary of the source materials as they were presented in the task (see paragraphs 2–4).

The fifth paragraph, again via source summary, does adequately address an opposing argument.

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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 7: Argumentative – Second Language Learning - ID: 978

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