Grade 4 Writing Prompt Anchor Papers
Archdiocese of Seattle
Level One: Below Grade Level
Criterion
Focus / Opinion
CCSS
● W 1a
● W 1b
● W4
Level 1 – Below Grade Level
Evidence / Justification
●
Responds to only part of the prompt.
●
Fails to mention cats are better than
dogs.
●
Little understanding of topic. Mentions
only walking once or twice a day.
●
States cats sleep at night (so do dogs).
Does not organize ideas and
information coherently due to lack of
paragraph structure and/or a missing
introduction, body, or conclusion
Uses no linking words or phrases
●
No paragraphs. No clear sentences.
●
No introduction or conclusion.
●
Does use one linking word (because).
● Responds to some or no parts of the
prompt
● Does not state an opinion and/or
demonstrates little to no
understanding of topic/text
Organization
CCSS – W
● W 1a
● W 1c
● W 1d
● W4
●
Evidence / Support
CCSS
● RIT 1
● W 1b
● W 9b
●
Does not support opinion with facts,
details, and/or reasons
●
Minimal facts/details/reasons for
opinion.
●
Provides no or inaccurate
explanation/analysis of how evidence
supports opinion
●
Information is inaccurate (cats sleep at
night).
Language
CCSS
● L 1
● L 2
●
Does not demonstrate sentence
mastery
●
Does not demonstrate sentence
mastery.
●
Demonstrates limited understanding of
grade level appropriate conventions,
and errors interfere with the meaning
●
Spelling errors.
●
No punctuation.
●
Errors in capitalization.
●
No academic vocabulary.
●
●
Uses no academic or domain-specific
vocabulary
Language
Does not demonstrate sentence mastery. Spelling errors. No punctuation. Errors in capitalization. No academic vocabulary.
Grade 4 Writing Prompt Anchor Papers
Archdiocese of Seattle
Level Two: Approaching Grade Level
Criterion
Level 2 – Approaching Grade Level
Evidence / Justification
Focus / Opinion
CCSS
● W 1a
● W 1b
● W4
●
●
Responds to most parts of the prompt.
States an opinion that demonstrates
limited understanding of topic text.
●
Does respond to prompt.
Organization
CCSS – W
● W 1a
● W 1c
● W 1d
● W4
●
Organizes ideas and information in an
attempted paragraph structure that
includes a sense of introduction, body,
and conclusion.
Uses some linking words and/or
phrases to connect reasons to opinion
but simplistically
●
Attempts introduction and
conclusions.
●
Shows only one paragraph.
Evidence / Support
CCSS
● RIT 1
● W 1b
● W 9b
●
Supports opinion with minimal and/or
irrelevant facts, details, and/or reasons
●
Some evidence given (playing and
having to clean) but details are unclear.
●
Provides some explanation/analysis of
how evidence supports opinion
Language
CCSS
● L 1
● L 2
●
Uses some repetitive yet correct
sentence structure
●
●
Demonstrates some grade level
appropriate conventions, but errors
obscure meaning
Errors in punctuation, sentence
structure and spelling obscure
meaning.
●
Some domain specific vocabulary
used (litter box, golden retriever).
●
●
Uses limited academic and/or domain
–specific vocabulary for the audience
and purpose
Grade 4 Writing Prompt Anchor Papers
Archdiocese of Seattle
Level Three: At Grade Level
Criterion
Level 3 – At Grade Level
Focus / Opinion
CCSS
● W 1a
● W 1b
● W4
●
●
Organization
CCSS – W
● W 1a
● W 1c
● W 1d
● W4
●
Evidence / Support
CCSS
● RIT 1
● W 1b
● W 9b
Language
CCSS
● L 1
● L 2
Evidence / Justification
Responds to all parts of the prompt
States an opinion that demonstrates
an understanding of topic/text
●
Responds to prompt and uses specific
details to support opinion.
●
Gives background knowledge
Organizes ideas and information into
logical introductory, body, and
concluding paragraphs
Uses linking words and phrases
appropriately to connect reasons to
opinion
●
Has clear paragraphs with
introduction, body and concluding
statements
●
Supports opinion with relevant facts,
details, and/or reasons
●
Evidence is given with support for
each point, paragraph by paragraph
●
Provides clear explanation/analysis of
how evidence supports opinion
●
Uses correct and varied sentence
structures
●
●
Demonstrates grade level appropriate
conventions; errors are minor and do
not obscure meaning
Varied sentence structure “The
reasons…If you live…As the
saying…Perhaps…Dogs aren’t only…”
●
Appropriate conventions
●
Minor errors do not obscure meaning
●
●
Uses academic and domain-specific
vocabulary appropriate for the
audience and purpose
Grade 4 Writing Prompt Anchor Papers
Archdiocese of Seattle
Level Four – Above Grade Level
Criterion
Level 4 – Above Grade Level
Focus / Opinion
CCSS
● W 1a
● W 1b
● W4
●
Organization
CCSS – W
● W 1a
● W 1c
● W 1d
● W4
●
Evidence / Support
CCSS
● RIT 1
● W 1b
● W 9b
●
●
Provides insightful
explanation/analysis of how evidence
supports opinion
Language
CCSS
● L 1
● L 2
●
●
●
●
●
Evidence / Justification
Responds skillfully to all parts of the
prompt
States an opinion that demonstrates
an insightful understanding of
topic/text
●
Responds to all parts of the prompt.
●
Shows insight with examples from
personal experiences.
Organizes ideas and information into
purposeful, coherent paragraphs that
include an elaborated introduction with
clear thesis, structured body, and
insightful conclusion
Uses linking words, phrases, and
clauses skillfully to connect reasons to
opinion
Supports opinion skillfully with
substantial and relevant facts, details,
and/or reasons
●
Shows paragraphs
●
Structure includes introduction,
structured body and conclusion.
●
Use of linking words (either, or, but)
●
Relevant facts and details from
personal experience support each
point.
Uses purposeful, correct, and varied
sentence structures
●
Uses varied sentence structures
(questions, exclamations).
Demonstrates creativity and flexibility
when using conventions (grammar,
punctuation, capitalization, and
spelling) to enhance meaning
●
Uses punctuation carefully.
●
Grade level mastery of grammar and
spelling.
Uses precise and sophisticated
academic and domain-specific
vocabulary appropriate for the
audience and purpose