NJSLA-A Grade 3 Narrative Rubric
The NJ NJSLA-A Grade 3 Narrative Rubric scored out of 12 points across 3 criteria, for narrative writing at grade 3. Published by New Jersey Department of Education.
2 pages, US Letter, black and white. Free, no account, no email. Includes every performance level and a blank scoring sheet.
How it is scored
- Ideas and Focus4 pts · 4 levels
- Organization4 pts · 4 levels
- Expression and Word Choice4 pts · 4 levels
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The full rubric
Ideas and Focus · 4 points
4 points
Focused response, clear understanding of task and purpose. Characteristics: an established situation that clearly introduces a narrator and/or characters; dialogue and description that clearly develop experiences, events, and/or characters.
3 points
Mostly focused response, general understanding of task and purpose. Characteristics: an established situation that generally introduces a narrator and/or characters; dialogue and description that generally develop experiences, events, and/or characters.
2 points
Basic response, some understanding of task and purpose. Characteristics: a situation that introduces a narrator and/or characters; dialogue or description that somewhat develop experiences, events, and/or characters.
1 point
Minimally written response, minimal understanding of task and purpose. Characteristics: a minimal situation or a narrator and/or characters; minimal, missing, or unclear dialogue and description.
Organization · 4 points
4 points
Focused response. Characteristics: a clearly organized event sequence; a conclusion or sense of closure that clearly follows from the experiences or events.
3 points
Mostly focused response. Characteristics: a generally organized event sequence; a conclusion or sense of closure that generally follows from the experiences or events.
2 points
Basic response. Characteristics: a basic or partial event sequence; a basic or attempted conclusion or sense of closure.
1 point
Minimally written response. Characteristics: a minimal or unclear event sequence; a missing or unclear conclusion or sense of closure.
Expression and Word Choice · 4 points
4 points
Focused response. Characteristics: transitional words and phrases that clearly manage the sequence of events; concrete words, phrases, and sensory details that convey experiences and events.
3 points
Mostly focused response. Characteristics: transitional words and phrases that generally manage the sequence of events; concrete words, phrases, and details that generally convey experiences and events.
2 points
Basic response. Characteristics: transitional words or phrases that somewhat link the sequence of events; words, phrases, or details that somewhat describe experiences and events.
1 point
Minimally written response. Characteristics: minimal, missing, or unclear use of transitional words to link events; minimal or unclear descriptions of experiences and events.
This rubric applied to a real essay
Below is a sample essay scored against the rubric above, shown the way it looks inside the grader. The marks, the scores and every comment are the grader’s own output, not written by hand for this page. It scored 9 out of 12.
The essay is written for this page, at roughly a B grade so both the strengths and the weaknesses are worth seeing. It is not a real student’s work.
The prompt
Write a story about a time you had to be brave. Use details to show what happened and how you felt.
The pool smelled like sunscreen and hot cement.1 I was standing on the low diving board and my toes were curled over the edge so hard they hurt2.
Everybody in my swim class had already jumped. My friend Priya went first and she did a cannonball and came up laughing with her hair stuck to her face3. Then some other kids went. Then it was my turn.
I was scared. I did not want to do it. My stomach felt bad.4 I stood there for a long time.5
I thought about climbing back down the ladder. But then I thought about how I would have to walk past everybody. So I counted to three in my head and I jumped.
Your whole class, marked like this
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How it scored, criterion by criterion
The essay is clearly on-task — a personal bravery story with a narrator, a named friend (Priya), and a coach. The opening sensory details (sunscreen, hot cement, curled toes) and the internal conflict (wanting to climb back down) genuinely develop the experience. However, dialogue is thin (only 'good job' reported after the fact) and the emotional development after the jump is told rather than shown, keeping this at the 'generally' level rather than 'clearly.'
The event sequence is easy to follow — arrival, waiting, internal debate, jump, aftermath — and the conclusion ('I felt happy that I did it') does follow from the events. The sequence is generally organized but not tightly crafted: the transition into the water and out of it is skipped over ('Then I got out of the pool'), and the closing sentence runs two ideas together rather than landing with a clear, deliberate sense of closure.
There are genuine concrete and sensory details — the smell of sunscreen and hot cement, the toes curled over the edge, Priya's hair stuck to her face — that lift the writing above a basic response. Transitions ('Then,' 'But then,' 'So') generally manage the sequence, though they are repetitive and simple. Word choice becomes noticeably flat in the second half ('My stomach felt bad,' 'I felt happy'), which prevents the essay from reaching the 'clearly' level where concrete sensory language conveys the full experience.
What the student was told to fix
- Describe the jump and the moment in the water — don't skip the most exciting part
- Replace vague feeling words ('felt bad,' 'felt happy') with specific physical or sensory details
- Add more dialogue to bring characters to life and develop the story
- Break the run-on closing sentence into two clear sentences and show the lesson rather than stating it
Graded on 2026-08-12. A teacher can change any score before it goes back to the student.
Source
New Jersey Department of Education. Official document. Rubrics are revised periodically, so check the source before using this for a graded assessment.
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