2019 MCAS
Grade 5 English Language Arts
Question 9

The narrative, a moderately developed continuation of the story, describes what happens next in The Wild Robot. The descriptions are general, as evidenced by the description of the interaction between the robot and the otter playing follow the leader: "She began to raise her left arm. The otter from the back mirrored her and raised his right arm, then the robot put [its] left arm straight out." Events are conveyed with adequate expression of some sensory details: "'Beeep' the robot buzzed. The monotone sound of the robot made all the otters step back." The narrative is moderately organized with adequate details describing what happens next, appropriate pacing, and a sense of closure: "And so it went on into the night and the robot and otter became best friends." Overall, there is sufficient awareness of the purpose for writing presented in the narrative.

The narrative includes a variety of sentence structures, such as "Meanwhile, that one brave otter had removed the robot head from the tidepool and began rolling it around to entertain itself." Effective use of punctuation is demonstrated in sentences that include dialogue. Given its length and complexity, the narrative demonstrates a consistent control of Standard English conventions for this grade level.