All Together Now
An argumentative essay
Situation:
This week, we have read, annotated, and discussed three texts: “All Together
Now”, “Melting Pot”, and “I Am a Native of North America”. Each text, in some
way talks about race relations in America.
According to Barbara Jordan, in her address to the Democratic National
Convention in 1992, teaching tolerance and not creating new legislation is the best
way to improve race relations in the United States.
Task:
What is the “best way” to improve race relations? Write an argumentative essay
that clearly states your claim and uses evidence from the texts to support your
claim and your reasons. Be sure to identify a counter argument (counter claim) and
the evidence that supports it as well.
Your essay should:
 Make a claim
 Select appropriate supporting evidence from the texts and provide
commentary about its relevance to the argument
 Identify a counterclaim (counter argument) and provide supporting evidence
and commentary about its relevance to the argument
 Use correct spelling, grammar, and punctuation (including indenting every
paragraph)
All Together Now
An argumentative essay
Scoring Guide
A
B
C
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Advanced
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Proficient
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Partially
Proficient
D
Not
Proficient
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Clearly makes a claim (What is the best way to improve race relations?)
Consistently selects appropriate supporting evidence from the texts and
provides commentary about its relevance to the argument
Identifies a relevant counterclaim and provides supporting evidence and
commentary about its relevance to the argument
Consistently uses correct spelling, grammar, and punctuation with few to no
errors
Makes a claim (What is the best way to improve race relations?)
Selects appropriate supporting evidence from the texts and provides some
commentary about its relevance to the argument
Identifies a counterclaim, provides supporting evidence, and may provide
commentary about its relevance to the argument
Uses correct spelling, grammar, and punctuation with few errors that do not
make it difficult for the reader to understand the content
Makes a claim (What is the best way to improve race relations?)
Selects supporting evidence from the texts and may provide commentary about
its relevance to the argument
May identify a counterclaim, provides supporting evidence, and may provide
commentary about its relevance to the argument
Uses correct spelling, grammar, and punctuation with errors that may not make
it difficult for the reader to understand the content
May not makes claim (What is the best way to improve race relations?) and
little attempt to address the prompt
May not select supporting evidence from the texts or may not provide
commentary about its relevance to the argument
Does not identify a counterclaim, provides supporting evidence, or does not
provide commentary about its relevance to the argument
Uses correct spelling, grammar, and punctuation several errors, making it
difficult for the reader to understand the content