Composing/Written Expression

COMPOSING/WRITTEN EXPRESSION 4 3 2 1 CENTRAL IDEA  Clear, consistent focus  Reasonably consistent focus  Inconsistent focus on central  Little or no focus on a on a central idea on central idea idea central idea  Clear awareness of  Awareness of intended  Limited awareness of  No awareness of audience intended audience audience audience ORGANIZATION  Follows a logical  Evidence of an organizational  Inconsistent organizational  Little or no organization AND organizational plan plan plan plan UNITY  Stays consistently on  Stays mainly on topic and may  Strays from the main topic  Main topic not evident topic with few have a few digressions and has many digressions digressions  Has a beginning, middle, and  Some evidence or an attempt  No clear beginning,  Strong beginning, end at a beginning, middle, and middle, and end middle, and end  Each paragraph has a topic end  Each paragraph does not  Each paragraph has a sentence somewhat focused on  Each paragraph has an have a topic sentence with strong topic sentence the main idea inconsistent or weak topic little or no indication of focusing on the main  Uses transitional words and/or sentence the main idea idea phrases to connect thoughts  Inconsistent use of  Little or no evidence of  Effectively uses transitional words and/or transitional words and/or transitional words phrases to connect thoughts phrases to connect and/or phrases to thoughts connect thoughts

ELABORATION AND  Fully elaborated using  Somewhat elaborated with  Contains limited use of  Contains little or no DETAILS facts, definitions, sufficient use of facts, facts, definitions, opinions, elaboration, lack of details opinions, quotations, definitions, opinions, quotations, details, and/or and/or examples details, and/or other quotations, details, and/or other examples to support the examples to support the other examples to support the central idea central idea central idea

SENTENCE  Includes a variety of  Includes some sentence variety  Includes little or no sentence  No sentences of various FORMATION AND sentence lengths and in lengths and beginnings variety in lengths and lengths or beginnings STRUCTURE beginnings beginnings FLOW  Rhythmic flow  Some rhythmic flow and  Uneven rhythmic flow,  No rhythmic flow or resulting from sentence variety with some limited sentence variety, sentence variety, no use purposeful sentence effective clauses and repetitive sentence patterns, of clauses or transitions variety, clauses, and transitions little use of clauses and transitions transitions

School divisions may include additional writing requirements to this document. Teachers should consult the Curriculum Framework for grade-specific student writing expectations, as writing instruction is the responsibility of every grade, not just SOL-tested grades. Teachers should add the usage and mechanics domain. Virginia Department of Education November 2012 WORD CHOICE  Contains highly  Contains specific word choice,  Limited word choice,  Little or no specific word specific word choice, descriptive language, and descriptive language and choice, descriptive descriptive language, selected information selected information language, and selected and selected  Evidence of tone  Inconsistent tone information information  Some evidence of writer’s  Limited evidence of writer’s  Little or no tone  Appropriate, voice voice  No evidence of writer’s purposeful tone voice  Evidence of writer’s voice

School divisions may include additional writing requirements to this document. Teachers should consult the Curriculum Framework for grade-specific student writing expectations, as writing instruction is the responsibility of every grade, not just SOL-tested grades. Teachers should add the usage and mechanics domain. Virginia Department of Education November 2012