2018 MCAS
Grade 8 English Language Arts
Question 16

The narrative provides a general description of events and characters from Keo's point of view. Events are presented as the occur in the passage, though the writer adds some original content, as in this example from the introduction: "I love to swim, I always have. . . . I am always trying to convince my cousin Sonny to go swimming with me." Details are appropriately selected, but they are only moderately developed and expanded upon with original thought. Organization is moderate, and the writing demonstrates sufficient awareness of the task and narrative mode.

The narrative is somewhat brief, yet it contains sufficient complexity to demonstrate control of conventions: "When I went into the room that Sonny and I share, my mom and Sonny's dad were packing all of Sonny's clothes up." Sentence forms are varied and relatively complex: "Today when we were in the water with our tubes, Sonny's Dad came out to watch." There are errors, but not enough to take away from the overall control of grammar, usage, and mechanics demonstrated in the narrative.