2013 FCAT 2.0 Writing Prompts and Sample Essays

Grade 4

Writing to Tell a Story (Narrative)

Suppose you won something special. Think about winning something special. Now write a story about what happened when you won something special.

Grade 8

Writing to Persuade (Persuasive)

Writing Situation:
Suppose you could convince a famous person to visit your town.

Directions for Writing:
Think about why this person should visit your town.
Now write to convince this person to visit your town.

Grade 10

Writing to Explain (Expository)

Writing Situation:
Suppose you are a reporter and have been assigned to interview a fascinating person of your choice.

Directions for Writing:
Think about a person you would choose to interview.
Now write to explain why you would choose to interview this person.

2013 FCAT 2.0 Writing Anchor Sets

Prior to each scoring session, a committee of Florida educators is convened to read student responses and select papers to represent the range of quality allowed within the established criteria for each score point on the rubric based on the approved calibration scoring guides. These papers are used to train the readers for the holistic scoring of the FCAT 2.0 Writing responses. Each anchor set (scoring guide) includes a student response and an annotation to explain why it was assigned a particular score. This provides the basis for developing a common understanding of the scoring criteria. The released 2013 FCAT 2.0 Writing Anchor Sets for grades 4, 8 and 10 contain examples of responses used as training materials for scoring the 2013 writing assessment.