The task
In an on-demand situation, students were asked to discuss the meaning they found in two poems and to justify or explain how they arrived at such a meaning.

Circumstances of performance
This sample of student work was produced under the following conditions:

The writing was completed in forty-five minutes with no opportunities for review and revision.

What the work shows

c Writing: The student produces a response to literature that:
•	engages the reader through establishing a context, creating a persona, and otherwise developing reader interest;
•	advances a judgment that is interpretive, analytic, evaluative, or reflective;
•	supports a judgment through references to the text, references to other works, authors, or non-print media, or references to personal knowledge;
•	demonstrates understanding of the literary work through suggesting an interpretation;
•	anticipates and answers a reader’s questions;
•	recognizes possible ambiguities, nuances, and complexities;
•	provides a sense of closure to the writing.

The student analyzed the authors’ craft and advanced an interpretation in which he considered aspects of both poems.

The interpretive judgments are supported through reference to the texts.

The student analyzed the author’s craft and interpreted both poems in terms of:
mood; and
attitude.

The student recognized nuances that are reflected in:
symbols; and
common themes.

a Literature: The student responds to non-fiction, fiction, poetry, and drama using interpretive, critical, and evaluative processes; that is, the student:
•	makes thematic connections among literary texts, public discourse, and media;
•	evaluates the impact of authors’ decisions regarding word choice, style, content, and literary elements;
•	analyzes the characteristics of literary forms and genres;
•	evaluates literary merit;
•	explains the effect of point of view;
•	makes inferences and draws conclusions about fictional and non-fictional contexts, events, characters, settings, themes, and styles;
•	interprets the effect of literary devices, such as figurative language, allusion, diction, dialogue, description, symbolism;
•	evaluates the stance of a writer in shaping the presentation of a subject;
•	interprets ambiguities, subtleties, contradictions, ironies, and nuances;
•	understands the role of tone in presenting literature (both fictional and non-fictional);
•	demonstrates how literary works (both fictional and non-fictional) reflect the culture that shaped them

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a Conventions, Grammar, and Usage of the English Language: The student independently and habitually demonstrates an understanding of the rules of the English language in written or oral work, and selects the structures and features of language appropriate to the purpose, audience, and context of the work. The student demonstrates control of:

•grammar;
•paragraph structure;
•punctuation;
•sentence construction;
•spelling;
•usage.

In almost error free writing, the student managed spelling, punctuation, usage, grammar, and sentence structure. The few errors he made can be attributed to the nature of the task, which was given in a timed writing situation. The writing was completed in forty-five minutes with no opportunities for review and revision.

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The student made the inference that each poem focuses on the past and yet has a distinct tie to the present.

The discussion of “To an Athlete Dying Young” evaluates the impact of the author’s decisions regarding:
word choice (e.g., the student stated that using “unwithered” at the end of the poem leaves the reader on a more optimistic note);
literary elements (e.g., the recognition that the melancholy tone and the rhyme scheme create an appropriate mood for a poem about the death of a young man);
the effect of point of view (e.g., the statement that the poet’s role of a mourning friend was effective in presenting the story); and
symbolism (e.g., the recognition that the unwithered laurel wreath symbolizes that the townspeople will remember the young man’s glory).

The student came to the conclusion that even though Flick is still alive to remember his glory, the author’s style in this poem makes it even sadder than “To an Athlete Dying Young.”

The student recognized that even though both authors took a slightly different stance in presenting their subjects, both were effective in conveying their similar themes.