| FCAT Writing was designed to measure Florida students' achievement of
the Sunshine State Standards in writing. Broward County school district has
integrated these standards into their grade level writing expectations to
ensure that students receive instruction related to the Sunshine State
Standards. The test prompts are written to measure benchmarks from the
Sunshine State Standards that identify what students should know and be able
to do in writing.
What does the FCAT Writing look like?
FCAT Writing is designed to represent the writing skills that parents
and teachers expect of good instruction. The test requires students to read
a prompt and respond by writing an essay or story about that topic within
the 45 minute timeframe. At the fourth grade, half of the students receive
an expository prompt, requiring them to write an essay to explain a topic;
while the other half receive a narrative prompt that requires them to write
a story.
In 4th grade all students will begin learning, practicing, and
perfecting their Expository writing skills. After a series of weeks, our
instruction changes to that of the narrative element.
(For more information on "prompts" see: FCAT Writing Prompts on the FL
Dept of Education FCAT web site.)
Both in class and on the FCAT Writing Test papers will be scored using a
6-point scale (rubric) based on the overall quality of the writing with
consideration given to the elements of focus, organization, support, and use
of the conventions of standard written English. This is the rubric I will be
using to score my students expository and narrative essays.
Score Points in Rubric
*The rubric further interprets the four major areas of consideration into
levels of achievement. The rubric used to score papers is shown below.
6 Points
The writing is focused, purposeful, and reflects insight into the writing
situation. The paper conveys a sense of completeness and wholeness with
adherence to the main idea, and its organizational pattern provides for a
logical progression of ideas. The support is substantial, specific,
relevant, concrete, and/or illustrative. The paper demonstrates a commitment
to and an involvement with the subject, clarity in presentation of ideas,
and may use creative writing strategies appropriate to the purpose of the
paper. The writing demonstrates a mature command of language (word choice)
with freshness of expression. Sentence structure is varied, and sentences
are complete except when fragments are used purposefully. Few, if any,
convention errors occur in mechanics, usage, and punctuation.
5 Points
The writing focuses on the topic, and its organizational pattern provides
for a progression of ideas, although some lapses may occur. The paper
conveys a sense of completeness or wholeness. The support is ample. The
writing demonstrates a mature command of language, including precision in
word choice. There is variation in sentence structure, and, with rare
exceptions, sentences are complete except when fragments are used
purposefully. The paper generally follows the conventions of mechanics,
usage, and spelling.
4 Points
The writing is generally focused on the topic but may include extraneous or
loosely related material. An organizational pattern is apparent, although
some lapses may occur. The paper exhibits some sense of completeness or
wholeness. The support, including word choice, is adequate, although
development may be uneven. There is little variation in sentence structure,
and most sentences are complete. The paper generally follows the conventions
of mechanics, usage, and spelling.
3 Points
The writing is generally focused on the topic but may include extraneous or
loosely related material. An organizational pattern has been attempted, but
the paper may lack a sense of completeness or wholeness. Some support is
included, but development is erratic. Word choice is adequate but may be
limited, predictable, or occasionally vague. There is little, if any,
variation in sentence structure. Knowledge of the conventions of mechanics
and usage is usually demonstrated, and commonly used words are usually
spelled correctly.
2 Points
The writing is related to the topic but include extraneous or loosely
related material. Little evidence of an organizational pattern may be
demonstrated, and the paper may lack a sense of completeness or wholeness.
Development of support is inadequate or illogical. Word choice is limited,
inappropriate or vague. There is little, if any, variation in sentence
structure, and gross errors in sentence structure may occur. Errors in basic
conventions of mechanics and usage may occur, and commonly used words may be
misspelled.
1 Point
The writing may only minimally address the topic. The paper is a fragmentary
or incoherent listing of related ideas or sentences or both. Little, if any,
development of support or an organizational pattern or both is apparent.
Limited or inappropriate word choice may obscure meaning. Gross errors in
sentence structure and usage may impede communication. Frequent and blatant
errors may occur in the basic conventions of mechanics and usage, and
commonly used words may be misspelled.
Unscorable
The paper is unscorable because:
*the response is not related to what the prompt requested the student to do.
*the response is simply a rewording of the prompt.
*the response is a copy of a published work.
*the student refused to write.
*the response is illegible.
*the response is incomprehensible (words are arranged in such a way that no
meaning is conveyed).
*the response contains an insufficient amount of writing to determine if the
student was attempting to address the prompt.
the writing folder is blank.
*********In our class we will strive for a LEVEL SIX! | |
