Summer Reading TDECDEC Rubric
10 – In order to achieve full credit, a response should come close to meeting this description.
The student effectively answers the prompt, demonstrating a close reading of the text. The
thesis statement provides an insightful claim. Textual examples (details) appropriately and
convincingly prove this claim. Ample elaboration is included to orient the reader.
Commentary scrutinizes the author’s choices/purposes and/or makes insightful connections.
The response is especially sophisticated in argument, thorough in development, or
impressive in control of language. The prose is clear and under control—the student has
consistently chosen appropriate words and has varied his/her syntax. If there are
grammatical errors, they are very minor.
9 – The response is effective, but it might contain one or two of the following problems:
 the interpretation of the text’s meaning has subtle inaccuracies or doesn’t capture the
author’s full meaning,
 the thesis statement lacks sufficient depth of thought,
 textual examples (details) adequately but not convincingly support the thesis,
 elaboration is a bit skimpy or unclear,
 the commentary notices but doesn’t necessarily analyze the writer’s
choices/purposes,
 there are parts of the response that are vague, that could use more specificity,
 the prose is generally clear and mostly under control—some word choices are vague
or inappropriate; syntax could be more varied,
 there are a few minor grammatical errors or typos
8 – The response is adequate, but it might contain three or four of the following problems:
 the interpretation of the text’s meaning has subtle inaccuracies or doesn’t capture the
author’s full meaning,
 the thesis statement lacks sufficient depth of thought,
 textual examples (details) adequately but not convincingly support the thesis,
 elaboration is a bit skimpy or unclear,
 the commentary notices but doesn’t necessarily analyze the writer’s
choices/purposes,
 there are parts of the response that are vague, that could use more specificity,
 the prose is generally clear and mostly under control—some word choices are vague
or inappropriate; syntax could be more varied,
 there are a few minor grammatical errors or typos
7 – The response is adequate, but it might contain a few of the following problems:
 the interpretation of the text’s meaning has inaccuracies,
 the thesis statement lacks opinion--too factual,
 textual examples (details) are inconsistent and/or limited—they only weakly support
the thesis,
 elaboration doesn’t adequately orient the reader with the context of the details,
 the commentary doesn’t consider the writer’s choices/purposes or does so only
superficially,
 the response is shallow and/or underdeveloped—the response is often too general,
lacking the specificity that demonstrates close reading,
 the prose is generally clear but there are lapses in clarity—ideas are present but often
not clear for a reader,
 there are several grammatical errors or typos
6 – The response is not quite adequate because it contains several of the following problems:
 the interpretation of the text’s meaning has inaccuracies,
 the thesis statement lacks opinion--too factual,
 textual examples (details) are inconsistent and/or limited—they only weakly support
the thesis,
 elaboration doesn’t adequately orient the reader with the context of the details,
 the commentary doesn’t consider the writer’s choices/purposes or does so only
superficially,
 the response is shallow and/or underdeveloped—the response is often too general,
lacking the specificity that demonstrates close reading,
 the prose is generally clear but there are lapses in clarity—ideas are present but often
not clear for a reader,
 there are several grammatical errors or typos
5 – This response makes it difficult to determine whether or not the student really read this
portion of the book.
Points will also be deducted for missing parts of the TDECDEC.

The Topic Sentence is worth two points.

Each DEC is worth four points.