2018 MCAS
Grade 4 English Language Arts
Question 8

The narrative is fully developed as it retells events from Polo's point of view. A clear expression of ideas is conveyed as Polo describes his feelings; for example, "On the outside I was calm[,] but on the inside I was nervous." Effective organization and description of events show an explicit connection to the plot elements in the original text. The narrative demonstrates a full awareness of the purpose for writing as the story moves toward Polo's understanding that "the backyard was only the beginning of my outside adventure."

The narrative contains a variety of sentence structures. There are minor errors in conventions such as a lack of quotation marks for dialogue, other punctuation, and grammar usage (e.g., "passed" instead of "past"), but these errors do not impede understanding. Based on its length and complexity, the essay demonstrates consistent control of Standard English conventions for this grade level.