Grade 7 Instructional Writing Rubric* (Last Revised 11/1/2012) Aligned to Next Generation West Virginia Content Standards and Objectives for English Language Arts and Literacy Smarter Balanced Claim 2: Students can produce effective and well-grounded writing for a range of purposes and audiences. Development: Elaboration of Narrative Organization Statement of Purpose/Focus NARRATIVE 4 Exemplary – Exceeds Standard 3 Proficient – Meets Standard 2 Partial – Approaches Standard 1 Minimal – Begins Standard The writer clearly focuses and maintains the narrative, real or imagined, throughout effectively engages and orients the reader by o establishing a context and point of view o introducing a narrator and/or characters The writer adequately focuses and generally maintains the narrative, real or imagined, throughout adequately engages and orients the reader by o establishing a context and point of view o introducing a narrator and/or characters The writer somewhat maintains the narrative, real or imagined, throughout with some minor drift in focus somewhat engages the reader by o establishing a context and point of view o introducing a narrator and/or characters The writer effectively creates a sequence of events, real or imagined, that unfolds naturally and logically from beginning to end effectively and consistently incorporates a variety of transition words, phrases and clauses to: o convey sequence o signal shifts from one time frame or setting to another o show relationships among experiences and events provides an effective opening The writer adequately creates a sequence of events, real or imagined, that unfolds naturally and logically from beginning to end adequately incorporates a variety of transition words, phrases and clauses to: o convey sequence o signal shifts form one time frame or setting to another o show relationships among experiences and events provides an adequate opening The writer creates an inconsistent and uneven sequence of events, real or imagined, that unfolds from beginning to end inconsistently incorporates basic transition words, phrases and clauses with little variety to: o convey sequence o signal shifts from one time frame or setting to another o show relationships among experiences and events provides a weak opening The writer shows an attempt to maintain the narrative, real or imagined, but may provide little or no focus may show an attempt to o establish a context and point of view o introduce a narrator and/or characters but the response may be very brief, have major drift or be confusing or ambiguous The writer uses little or no discernible sequence of events, real or imagined, to convey the narrative provides a powerful conclusion that follows from and reflects on the narrated experiences or events The writer provides thorough and effective elaboration: o vivid details o engaging dialogue o exciting pacing o interesting description effectively uses a variety of narrative techniques that advance the story or illustrate the experience provides an adequate conclusion that follows from and reflects on the narrated experiences or events The writer provides adequate elaboration: o sufficient details o appropriate dialogue o acceptable pacing o adequate description adequately uses a variety of narrative techniques that generally advance the story or illustrate the experience provides a weak conclusion that partially follows from the narrated experiences or events The writer provides uneven and cursory elaboration: o uneven details o limited dialogue o inconsistent pacing o simplistic description uses uneven and inconsistent narrative techniques that partially advance the story or illustrate the experience incorporates few or no transition words, phrases and clauses provides little or no opening with extraneous ideas that may intrude does not provide a conclusion that follows from the narrated experiences or events The writer provides minimal elaboration, using little or no: o details o dialogue o pacing o description uses little or no narrative techniques that advance the story or illustrate the experience Language and Vocabulary Conventions The writer clearly and effectively expresses experiences or events effectively uses o precise words and phrases o vivid descriptive details o engaging sensory language to convey a vivid picture of the experiences and events The writer adequately expresses experiences or events adequately uses o precise words and phrases o relevant descriptive details o appropriate sensory language to convey a clear picture of the experiences and events The writer unevenly expresses experiences or events uses o simplistic words and phrases o inconsistent descriptive details o limited sensory language to convey a partial picture of the experiences and events The writer vaguely expresses experiences or events uses o confusing or incorrect words and phrases o little or no descriptive details o little or no sensory language to convey an unclear or confusing picture of the experiences and events The writer demonstrates an effective command of conventions: o demonstrates effective use of capitalization, punctuation, and spelling, with insignificant errors that need little or no editing: comma to separate coordinate adjectives o demonstrates few, if any, errors in grammar and usage: phrases and clauses with no or very few misplaced or dangling modifiers o demonstrates few, if any, errors in sentence formation: much variety in use of simple, compound, complex and compound-complex sentences The writer demonstrates an adequate command of conventions: o demonstrates adequate use of capitalization, punctuation, and spelling, with few errors that need editing but do not detract from the narrative: comma to separate coordinate adjectives o demonstrates some minor errors in grammar and usage: phrases and clauses with few misplaced or dangling modifiers o demonstrates some minor errors in sentence formation that do not obscure meaning: some variety in use of simple, compound, complex and compound-complex sentences The writer demonstrates a partial command of conventions: o demonstrates inconsistent use of capitalization, punctuation, and spelling, with frequent errors that need editing to clarify the narrative: comma to separate coordinate adjectives o demonstrates frequent errors in grammar and usage: phrases and clauses with some misplaced or dangling modifiers o demonstrates frequent errors in sentence formation that may obscure meaning: little variety in use of simple, compound, complex and compound-complex sentences The writer demonstrates a lack of command of conventions o demonstrates incorrect use of capitalization, punctuation, and spelling, with frequent and severe errors that need editing to convey the narrative: comma to separate coordinate adjectives o demonstrates frequent and severe errors in grammar and usage: phrases and clauses with frequent misplaced or dangling modifiers o demonstrates frequent and severe errors in usage and sentence formation that often obscure meaning: mostly simple sentences *This instructional writing rubric is designed as an instructional tool for teachers and students to use as they begin implementation of the Next Generation WV Content Standards and Objectives in the classroom. The existing WV Writing Rubric, aligned to the 21st Century WV Content Standards and Objectives, will continue to be used to assess student writing produced for WESTEST 2 Online Writing, a component of WESTEST 2, through 2014. Classroom teachers, schools and school systems implementing the Next Generation Content Standards prior to 2014 should use this instructional rubric to assess student growth in writing relevant to the expectations set forth in the Next Generation Standards prior to 2014-15 when the SMARTER Balanced Assessment is scheduled to be administered as the state summative assessment.