Oregon Trail Diary

Student Name:

CATEGORY
Grammar &
Spelling

________________________________________

4 - Above Standard 3 - Meets Standard

s
s
2 - Approaching Standards 1 - Below Standards
Author makes no
errors in grammar
or spelling that
distract the reader
from the content.

Attention Grabber The introductory

paragraph has a
strong hook or
attention grabber
that is appropriate
for the audience.
This could be a
strong statement, a
relevant quotation,
statistic, or question
addressed to the
reader.

Author makes 1-2

errors in grammar
or spelling that
distract the reader
from the content.

Author makes 3-4 errors

in grammar or spelling
that distract the reader
from the content.

Author makes more

than 4 errors in
grammar or spelling
that distract the
reader from the
content.

The introductory
paragraph has a
hook or attention
grabber, but it is
weak, rambling or
inappropriate for
the audience.

The author has an

interesting introductory
paragraph but the
connection to the topic is
not clear.

The introductory
paragraph is not
interesting AND is
not relevant to the
topic.

Author does not

provide reader with
dates at all to
provide support for
the reader.

Dates

Author dates entries Author dates most

on each page of
entries but has a
writing.
few blank pages.

Author dates only a few

pages in diary.

Point of View

Author writes with

lots of details in
order to fully
explain what is
happening to the
characters in
writing. Author
does a good job of
representing how
character is feeling
and/or thinking in
the writing.

Author provides very little

detail to writing for the
reader to understand what
is happening in the entries.

Author writes with

enough details for
the reader to follow
what is happening
in the writing but
does not represent
the characters point
of view very well.