In this performance assessment, students will read a short narrative and analyze the author’s use of sensory details. Then, they will create their own short narrative using sensory details. This performance assessment is designed to assess the students’ mastery over using descriptive details to engage readers.
Specifically, students will be asked to read Sandra Cisneros’s narrative “Eleven,” from House on Mango Street. Students will fill out a graphic organizer analyzing the sensory details from her narrative. Students will conduct a brainstorming activity about an event in their own lives in which they experienced a strong emotion that focuses on sensory details. Students will write a narrative about this event from their lives. Students can create the final presentation in any appropriate way, including, but not limited to, Microsoft Word, Google Docs, or hand-written on paper in proper format with blue or black ink.
This assessment can be used at any time in grade 7 after students have had instruction on author techniques such as using details in descriptive writing to engage readers, and structure of a narrative. For example, students should know that a narrative has a beginning, middle, and end that includes a sequence of events. Narratives have characters who work through a conflict and a general idea of theme. This assessment is specifically designed to assess the students’ mastery with using details in descriptive writing as an author craft, not structure. However, the students are also assessed on the basic structure of a narrative.
In this performance assessment, students will read a short narrative and analyze the author’s use of sensory details. Then, they will create their own short narrative using sensory details. This performance assessment is designed to assess the students’ mastery over using descriptive details to engage readers.
Specifically, students will be asked to read Sandra Cisneros’s narrative “Eleven,” from House on Mango Street. Students will fill out a graphic organizer analyzing the sensory details from her narrative. Students will conduct a brainstorming activity about an event in their own lives in which they experienced a strong emotion that focuses on sensory details. Students will write a narrative about this event from their lives. Students can create the final presentation in any appropriate way, including, but not limited to, Microsoft Word, Google Docs, or hand-written on paper in proper format with blue or black ink.
This assessment can be used at any time in grade 7 after students have had instruction on author techniques such as using details in descriptive writing to engage readers, and structure of a narrative. For example, students should know that a narrative has a beginning, middle, and end that includes a sequence of events. Narratives have characters who work through a conflict and a general idea of theme. This assessment is specifically designed to assess the students’ mastery with using details in descriptive writing as an author craft, not structure. However, the students are also assessed on the basic structure of a narrative.
| Big Ideas | Competencies |
|---|---|
A. Reading LiteratureStudents can read with purpose, understand and analyze evidence in literature to construct meaning in increasingly complex texts. |
A2Students can compare and contrast the creative choices (e.g., word choice, structure, rhyme, repetitions, and literary elements) of an author. |
C. WritingStudents can effectively communicate purpose to an intended audience through written language, using a variety of media. |
C3Students can write well-structured narratives using to develop real or imagined experiences or events using effective technique, relevant descriptive details, and well-structured event sequences (e.g., dialogue and pacing). |
Below are analytic teacher rubrics. The column on the left shows the dimension that is being measured in the student’s performance. The levels across the top row indicate the performance level in the dimensions. Occasionally all dimensions and performance levels are exemplified by multiple students in a single recording.
| Dimensions | Not Yet Meeting Expectations | Meeting Expectations | Exceeding Expectations |
|---|---|---|---|
Structure of a Narrative |
No exemplars at this time.
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No exemplars at this time.
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No exemplars at this time.
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Use of Sensory Details |
No exemplars at this time.
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No exemplars at this time.
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No exemplars at this time.
|
Conventions |
No exemplars at this time.
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No exemplars at this time.
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No exemplars at this time.
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