Grade 5 Level 4 Writing Sample

← Back to Writing Samples index
Compare your home, village or city to the place you live now. Describe things that are the same and different.
Student Example

Student writing sample:

MY CITY THERE ARE THINGS THAT ARE SAME AS HERE. IN MY CITY WE HAVE WHITE AND BLACK PEOPLE JUST LIKE HERE. WE HAVE PARKS, SCHOOLS, AND HOUSES. THERE ARE SOME THINGS THAT ARE DIFFERENT.
    FIRST, IN MY CITY ALL OF THE HOUSES ARE PREPARED STRAIGHT. IN CANADA THE HOUSES CAN BE PREPARED IN AN ANGLE SHAPE. IN MY CITY MANY HOUSES ARE JOINED TOGETHER. HERE HOUSES CAN BE JOINED TOGEHER BUT MOST ARE ALONE.
    SECOND, THE THING THAT IS ALSO DIFFERENT ARE THE TRAINS AND BUSES. IN MY OLD CITY TRAINS FOR PEOPLE ARE MANY AND PEOPLE TAKE THE TRAINS BETWEEN THE TOWNS AND CITIES. IN HERE THERE ARE NOT SO MANY TRAINS FOR PEOPLE AND PEOPLE TAKE CARS MOST OF PLACES. IN MY CITY BUSES GO EVERYWHERE AT ALL THE TIME OR GO TO THE METRO. HERE THE BUSES ONLY GO PART WAY AND THEN THERE’S ANOTHER BUS AND THEN THERE’S ANOTHER BUS OR METRO BUT EVERYTHING STOPS AT NIGHTTIME. MY BROTHER HE WORKS LATE AND HE HAS TO BUY A CAR SO HE CAN GET HOME. ANOTHER THING ABOUT THE BUS IS THE SCHOOL BUS. IN MY CITY THERE IS NO SCHOOL BUS. WE HAVE TO WALK TO OUR SCHOOL. HERE WE HAVE TO TAKE A YELLOW SCHOOL BUS AND IT ONLY COMES IN THE MORNING AND GOES HOME AT NIGHT.
   THIRDLY, IN MY CITY I HAVE MANY FRIENDS. WE PLAY SOCCER AND VISIT EACH OTHER. THE WEATHER IS GOOD SO WE CAN GO OUTSIDE LOTS OF THE TIME. HERE I ONLY HAVE ONE FRIEND BECAUSE MY MOM FOUND SOME PEOPLE WHO SPEAK MY LANGUAGE. HE LIVES FAR AWAY. I DON’T GET TO SEE HIM MUCH TIME SO WE CAN PLAY SOCCER SOMETIMES BUT ONLY WHEN WE VISIT.
    THESE ARE THE THINGS THAT ARE THE SAME AND DIFFERENT BETWEEN MY OLD CITY AND MY NEW COUNTRY.

Uses a range of utility words (city, parks, schools, houses, trains, buses, metro), descriptive words (straight, angle, many, alone, different, everywhere, yellow), subject-specific words (shape, joined, same, different, language) and academic words with increased understanding of curricular concepts.

Uses a range of grammatical structures demonstrating more control of word order (same as, are different, not so many, most), plurals (things, towns, people, places, buses), tenses (are prepared, can be prepared, have to) and subject–verb agreement (There are some things, we have).

Writes a variety of complex and compound sentences (The weather is good so we can go outside lots of the time.) and writes ideas in logical sequence and detailed paragraphs.

Uses familiar vocabulary, known phrases (in my city, all of the houses), common expressions (goes home, nighttime, far away) and cognates.

Produces texts for specific purposes. (Writes a comparative essay that includes an introductory paragraph, body paragraphs and a concluding paragraph in response to prompt.)

Connects sentences into a cohesive paragraph using conjunctions (and, but, or, because), time markers (late, in the morning, at night, sometimes) and sequence markers (first, second, thirdly, then).

Level 3: Edits sentences for end punctuation (.), commas in a list (parks, schools, and houses) simple tenses (buy, works, walk, take, comes, found) and regular spelling (people, between, friends, speak).
Level 4: Edits sentences for apostrophes (no evidence), quotation marks (no evidence), a variety of tenses (no evidence) and common irregularly spelled words.

Use the checkboxes below to display the corresponding benchmark text.

Benchmark Ratings

 
 4
 
 4
 
 4
 
 4
 
 4
 
 4
 
 3
Overall
Benchmark Level:
4

How to use this Writing Sample

This collection of grade-level writing samples provides teachers of English Language Learners with examples of student writing at each proficiency level. Teachers can use these interactive examples to build their understanding of the different writing competencies and levels within the Benchmarks.

  1. Click on “View Full Size” to see the original student writing
  2. Select the competency you wish to view. Boxes in the corresponding colour will highlight the text in the sample and display an explanation of the competency below.
  3. Click on one or more competencies to view at a time.

Download and Print this Resource

Download
|  Copyright |  Feedback |