Gloss: The Boy and the Dog go to the Park (title)  One day a boy goes to Huntington park.  His name is Hudson.  Hudson is playing hide-and-seek with his sister Emma.  On Monday, Hudson hides by a old oak tree.  He saw a puppy that was black and white.  He told Emma that there was a puppy by the tree.  Emma and Hudson ran to the oak tree.  Why don’t we take her home said Emma.  When they got home, Emma’s and Hudson’s Mother said they can have it.  On Sunday they got a name for it. It’s name is flower.  The end.

Notes: The student writes a complete story about a fun day at the park in third person.



Ideas and Content: The student has original ideas that are presented as a complete story.

Organization and Focus: There is some disagreement in the story sequence and logical order. Story does not stay in the same tense.

Style: There are many examples of vivid text and dialogue in this writing sample. Student writes about “big sister Emma,” “old oak tree,” and the “puppy that was black and white.”

Conventions: Even though “siter” (“sister”) and “tak” (“take”) are each missing a letter, it is obvious that the student’s writing does exhibit correct grade-level standard spellings.

Gloss: A fun day at the park (title) One day my brother, my cousins, and I went to the park.  We all played on the swings.  My dad Aaron gave us under dogs.  We like under dogs.  After that we played on the slide.  He would hide at the bottom.  He would scared us.  At the end of the day, we saw a rainbow.  The End.

Notes: The student writes a personal narrative about a day at a playground.



Ideas and Content: The student has original ideas and provides a number of details to enrich the story.

Organization and Focus: The student’s writing has clear focus and sense of narrative writing with a title, beginning, middle, and ending to the story.

Style:  The student writes clear sentences and expresses personal interests.

Conventions: The overall idea of complete sentences and punctuation is evident. The student does not exhibit standard grade-level spellings of “saw,” “slide,” “swings,” or “should.”

Gloss: A fun day at the Park (title)  I went to the park and I played football, and I played baseball, and I played basketball, and I climbed a tree, and I climbed up the slide, and I played golf, and then I went home.

Notes: The student writes a brief first person narrative introduction, lists activities enjoyed at a park, and provides a brief conclusion.



Ideas and Content: Some details are missing such as who he or she played with, but the student writes about a complete event that is original.

Organization and Focus: Overall, the student’s response addresses the prompt, stays focused on activities at the park, and demonstrates evidence of an introduction and conclusion.  Because the student combines all described activities with the word “and” however, the order of the events is not entirely clear.

Style: The word combinations exhibit little variation.  The student repeats “…and I played…” or “…and I climbed…”again and again.

Conventions: The student has a partial grasp on conventions, but tends to use capital letters in the middle of sentences, and does not yet demonstrate a clear grasp on sentence construction.  Student should be able to spell the sight word “went,” which is twice spelled “wint.”

Gloss: The sun is out, and birds in the trees, and the sky is blue, and kids are flying a kite.

Notes: The student describes the illustration that he or she has drawn in one long sentence.



Ideas and Content: The student does not fully develop his or her ideas .  The student includes a list of details (naming what is in his or her picture), but does not explain the reason for the description.   A blue sky, birds in the trees, and the sun being out are also not very original ideas. 

Focus and Organization: The student’s writing responds minimally to the prompt, describing a scene which might take place at a park, but does not tell a story.  There is not a clear sequence of events, or any kind of introduction or conclusion.

Style: The student uses very general descriptions. He or she writes only one sentence, although it resembles a paragraph. 

Conventions:  The student has good handwriting and uses some sentence punctuation, but the one sentence is a run-on. The student does not exhibit standard second-grade spellings, writing “say” for “sky;” “kisd” for “kids;” “kiat” for “kite;” and “fiying” for “flying.”  These words should be spelled correctly.

Gloss:  I am flying a kite outside.  It is a beautiful day outside.  I think I want to stay outside.

Notes: The student describes being outside (using the present tense).



Ideas and Content: The student offers a description of an activity that might take place at the park, but does not provide enough details to give a reader a sense that the story is complete.

Organization and Focus: The student’s writing does not specifically focus on a fun day at the park, but does describe flying a kite outside, possibly at the park. The writing is more descriptive than narrative.  There is no introduction or title, but it does have a concluding statement.

Style: The student provides evidence of his or her interests, but there is little variety in word choice or sentence patterns, with every sentence ending in “outside.”

Conventions: The student has neat handwriting, but does not use correct punctuation or capitalization. Standard spellings are partially correct, but the student should be spelling “side,” “kite,” and “want” correctly.

Gloss: A fun day at the Water park (title)  I like the waterslides, and the hot tubs, and the pool, and the lazy river, and the basketball pool too, and the big water slides too, and the middle-size slides too, and the light up hot tubs too, and the water toboggan,  and the tattoos, and the pirate light, and big water toboggan, and I like the yellow slide, and the green light, and dark slide, and the blue too, and I think the red one too, and the end, and I liked it.

Notes: The student names all of the things at the water park that he or she likes.



Ideas and Content: The student provides a lot of details about what he or she likes at the water park, but does not develop any of the ideas by telling why he or she likes them.  Because the paper reads more like a list than a story, yet starts with a title and  ends with “the end and I liked it,” there is a problem with completeness. Overall, the student writes a lot, but doesn’t really say much.

Organization and Focus: The focus is more descriptive than narrative. There is a title and a partial conclusion, but no real sequence or order within the text. The writing only partially resonds to the prompt because although it is about a park, it does not tell a story. 

Style: The student’s writing is somewhat vivid, because the writer uses color words and descriptions such as “light up hot tubs” and “big water tiobban.” It is evident that the writer is personally excited about the park and describing the slides. The student does make an attempt to put ideas together with the word “and” to resemble a paragraph, but uses “and,” and “too” exceedingly. 

Conventions: The student is obviously still learning writing conventions.  There are no clearly defined sentences, and the student’s work exhibits some errors regarding capitalization and spelling of grade-level sight words “blow” (“blue”) and “theink” (“think”).

Gloss: I want to go with my friend.  At the I’ll have some fun at the park.

Notes: The student writes two sentences about going to a park.



Ideas and Content: The student’s writing lacks originality, or a complete idea. There is some evidence of details, (being at the park with a friend), but the student does not develop them into a narrative about the fun day at the park.

Organization and Focus: Because the student has only written two sentences, there is not a strong sense of focus.  The second sentence is missing a word and not well organized.   The student does respond minimally to the prompt, but there is no sustained attempt to tell a complete story.

Style: The student’s writing is very bland.  Although he or she does express some personal interest (“I went to go to with my friend”), the text is not at all vivid.

Conventions: The student understands how to write neatly and use proper capitalization but has some trouble with sentence structure. It is unclear if the student is spelling “want” or “went” in the sentence “I went to go with my friend.”  He or she uses the apostrophe correctly in the word “I’ll” but misspells “sem” (“some”).

Gloss: A fun day at the park (title)  Once there was a little boy.  He had a fun day at the park.  And then he got on the slide first, and then he got on the swings.

Notes: The student writes an incomplete story about a boy at a park.



Ideas and Content: Although the student’s writing clearly responds to the prompt, it does not provide a lot of concrete details about what it describes, and the information provided does not come together to form a compete idea or story.

Organization and Focus: The student begins writing well, with a title, introduction and focus, but the sequence of events is a little off in the sentence, “And then he got on the slide first!” The student stops writing abruptly, showing no conclusion or closing.

Style: The student shows a good sense of audience and purpose by writing a narrative in response to the prompt. The text is not vivid through the use of adjectives or adverbs, but the student tries to show some excitement with the use of exclamation points.

Conventions:  Although the student has sloppy handwriting, he or she does spell grade-level sight words and short/long vowel words correctly.  The writing demonstrates, however, that the student’s knowledge of sentence structure and punctuation is still only partially-developed.

Gloss: I swing upside down in the monkey bars.  And the best thing is I get to play baseball in the park and have a picnic with my mom, dad, and sister.

Notes: The student writes why he or she likes to go to the park.



Ideas and Content: The student successfully includes details such as who is at the park, how he or she plays on the monkey bars, and what he or she likes to do at the park.  The idea is original because it is about the student’s life.

Organization and Focus: The student’s writing demonstrates a partially-developed sense of focus and organization.  The student attempts to write to the prompt, but does not create a story and the order of the described events is unclear.  The paper begins abruptly, without an introduction and ends with an attempt at a conclusion by writing “the best thing is….”

Style: The writing is not very colorful, but it does show the student’s personal interests by telling what he or she likes to do at the park. The student doesn’t quite understand where sentences end, but varies sentence-like patterns and words.

Conventions:  The student has very neat handwriting, but his or her knowledge of punctuation, spelling, and sentence structure is clearly still developing. 

Gloss: I like to swing on the swing and my friend too and we like playing.

Notes: The student writes what he or she likes to do at a park in one run-on sentence.



Ideas and Content: While the student describes a favorite activity that could be enjoyed at the park, he or she provides very few details and does not provide a completed idea. 

Organization and Focus: The organization and focus of the writing is unclear.  Does the student also like to play with his or her friend or does his or her friend also like to swing? Is swinging what they like to play?  The student begins concentrating on a part of the park (the swing), but does not develop a story or elaborate about swinging. There is no introduction, sequence, or conclusion.

Style: Because the student has written a brief idea, there is little variation in word choice (“I like…,”  “we like…,” ”swing”).  The student does not use vivid vocabulary to paint a picture of what he or she enjoys doing at the park.

Conventions: The student has good handwriting and uses proper capitalization. The spelling of grade-level short and long vowel words is standard for second grade, but the student should also be spelling sight words like “swing” and “friend” correctly.