Writing Assessment – Short Constructed Response: Literary Analysis
Over the course of the year, students will have multiple opportunities to write 1-2 paragraph responses
analyzing various pieces of literature for meaning and authorial purpose. The responses will be centered
around the question:
Analyze how the writer/speaker establishes meaning and/or purpose using literary techniques.
The question itself is purposefully very open-ended. Assessment in MYP Language and Literature is
ideally designed to allow students choice and the ability to highlight the deepest levels of their
understanding and to achieve the highest levels in each criteria assessed. Students will need to define
the writer’s message/meaning/purpose and analyze the techniques that best support their reading of
the author’s intention.
Student responses will be judged on MYP Objective A: Analysis.
Objective A: Analysis Breakdown:
The student:
i.
provides perceptive analysis of the content, context, structure, technique, style of the text(s) and
the relationship among texts
ii. perceptively analyzes the effects of the creator’s choices on an audience
iii. gives detailed justification of opinions and ideas with a range of examples, and thorough
explanations; uses accurate terminology
iv. perceptively compares and contrasts by making extensive connections in features across and
within genres and texts
Analyze and write a Short Constructed Response for the poem below. Then grade your SCR based on
the rubric attached:
The Tide Rises, the Tide Falls
By Henry Wadsworth Longfellow 1807–1882
The tide rises, the tide falls,
The twilight darkens, the curlew calls;
Along the sea-sands damp and brown
The traveller hastens toward the town,
And the tide rises, the tide falls.
Darkness settles on roofs and walls,
But the sea, the sea in the darkness calls;
The little waves, with their soft, white hands,
Efface the footprints in the sands,
And the tide rises, the tide falls.
The morning breaks; the steeds in their stalls
Stamp and neigh, as the hostler calls;
The day returns, but nevermore
Returns the traveller to the shore,
And the tide rises, the tide falls.
0
1-2
3-4
5-6
7-8
Criterion A: Analyzing
The student does not reach a standard described by any of the descriptors below
The student:
i. provides limited analysis of the content, context, language, structure, technique and style of text(s) and the
relationship among texts
ii. provides limited analysis of the effects of the creator’s choices on an audience
iii. rarely justifies opinions and ideas with examples or explanations; uses little or no terminology
iv. evaluates few similarities and differences by making minimal connections in features across and within
genres and texts
The student:
i. provides adequate analysis of the content, context, language, structure, technique and style of text(s) and the
relationship among texts
ii. provides adequate analysis of the effects of the creator’s choice on an audience
iii. justifies opinions and ideas with some examples and explanations, though this may not be consistent; uses
some terminology
iv. evaluates some similarities and differences by making adequate connections in features across and within
genres and texts
The student:
i. competently analyzes the content, context, language, structure, technique, style of text(s) and the
relationship among texts
ii. competently analyzes the effects of the creator’s choices on an audience
iii. sufficiently justifies opinions and ideas with examples and explanations; uses accurate terminology
iv. evaluates similarities and differences by making substantial connections in features across and within
genres and texts
The student:
v. provides perceptive analysis of the content, context, structure, technique, style of the text(s) and the
relationship among texts
vi. perceptively analyzes the effects of the creator’s choices on an audience
vii. gives detailed justification of opinions and ideas with a range of examples, and thorough explanations;
uses accurate terminology
viii. perceptively compares and contrasts by making extensive connections in features across and within
genres and texts