Back to Index

Work Sample & Commentary: Dreams: Can Money Make Them Come True?

The task
Students were asked to read A Raisin in the Sun and to write an analysis of one or more elements of the play.

Circumstances of performance
This sample of student work was produced under the following conditions:
alone in a group
in class as homework
with teacher feedback with peer feedback
timed opportunity for revision

What the work shows
b 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 title and first paragraph provide a clear context to engage the reader: the conflicts and connections between money and dreams. This context is maintained throughout the essay.
The essay advances an interpretive judgment regarding the theme of A Raisin in the Sun.
The judgment about the play is supported through references to the text.		 The student demonstrated an understanding of the play by suggesting an interpretation and then defending it with an appropriate argument.
The student recognized the complexities inherent in this literary work by closing with a discussion of the importance of “people and their actions” as opposed to money alone.

This work sample illustrates a standard-setting performance for the following parts of the standards:
b Writing: Produce a response to literature.
a Conventions: Demonstrate an understanding of the rules of the English language.
a Literature: Respond to non-fiction, fiction, poetry, and drama.


Click to Enlarge

Click to Enlarge

Click to Enlarge

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.

Through virtually error free writing, the student demonstrated the ability to manage the conventions of grammar and usage.

The student uses a number of strategies to make the work more effective including:
rhetorical questions;
the use of “you” as the subject of address which gives the work a more conversational tone; and
parallelism.

Also noteworthy are the student’s use of quotation punctuation, ellipses, dashes, and the correct formatting for the use of excerpts from the text.

There are a few errors in the work, for example, the slip in tense and the misuse of the em-dash in the fourth paragraph. However, these errors do not detract from the overall quality of the work.

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.


Click to Enlarge

The student made and supported a series of inferences about the characters in A Raisin in the Sun.

The student found a connection between dreams and money in the play.

The student concluded with a declaration about society that stems directly from her reading of the play.

Click to Enlarge