English 9 and 10

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The 2020 U.S. Census: Who Counts? Read and annotate each text in the set, and answer the questions that accompany each one.

After you have read and responded to all five texts, complete the informational writing task below.

Texts

Novel Excerpt From There There by Tommy Orange

Poem “An American Sunrise” by poet laureate Joy Harjo

News Article “‘We are Still Here’: Native Americans fight to be counted in U.S. census” from The Guardian

Informational Text “The History of the Census” by National Geographic Society

Opinion “The 2020 Census is still at risk” from The Washington Post

Task

Informational Writing - 9-10.W.TTP.2

CLTs: 1. I can write informative texts to convey complex ideas, concepts, and information clearly and

accurately. 2. I can choose relevant and sufficient evidence to develop the topic. 3. I can organize the information effectively to create cohesion.

You have read several texts about the U.S. Census and the issue of underrepresentation especially as it affects Native Americans and other minority groups. Write a multi-paragraph informational essay explaining why underrepresentation is a problem, the factors that contribute to underrepresentation, and possible solutions. Use evidence from at least three texts in your response. Avoid over-relying on any one text.

Responses will be scored using the TN Informational Writing Rubric found on the last page of this document.

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Excerpts from There There by Tommy Orange

Read and annotate the text. Write a multi-sentence response to each of the questions that follow.

Indian Head

There was an Indian head, the head of an Indian, the drawing

of the head of a headdressed, long haired, Indian depicted,

drawn by an unknown artist in 1939, broadcast until the late

1970s to American TVs everywhere after all the shows ran

out. It's called the Indian Head Test Pattern. If you left the TV

on, you'd hear a tone at 440 hertz—the tone used to tune

instruments—and you'd see that Indian, surrounded by

circles that looked like sights through rifle scopes. There was

what looked like a bullseye in the middle of the screen, with

numbers like coordinates. The Indian head was just above

the bullseye, like all you'd need to do was nod up in

agreement to set the sights on the target. This was just a test.

In 1621, colonists invited Massasoit, chief of the Wampanoags, to a feast after a recent land deal. Massasoit

came with ninety of his men. That meal is why we still eat a meal together in November. Celebrate it as a

nation. But that one wasn't a thanksgiving meal. It was a land deal meal. Two years later there was another,

similar meal, meant to symbolize eternal friendship. Two hundred Indians dropped dead that night from

supposed unknown poison.

By the time Massasoit's son Metacomet became chief, there were no Indian-Pilgrim meals being eaten

together. Metacomet, also known as King Phillip, was forced to sign a peace treaty to give up all Indian guns.

Three of his men were hanged. His brother Wamsutta was let's say very likely poisoned after being

summoned and seized by the Plymouth court. All of which lead to the first official Indian war. The first war

with Indians. King Phillip's War. Three years later the war was over and Metacomet was on the run. He was

caught by Benjamin Church, Captain of the very first American Ranger force and an Indian by the name of

John Alderman. Metacomet was beheaded and dismembered. Quartered. They tied his four body sections to

nearby trees for the birds to pluck. John Alderman was given Metacomet's hand, which he kept in a jar of

rum and for years took it around with him—charged people to see it. Metacomet's head was sold to the

Plymouth Colony for thirty shillings—the going rate for an Indian head at the time. The head was spiked and

carried through the streets of Plymouth before it was put on display at Plymouth Colony Fort for the next

twenty five years.

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In 1637, anywhere from four to seven hundred Pequot were gathered for their annual green corn dance.

Colonists surrounded the Pequot village, set it on fire, and shot any Pequot who tried to escape. The next day

the Massachusetts Bay Colony had a feast in celebration, and the governor declared it a day of thanksgiving.

Thanksgivings like these happened everywhere, whenever there were, what we have to call: successful

massacres. At one such celebration in Manhattan, people were said to have celebrated by kicking the heads

of Pequot people through the streets like soccer balls.

The first novel ever written by a Native person, and the first novel written in California, was written in 1854,

by a Cherokee guy named John Rollin Ridge. His novel, The Life and Adventures of Joaquin Murieta, was

based on a supposed real-life Mexican bandit from California by the same name, who, in 1853, was killed by a

group of Texas rangers. To prove they'd killed Murrieta and collect the five thousand dollar reward put on his

head—they cut it off. Kept it in a jar of whiskey. They also took the hand of his fellow bandit Three Fingered

Jack. The rangers took Joaquin's head and the hand on a tour throughout California, charged a dollar for the

show.

The Indian head in the jar, the Indian head on a pike were like flags flown, to be seen, cast broadly. Just like

the Indian head test pattern was broadcast to sleeping Americans as we set sail from our living rooms, over

the ocean blue green glowing airwaves, to the shores, the screens of the new world.

⬥⬥⬥

We've been defined by everyone else and continue to be slandered despite easy-to-look-up-on-the-internet

facts about the realities of our histories and current state as a people. We have the sad, defeated Indian

silhouette, and the rolling heads down temple stairs, we have it in our heads, Kevin Costner saving us, John

Wayne's six-shooter slaying us, an Italian guy named Iron Eyes Cody playing our parts in movies. We have the

litter-mourning, tear-ridden Indian in the commercial (also Iron Eyes Cody), and the sink-tossing, Jack

Nicholson saving, crazy Indian who was the narrator in the novel, the voice of One Flew Over the Cuckoo's

Nest. We have all the logos and mascots. The copy of a copy of the image of an Indian in a textbook. All the

way from the top of Canada, the top of Alaska, down to the bottom of South America, Indians were removed

then reduced to a feathered image. Our heads are on flags, jerseys, and coins. Our heads were on the penny

first, of course, the Indian head cent, and then on the buffalo nickel, both before we could even vote as a

people—which, like the truth of what happened in history all over the world, and like all that spilled blood

from slaughter, is now out of circulation.

⬥⬥⬥

We are the memories we don't remember, that live in us, that we feel, that make us sing and dance and pray

the way we do, feelings from memories that flare and bloom unexpectedly in our lives like blood through a

blanket from a wound made by a bullet fired by a man shooting us in the back for our hair, for our heads, for

a bounty, or just to get rid of us.

When they first came for us with their bullets, we didn't stop moving even though the bullets moved twice as

fast as the sound of our screams, and even when their heat and speed broke our skin, shattered our bones,

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skulls, pierced our hearts, we kept on, even when we saw the bullets send our bodies flailing through the air

like flags, like the many flags and buildings that went up in place of everything we knew this land to be

before.

The bullets were premonitions, ghosts from dreams of a hard fast future. The bullets moved on after moving

through us, became the promise of what was to come, the speed and the killing, the hard fast lines of

borders and buildings. They took everything and ground it down to dust as fine as gunpowder, they fired

their guns into the air in victory and the strays flew out into the nothingness of histories written wrong and

meant to be forgotten. Stray bullets and consequences are landing on our unsuspecting bodies even now.

1. What is a central idea of this passage? Explain your thinking, supporting your idea with strong text

evidence. KID.2

2. Reread the first paragraph. What is its significance to the text as a whole? How does it help to

develop the central idea? CS.5

3. Interpret the final line in the excerpt, and analyze its role in the text. How does it impact the

meaning of the piece? CS.4

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An American Sunrise by poet laureate Joy Harjo

We were running out of breath, as we ran out to meet ourselves. We were surfacing the edge of our ancestors’ fights, and ready to strike. It was difficult to lose days in the Indian bar if you were straight. Easy if you played pool and drank to remember to forget. We made plans to be professional — and did. And some of us could sing so we drummed a fire-lit pathway up to those starry stars. Sin was invented by the Christians, as was the Devil, we sang. We were the heathens, but needed to be saved from them — thin chance. We knew we were all related in this story, a little gin will clarify the dark and make us all feel like dancing. We had something to do with the origins of blues and jazz I argued with a Pueblo as I filled the jukebox with dimes in June, forty years later and we still want justice. We are still America. We know the rumors of our demise. We spit them out. They die soon.

◆◆◆

Joy Harjo

Joy Harjo was born in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and is a member of

the Muscogee (Creek) Nation. She earned her BA from the

University of New Mexico and MFA from the Iowa Writers’

Workshop. Harjo draws on First Nation storytelling and

histories, as well as feminist and social justice poetic

traditions, and frequently incorporates indigenous myths,

symbols, and values into her writing. Her poetry inhabits

landscapes—the Southwest, Southeast, but also Alaska and

Hawaii—and centers around the need for remembrance and

transcendence. She once commented, “I feel strongly that I

have a responsibility to all the sources that I am: to all past

and future ancestors, to my home country, to all places that I touch down on and that are myself, to all voices, all

women, all of my tribe, all people, all earth, and beyond that to all beginnings and endings. In a strange kind of

sense [writing] frees me to believe in myself, to be able to speak, to have voice, because I have to; it is my

survival.” Her work is often autobiographical, informed by the natural world, and above all preoccupied with

survival and the limitations of language. She was named U.S. poet laureate in June 2019, the first Native American

author to be appointed to that position.

1. Describe the tone of the poem, and explain how Harjo creates it. What specific words and phrases

contribute to the tone you identified? CS.4

2. What is a theme of the poem? Support your ideas with strong text evidence. KID.2

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"We are still here": Native Americans fight to be counted in U.S.

census from The Guardian

In 2017, President Donald Trump signed an executive order that reduced the size of Bears Ears and Grand

Staircase-Escalante national monuments in Utah by nearly 2 million acres. Trump claimed the move was

supported by the state and local county where the monuments are located.

On the ground, however, that statement did not add up.

Native Americans account for a majority of the population in San Juan County, Utah. The county includes

parts of the reservations of the Navajo Nation and the Ute Mountain Ute Tribe. Both tribes officially support

the protection of Bears Ears. Through gerrymandering, the majority indigenous county maintained a

majority-white county commission.

Gerrymandering is dividing an area into election districts in a way that gives one political party an unfair

advantage.

Last year, everything changed. The Navajo Nation brought a lawsuit against San Juan, accusing the county of

racial gerrymandering under the Voting Rights Act of 1965. The law prohibits racial discrimination in voting.

The tribe won. The county was forced to redraw its election maps and in the fall of 2018, for the first time

ever, a majority-indigenous commission was elected. The county commission now, officially, supports the

protection of Bears Ears.

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Fighting For Political Representation

Today, the Navajo Nation is still fighting for political representation using the U.S. census, which will take

place in 2020. Census data showed that the county's election maps reduced the voting power of indigenous

residents. This data was necessary to the tribe winning the lawsuit. Census data also determines the tribal

citizens' representation in Congress, state and county elections and even the Navajo Nation's own tribal

council.

According to the U.S. Constitution, all residents living in the United States are to be counted every 10 years.

The final census count determines seats in Congress, election maps for local and state representatives and

the allocation of more than $900 billion in annual federal spending for the next decade, including $5.6 billion

for tribal programs. Despite the sprawling impact of the U.S. census, Native Americans have historically been

undercounted.

"It impacts everything," Charlaine Tso said. Tso represents District 9 on the Navajo Nation's tribal council, the

section of the reservation in San Juan County. "It impacts education, roads and maintenance, elder care,

funding for everything on our reservation."

Tso serves on the Navajo Nation's Complete Count Commission for the 2020 census. The committee believes

Navajos, despite being one of the largest tribes in the United States, were significantly undercounted in the

2010 census, which ended up lowering government funding levels for the tribe. "We know for sure that it was

nowhere near accurate. That margin, imagine what difference it makes in federal funding," Tso said.

The problem is not unique to the Navajo Nation. An estimated 1 in 7 Native Americans living on tribal lands

were not counted in the last U.S. census, making Native Americans the group most likely to be missed.

Native Americans Live In "Hard-To-Count" Areas

An estimated 1 in 3 Native Americans live in what the Census Bureau considers "hard-to-count" rural census

tracts, representing 80 percent of all tribal lands. In many states with large indigenous populations, more

than half of the indigenous residents live in census-delineated "hard-to-count" areas.

Other factors also disproportionately affect Native Americans, including poverty, housing insecurity,

education and even age, as 42 percent of Native Americans are under the age of 24.

Desi Rodrigues-Lonebear is a member of the Northern Cheyenne tribe and a demographer, which is an expert

in changing human populations, who served on the Census Bureau's national advisory committee from 2013

to 2019. She says another big factor is mistrust.

"You're trying to convince people, your own relatives even, who for their whole lives wanted nothing else but

to be left alone by the feds," Rodrigues-Lonebear said. "And you're coming to them and saying, 'But we really

need you to fill out this form. We really need you to count.'"

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Many tribal leaders and advocates are worried the undercount could be even worse in 2020. For the first

time ever, the census will be conducted mostly online. However, in Indian Country, more than a third of

Native Americans living on tribal land lack access to the internet, making it the least-connected part of the

United States.

Reduced Funding For Translation Services

"It [the census] moving online almost ensures an undercount of Native Americans of historic proportions,"

said Natalie Landreth. She is a Chickasaw Nation member and an attorney for the Native American Rights

Foundation (NARF).

Raising further alarm bells for Landreth, the Census Bureau canceled two census field tests planned for Indian

Country which would have helped identify problems with messaging and actual conducting of the census.

Funding for translation into Native American languages also narrowed this year, reducing translation services

to just Navajo, according to NARF. Before, the Census Bureau had funded translation services into many

indigenous languages.

"There are census tracts in Alaska where 75 percent of the households don't speak English at home,"

Landreth said.

NARF has connected tribes in seven states to private money for language translation services, but Landreth

worries it is not enough.

According to Jessica Imotichey, a Chickasaw Nation member and a coordinator for the L.A. region of the U.S.

Census Bureau, the agency is working to ensure Native Americans are counted in 2020. "[The census] is about

representation, not just politically but also visibility," Imotichey said. "Recognizing Native Americans and

Alaskan Natives, that we are still here, that we still remain."

Undercounts Mean Millions Of Dollars Lost

The census started three months early in remote Alaska in January where workers traveled to Alaskan native

villages to count residents in person. While only 0.02 percent of the U.S. population will be counted in

person, the majority of them will be indigenous.

Nationally, funding for census outreach campaigns varies significantly by location. While some states like

California are planning to spend $187 million on census outreach, 24 states have budgeted nothing. Three of

those states — Oklahoma, North Dakota and South Dakota — have significant indigenous populations.

DEPARTMENT OF TEACHING & LEARNING Educate · Equip · Empower New Mexico, along with Alaska, was the most undercounted state in 2010,

where some counties returned less than 50 percent of census surveys. According to New Mexico Counts

2020, just a 1 percent undercount in 2020 could result in the loss of $750 million in government aid to the

state.

The Complete Count Commission for the Navajo Nation has already met with U.S. senators and regional

Census Bureau representatives to discuss the unique challenges of counting Navajo citizens. The tribal

government is looking to hire a sizable outreach team this spring, with an emphasis on hiring fluent Navajo

speakers, according to Tso.

"We have to do everything possible to count every Navajo," Tso said.

1. What is a central idea of the article? Support your idea with strong text evidence. KID.2

2. Which key details in the text support the idea that the 2020 U.S. census is expected to leave out even

more Native Americans than in previous years? KID.3

3. How does the central idea of this text compare to the central ideas put forth in the excerpt from There

There and “An American Sunrise”? IKI.9

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The History of the Census by National Geographic Society

Every 10 years in the United States, the government fulfills its constitutional duty and conducts a population census. Originally imagined as a way to determine how many congressional representatives each state should get, it has grown into a method of keeping track of population demographics and other social categories.

Around the world, most countries conduct a census to get information on their populations for government objectives, taxes and other official purposes. Although the idea of a census is pretty common around the world, the information that turns up is often far from ordinary.

Return Of The Jedi?

In the United Kingdom (U.K.), the 2011 population census asked for standard information about people's religions. What was not so standard was the number of people identifying as members of the Jedi religion. More than 170,000 people in Great Britain listed "Jedi" as their primary religion, making it the seventh most popular religion in the U.K. The problem? Jediism is a religion from the fictional "Star Wars" universe.

In fact, so many people self-identified as Jedis that the U.K.'s Charity Commission was soon asked to rule on whether it was, in fact, a legitimate religion in the country. (The commission ultimately said "no" to giving Jediism an official status, at least for now.)

Other countries around the world, like Canada and Australia, saw a similar trend in self-declared Jedi knights, but to a much lesser extent. Whether this was merely fans of the movies showing their devotion, or the true emergence of a new religion, the trend seems to be on the decline in recent years.

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The Census On The Cutting Edge

When you think of the census, you may think of volunteers and government employees going from door to door, asking questions about each household. But did you know that the U.S. census was one of the earliest uses of computer technology?

After the 1880 census, the U.S. government was struggling to keep up with the data coming in from a larger and more complex population than ever before — and it needed a way to process the information efficiently. Searching for new ideas, the government set up a contest for the public, asking them to design a faster method for processing census data. The winner would be hired to process data for the 1890 census.

Herman Hollerith, an engineer and former U.S. Census Bureau employee, came up with a machine system that processed punch cards that had census data coded onto them. The machine would "read" the holes punched into the cards, the data would appear on a series of dials, and a clerk would record the information. Hollerith won the contract, and his machine would help the 1890 census be tabulated much faster than usual and under budget. With the success of his machine, Hollerith went on to create the Tabulating Machine Company, which would eventually become global computer company International Business Machines (IBM) after a series of mergers.

The Census And Disaster Recovery

In the United States, census data is used for more than basic population information and assigning the correct number of congressional representatives. Having accurate information about who lives where can also come in handy when emergencies hit.

When hurricanes, wildfires or other natural disasters strike, accurate data about local populations can help federal agencies assign resources and funds to the areas that need it most. For example, knowing that a large number of people in a particular area speak Spanish can help agencies and emergency workers communicate with local people, give instructions, or get extra resources as necessary.

The U.S. Census Bureau's On the Map online tool provides real-time information so emergency organizations have the latest information at their disposal. Census data is matched up with geographic information to help manage immediate emergency response or create future emergency preparedness plans.

Knowing who is where also helps the government account for changes after a disaster. Census data can help keep track of how people are doing (and where they are going) after they are evacuated.

Although a country's census provides valuable baseline information about its population, it can also provide a glimpse into the less quantifiable parts of their lives — whether those are cultural trends (as in the "Star Wars" census trend) or future planning. We may see the census as a series of numbers, but the stories those numbers tell, and how we process that information, can tell us a lot about life at any given time

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1. What is a central idea of the article? Support your idea with strong text evidence. KID.2

2. How does the final section of text, “The Census and Disaster Recovery” help to develop the central idea of the article? CS.5

3. How does the central idea of this article compare to the central idea in “‘We are Still Here’: Native Americans fight to be counted in U.S. Census”? IKI.9

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The 2020 Census is still at risk From The Washington Post

By Chris Dick June 27, 2019 at 6:12 p.m. EDT

Chris Dick, a former Census Bureau statistician and branch chief, is head of the government practice at

the data science firm Civis Analytics.

This morning, the Supreme Court blocked the Trump administration’s efforts to add a question about

citizenship to the 2020 Census — at least, for now. This is a huge win for democracy: There is plenty of

compelling research on why the citizenship question would depress response rates, particularly among

immigrant, African American and Hispanic groups. But the danger isn’t over: Declining trust in

government and a lower likelihood that people will respond to surveys mean there is still a risk of

nonresponse between 20 and 30 percent.

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The 2020 Census is on the Government Accountability Office’s list of high-risk projects, and the

explanation the agency offered for that assessment doesn’t even mention the citizenship question. The

census isn’t just a matter of government record-keeping. If we get this wrong, it will have repercussions

for years to come.

The decennial census guides the allocation of $800 billion in federal funding, determines congressional

representation and districting, and underpins important business decisions. Undercounted areas will be

underfunded and underrepresented in Congress, and our population data will be inherently flawed. And

the undercount can’t be rectified for a decade.

Starting mid-March 2020, the Census Bureau will mail forms to everyone in the United States. Every

member of every household needs to respond and can do so online, through the mail or over the phone.

If a household doesn’t respond, the Census Bureau will send a so-called “enumerator” to go out and

knock on every door up to three times.

This is where things get both complicated and expensive. The Census Bureau needs to hire

approximately 500,000 temporary workers to serve as enumerators, which is particularly difficult given

the low unemployment rate. Doing so costs taxpayers $55 million for each percentage point of

households requiring follow-up . If those three tries are unsuccessful, the Census Bureau will ask a

neighbor for information or use existing government data sources to make an educated guess about the

household.

There are always “hard-to-count” populations, each with a unique motivation for nonresponse. If the

Commerce Department manages to come up with a more compelling rationale for the citizenship

question and it ends up on the form, that query would add an element of fear for immigrants and other

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minority groups that their answers could be used against them. Even if it’s never added, the buzz around

the question has already cast a pall over the census.

To achieve this monumental task, we need to treat the 2020 Census as if it’s the country’s most

important marketing campaign — one we’re all responsible for.

Fortunately, organizations focused on the census are taking the upcoming count extremely seriously —

and they aren’t new to the task of getting their constituents to respond. Tribal, state and local

governments partner with community organizations to create Complete Count Committees and to serve

as field offices for get-out-the-count campaigns. National nonprofits such as the National Association of

Latino Elected and Appointed Officials , Census Counts and the Funders Census Initiative, which

distributed $40 million in grants to power response efforts for the 2010 Census , are supporting these

efforts to give all communities a fighting chance for fair representation.

Commercial and political organizations know that data-driven, one-to-one marketing is key to success,

and this is no different. You don’t just need the right message: You also need it to be delivered by the

right person, at the right time.

That starts with identifying each hard-to-count population and what motivates them in as much detail as

possible. Census Bureau research is a good starting point, but other resources and organizations can

provide greater detail — for example, the Graduate Center at the City University of New York has a

helpful map of high-risk regions with regularly updated details down to the neighborhood level.

This process will inform messaging development, but that too needs to be tested, because gut instinct

about what will work is often wrong and certain messages can backfire. For example, research

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conducted by my organization, which consults on data science issues, found that emphasizing the

strength of census data privacy and security practices actually made most groups less likely to respond.

Cadence matters, as well. In the Houston area, city and county governments, together with 50-plus local

organizations, created Houston in Action to ensure that every hard-to-count group is contacted with the

right message but not inundated with too many or conflicting communications.

Who delivers the message is just as important as the message itself. Consumer brands are focused on

influencer marketing because they recognize that certain messengers are more persuasive for specific

audiences. The same thing applies to the census, though of course, the “influencers” vary widely by

community. In many cases, a trusted community figure (for example, a well-known pastor) is far more

effective than a group of canvassers from outside the community. The key is locating and engaging

those individuals for each and every district.

All this sounds like a lot of work, and it is. It won’t be easy. But with the right approach, the right tools

and the right people, we have a fighting chance. The people of the United States — all of them —

deserve our best efforts

1. What is the author’s purpose in writing this piece? How does he use rhetoric to advance his

purpose? CS.6

2. How does this piece connect to the other informational pieces you’ve read about the census?

How is their treatment of the topic similar? How is it different? IKI.9

After reading all five texts and responding to the questions for each, you are ready to complete the

informational writing task on page 1 of the document.

Revised: May 2017

Score Focus & Organization Development Language Conventions

4 In response to the task and the stimuli, the writing: • contains an effective and relevant introduction. • utilizes effective organizational strategies to

create a unified whole and to aid in comprehension.

• effectively clarifies relationships among ideas and concepts to create cohesion.

• contains an effective and relevant concluding statement or section.

In response to the task and the stimuli, the writing: • utilizes well-chosen, relevant, and

sufficient evidence1 from the stimuli to thoroughly and insightfully develop the topic.

• thoroughly and accurately explains and elaborates on the evidence provided, demonstrating a clear, insightful understanding of the topic, task, and stimuli.

The writing: • illustrates consistent and sophisticated

command of precise language, domain- specific vocabulary,2 and literary techniques3

appropriate to the task. • illustrates sophisticated command of

syntactic variety for meaning and reader interest.

• utilizes sophisticated and varied transitional words and phrases.

• effectively establishes and maintains a formal style and an objective tone.

The writing: • demonstrates consistent

and sophisticated command of grade-level conventions of standard written English.4

• may contain a few minor errors that do not interfere with meaning.

3 In response to the task and the stimuli, the writing: • contains a relevant introduction. • utilizes adequate organizational strategies to

create a mostly unified whole and to aid in comprehension.

• clarifies most relationships among ideas and concepts, but there may be some gaps in cohesion.

• contains a relevant concluding statement or section.

In response to the task and the stimuli, the writing: • utilizes relevant and sufficient evidence1

from the stimuli to adequately develop the topic.

• adequately and accurately explains and elaborates on the evidence provided, demonstrating a sufficient understanding of the topic, task, and stimuli.

The writing: • illustrates consistent command of precise

language, domain-specific vocabulary,2 and literary techniques3 appropriate to the task.

• illustrates consistent command of syntactic variety for meaning and reader interest.

• utilizes appropriate and varied transitional words and phrases.

• establishes and maintains a formal style and an objective tone.

The writing: • demonstrates consistent

command of grade-level conventions of standard written English.4

• contains occasional minor and/or major errors, but the errors do not significantly interfere with meaning.

2 In response to the task and the stimuli, the writing: • contains a limited introduction. • demonstrates an attempt to use

organizational strategies to create some unification, but ideas may be hard to follow at times.

• clarifies some relationships among ideas and concepts, but there are lapses in focus.

• contains a limited concluding statement or section.

In response to the task and the stimuli, the writing: • utilizes mostly relevant but insufficient

evidence1 from the stimuli to partially develop the topic. Some evidence may be inaccurate or repetitive.

• explains some of the evidence provided, demonstrating only a partial understanding of the topic, task, and stimuli. There may be some level of inaccuracy in the explanation.

The writing: • illustrates inconsistent command of precise

language, domain-specific vocabulary,2 and literary techniques.3

• illustrates inconsistent command of syntactic variety.

• utilizes basic or repetitive transitional words and phrases.

• establishes but inconsistently maintains a formal style and an objective tone.

The writing: • demonstrates inconsistent

command of grade-level conventions of standard written English.4

• contains frequent errors that may significantly interfere with meaning.

1 In response to the task and the stimuli, the writing: • contains no or an irrelevant introduction. • demonstrates an unclear organizational

structure; ideas are hard to follow most of the time.

• fails to clarify relationships among ideas and concepts; concepts are unclear and/or there is a lack of focus.

• contains no or an irrelevant concluding statement or section.

In response to the task and the stimuli, the writing: • utilizes mostly irrelevant or no evidence1

from the stimuli, or mostly/only personal knowledge, to inadequately develop the topic. Evidence is inaccurate or repetitive.

• inadequately or inaccurately explains the evidence provided, demonstrating little understanding of the topic, task, and stimuli.

The writing: • illustrates little to no use of precise language,

domain-specific vocabulary,2 and literary techniques.3

• illustrates little to no syntactic variety. • utilizes no or few transitional words and

phrases. • does not establish or maintain a formal style

and an objective tone.

The writing: • demonstrates limited

command of grade-level conventions of standard written English.4

• contains numerous and repeated errors that seriously impede meaning.

1 Evidence includes facts, extended definitions, concrete details, quotations, or other information and examples as appropriate to the task and the stimuli. 2 Domain-specific vocabulary refers to the terminology used in the stimuli and/or associated with the topic. 3 Literary techniques, such as metaphor, simile, and analogy, help to manage the complexity of the topic and are expected at grades 11-12. 4 Conventions of standard written English include sentence structure, grammar, usage, spelling, capitalization, and punctuation.