Assessing with Rubrics

Test graders will use a rubric to judge the quality of your writing for assessment. They typically provide a score of 0–4, 0–6, or even 0–8 for each category on the rubric, such as Focus, Organization, Evidence, Language, and Conventions. Then they add up these scores and divide by the number of categories to get the overall average score. By using the following rubrics to judge your own assessment writing, you can become aware of what testers are looking for and can improve your scores in the future.

Writing for Literature Assessment

When you respond to a writing prompt, you should start by carefully reading and analyzing the prompt using the PAST questions. Then you should jot down a quick outline of your response. Do these activities in the first five minutes or so of the time you have. (If the prompt includes a reading, take more time with this step.) You'll spend the bulk of your time creating a beginning, a middle, and an ending. Afterward, you'll want to review your answers to the PAST questions and read your response, making sure it is on target. In the last five minutes or so, revise and edit your work. This abbreviated version of the writing process needs to fit into the total time you are given (often between 30 and 90 minutes).

Viewing a Sample Prompt and Response

Read the following prompt, and view one student's PAST analysis, outline, and beginning, middle, and ending. Then you'll get a chance to read and respond to a prompt of your own.

Sample Writing Prompt

Warm-Up for Reading and Writing About Literature

© Thoughtful Learning 2018

Numerous tests in high school assess your ability to read and understand literature and poetry. The Common Core assessments for high school English, the ACT and SAT, and the exam for AP English Literature and Composition ask you to read works of literature, answer questions about them, and write thoughtful responses. The activities in this unit will help you develop the skills you need to succeed on these assessments. If you’d like to use these skills on a simulated assessment, see the unit “Practice Test for Reading and Writing About Literature.”

What Is Literature?

We all tell stories—what happened during fifth hour, how the team came back 14 points to win, what the doctor said about your broken arm. . . . These everyday stories help us understand our lives and what is happening around us.

Over thousands of years, some of the best stories have risen to the top as "literature." Despite the lofty title, literature performs the same basic function as everyday storytelling. It helps readers understand what it's like to be alive—where we have been and where we are going. Reading literature also allows you to spend time with some of the most amazing storytellers who have ever lived.

Thinking About Stories

When reporters go out searching for news stories, they try to answer the 5 W's and H. You can use these same questions to think about the basic parts of any story, fiction or nonfiction:

Warm-Up for Reading and Writing Assessments

© Thoughtful Learning 2016

Reading is the process of turning 26 letters and a dozen punctuation marks into meaning. Viewed that way, it's almost a form of magic. You decode symbols and transform them into thoughts. But how did those symbols get there in the first place? Writing, of course. Someone had a set of insights and rendered them on the page using just 26 letters and a dozen punctuation marks. The encoding process of writing is just as magical and powerful as the decoding process of reading.

Reading and writing help you learn and think about any subject. They let you succeed in high school, college, and career. Not surprisingly, these skills loom large in all of the key assessments you take now and into the future: the Common Core assessments for high school English, the ACT and SAT, and the AP English assessments. Don't worry. Reading and writing might seem like magic, but you can practice these skills using the specific strategies in this unit. They will help you succeed on assessments and launch into a bright and thoughtful future.

What Is Assessment?

The word assess means to "judge the value" of something. It originally meant "sit beside a judge" to determine the value of a piece of property for tax purposes. In its modern sense, an assessment is a test to measure the value of a set of skills, in this case reading and writing. You've been reading and writing from your earliest days in school, and all that work will help you succeed on the coming assessments you will face. You can also hone your skills with the specific strategies in this unit.

In the following activities, you’ll learn about close reading—reading to understand the thesis statement, topic sentences, details, and vocabulary of the nonfiction texts you’re assigned. You’ll also learn about writing for assessment—writing to express your own ideas during a test. Strong reading skills help you write and vice versa.

In this unit, you’ll learn the reading and writing skills that you need to succeed in nonfiction assessment. If you’d like to use these skills on a simulated assessment, see the unit “Practice Test for Reading and Writing.”

Thinking About Close Reading

To read closely, you need to think about the ideas in a text. You can do this by asking and answering questions:

• Who wrote this text? Who was meant to read it?
• What is it about?
• Why did the person write it (to provide information, to argue for a position, to tell a story, to make people laugh or think)?
• How does the writer communicate the ideas in the text?
• Where and when did this text originally fit? Where and when does it fit now?

Editing Compound Sentences

Simple sentences have just one complete thought.

What if you combined them? A compound sentence joins simple sentences using a comma and and, or, but, for, nor, or so.

1. I like helping my mom cook. It's fun to taste our creations. (and)
2. We were going to go sledding. There was not enough snow. (but)
3. Special Challenge: Find two simple sentences from your essay. Add a comma and the word and, but, or or to combine the two sentences.

Revising from General to Specific

Your writing will sound more knowledgeable and interesting if you replace general ideas with specific facts that your readers might not already know.

• General idea: Whales are really long.

• Specific fact: Whales can grow up to 115 feet long.

• General idea: Dolphins and whales use sounds.

• Specific fact: Dolphins and whales use echolocation sounds to communicate and warn of danger.

1. Penguins use their black and white color as camouflage. Penguins use their black and white color as camouflage.
2. Penguins are great swimmers and can move quickly in the water. Penguins are great swimmers and can move quickly in the water.
3. The Gentoo Penguin can swim at speeds of 22 miles per hour. The Gentoo Penguin can swim at speeds of 22 miles per hour.
4. All penguins live in the Southern Hemisphere. All penguins live in the Southern Hemisphere.

Writing the Beginning Paragraph

The first sentence in your essay should grab the reader’s attention. It is called a “lead.” The following activity will help you write an effective lead sentence.

1. Explain why the subject matters:

Dolphins and whales are among the most majestic creatures on earth.

2. Provide a surprising fact:

Two of the smartest animals on earth live in the ocean.

3. Ask a question:

Did you know dolphins and whales come from the same biological family?

Your beginning paragraph should end with a focus statement. The focus statement names the two subjects and starts to compare and contrast them.