Six-Trait Writing Rubric
Rubric Sample for Scoring AIMS Grade 5 Sample Writing Test
The AIMS Writing Sample Test Prompt papers are a representation of the student responses from the 2003-04 field test prompt. Students produced the papers in an AIMS testing environment. Prompts were not known until the beginning of the testing period. Students were directed to use the writing process to brainstorm or pre-write, create a first draft, and produce a final draft in one sitting. The papers were scored by Harcourt-Brace and returned to ADE in December, 2004. Teacher committees were assembled to establish anchor sets in each trait. The Assessment Section finalized the process by providing annotations for each score point of each trait. The papers were scanned and are exactly as written by Arizona students; all identification markers have been removed. Scores are true to the scoring by the testing company. Although we anticipate that expectations for each score point may be higher in the classroom where teachers and students use multiple days to produce a final draft, these papers represent how the testing company determined the scores for the test prompt responses. Effort to ensure samples represented districts statewide was a priority in selecting the samples.
These sample papers may be printed and used in the classroom for instructional purposes. Allowing students to read the papers and the annotations will strengthen their understandin g of what a successful writer is. Using the sample papers can also be a very effective strategy to help students understand what makes writing work and what the expectations are for AIMS writing. Viewing these samples on a large screen in the classroom pro vides an excellent opportunity for a discussion of strengths and weaknesses of each paper in terms of the six traits of writing. If you score papers as a group to reach consensus, students can compare their scores to a given score. You may then discuss how the papers could be revised and edited for improvement while using the scoring guide. This allows for targeted instruction in each trait. Through this experience students will become the best raters of their own papers for the six traits through this experience.
For more information on the AIMS Six Trait Analytic Writing Rubric, please click here.
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This page was last updated on
Wednesday, October 29, 2008.
