How relevant must the response be to writing prompts? If the response is well-written, but is not or only tangentially related to the prompt, how should it be scored?
A. After careful consideration, it has been determined that if a response, regardless of how well-written it is, is completely off-topic, and has no contextual relevancy to the Writing prompt, it should be given the score point zero. However, since the Writing prompts are graphics-based with very little text, if a student chooses to write about a recognizable part of the graphic, the response should be considered relevant and should be scored according to the rubric. Responses of students at a very low proficiency level can be addressing the prompt through the use of only one or two words that are relevant to the graphic, for example “bunny” or “father.” For more advanced students, relevancy is demonstrated primarily through the use of appropriate vocabulary, but also through the complexity of ideas and structure.
