Level 1: Emergent All Content and 4 Conventions
First Grade Writing Rubric
Note: State guidelines for non-scorable papers listed on back.
Level 1: Emergent–All Content and 4 Conventions
Communicates meaning through drawings used (Content)Establishes a relationship between the picture and print (Content)
Writes one or two thoughts, simple sentences, or bare ideas (Content)
Focuses on a theme or topic (Content)
Uses captioned pictures, phrases, single words, and/or single consonant sounds to express ideas (Content)
Uses oral language structures (Content)
Re-reads and remembers message represented with letters and words (Content)
Uses temporary spelling, mostly consonants (Conventions)
Writes some familiar words correctly (Conventions)
Writes left-to-right, top-to-bottom (Conventions)
Uses upper and lower case letters indiscriminately (Conventions)
Uses spacing indiscriminately (Conventions)
Total Content /7 Total Conventions /5
Relates drawings and writing to create a more meaningful text (Content)Writes short, patterned, repetitive sentences about a single idea (Content)
Writes about familiar topics and ideas (Content)
Uses a combination of oral language and formal language (Content)
Remembers message and rereads while writing words (Content)
Uses letter-sound relationships and environmental information to write words (Conventions)
Uses temporary spelling with some phonetic elements (Conventions)
Writes left-to-right across several lines (Conventions)
Uses capital letters for names and the beginning of a sentence (Conventions)
Level 2: Early Developing – All Content and 3 Conventions
Total Content /5 Total Conventions /4
Level 3: Developing – All Content and 2 Conventions
Uses drawings to enhance meaning of the writing (Content)Composes several sentences related to a topic(Content)
Uses more oral language than literary and formal language(Content)
Uses some details which may be in a list-like form(Content)
Writes many high frequency words correctly (Conventions)
Uses temporary spelling which can generally be read by others(Conventions)
Consistently uses spacing, capital letters, and end punctuation (Conventions)
Total Content /4 Total Conventions /3
Writes a series of related ideas in an organized, sequential manner (Content)Includes beginning, middle, and end (Content)
Uses varied sentence patterns and lengths (Content)
Begins to expand oral language to literary and formal language (Content)
Uses descriptive detail and some elaboration (Content)
Demonstrates ability to think about ideas while encoding written language (Content)
Uses a flexible range of strategies to write words (Conventions)
Uses more conventional than temporary spelling (Conventions)
Writes most high frequency words correctly (Conventions)
Generally uses correct capitalization and punctuation (Conventions)
Uses paragraphs although not consistently or appropriately (Conventions)
Level 4: Early Independent – All Content and 4 Conventions
Revised 06/2007 Total Content /6 Total Conventions /5
NCDPI K-2 Guidelines Regarding Non-Scorable Papers
A paper is non-scorable if the teacher is unable to score the paper because:
- The paper is blank or has only the child’s name on it.
- The paper is written in a foreign language.
- There is no way to discern that the child has attempted to respond to the prompt. The child cannot expressverbally his writing or drawing in any way that relates to the prompt. Coaching children to “tell about” theirpapers may result in their satisfactorily addressing the prompt to a Level 1.
- The paper has nothing on it but scribbles. Again, if the child can come up to the teacher and tell her what thescribbles say, that counts as a scorable paper at least at Level 1.