Fourth Grade STAAR Writing Review

Revising

100

                     A Summer Project

(1) When your mother gets a certain look in her eyes and tells you to clean your room, you know she means business. (2) She says your room is a disaster, and something has to change. (3) You will now become a disaster engineer.

Karla wants to add a sentence at the end of the first paragraph (sentences 1-3). Which sentence could she add to clearly state the central idea of her paper?

A. Your mother will be angry if you do not clean your room.

B. Engineers can make a lot of money.

C. Your summer project has just been assigned to you. 

D. If you don't want to clean your room, you can wash your dad's car.

C. Your summer project has just been assigned to you. - Look at the title. Read sentences 2, 3, and answer choice C. 

200

(4) The work begins. (5) You have to decide which possessions you cannot live without. (6) After all, your room is full of treasures. (7) Making choices is not easy, so deciding what you do not want or need will require some thought.

Carmen needs to add a transition word or phrase to help readers move from sentence 4 to sentence 5. Which transition could BEST be added to the beginning of sentence 5?

A. In other words

B. In conclusion

C. For example

D. First

D. First - This is the "first" step that you have to do when the work begins.

300

(15) Clean out your drawers, cabinets, and closets. (16) Place the items inside the boxes. (17) After you have placed everything to keep or to donate, ask someone to help you lift the "Items to Donate" boxes and remove them from your room. 

Dulce would like to add the following sentence to the fourth paragraph (sentences 15-17). 

Separate everything that you took out into piles of items that you plan to keep and items you will donate.

Where is the BEST place to insert this sentence?

A. At the beginning of the paragraph

B. After sentence 15

C. After sentence 16

D. After sentence 17

B. After sentence 15 - After you clean out drawers, cabinets, and closets (sentence 15), you separate the items (answer choice B), and finally you place those items that you just separated inside boxes (sentence 16)

400

(21) Now that your thing is organized and the items are removed, you have space for your treasures.

The meaning of sentence 21 is unclear. It can be clarified by changing thing to —

A. place

B. stuff

C. it

D. bedroom

D. bedroom - It tells you exactly what is organized

500

(21) Now that your bedroom is organized, cleaned, and the items are removed, you have space for your treasures. (22) You can determine the best place for each remaining item. (23) When you have accomplished your task, invite your mom to see your work. 

Gabriel wants to add a conclusion to his paper. Which of the following could BEST follow sentence 23 and close this paper?

A. Your mother will not be pleased with your summer project.

B. If you want, you can now beginning organizing and cleaning the garage.

C. Maybe now the look in her eyes will say, "You did a great job!"

D. Thank you for reading my paper about my summer project.

C. Maybe now the look in her eyes will say, "You did a great job!" 

Sentences

100

(5) My dream. (6) Is to become a firefighter.

What is the BEST way to combine sentences 5 and 6?

My dream is to become a firefighter.

Combine without adding anything else.

200

(12) My friend and I entered the zoo. (13) And we began our journey of exciting activities. 

What is the BEST way to combine sentences 12 and 13? 

My friend and I entered the zoo, and we began our journey of exciting activities. - Add a comma after zoo because the FANBOY "and" is already there. Use pencil test to check it.

300

(7) Firefighters rescue people from burning buildings they help injured people.

How should sentence 7 be revised? 

Firefighters rescue people from burning buildings, and they help injured people. - Add the FANBOY "and" and a comma before it. Use pencil test to check it.

400

(20) When I got home my dog was waiting for me.

How should sentence 20 be revised? 

When I got home, my dog was waiting for me. - Add a comma after home because the sentence begins with "when", an AWUBIS word. 

500

(1) Each summer we travel to my grandparents' house in the summer.

What is the correct way to write sentence 1?

Each summer we travel to my grandparents' house. - Has repetition. Does not need to include summer two times.

Editing

100

     (35) When the movie ended I realized what an exciting day it had been.

How should sentence 35 be changed?

A. Change When to when

B. Add a comma after ended

C. Change realized to realised 

D. Change had to have

B. Add a comma after ended - Sentence starts with an AWUBIS word, so there needs to be a comma at the end of the dependent clause.

200

(24) When the Houston Livestock Show was completed, I scratched Taffys belly and whispered to her, "Well Taffy, I guess our long-awaited day turned out well because of our hard work and preparation."

What change should be made in sentence 24?

A. Change Houston to houston

B. Change scratched to scratching

C. Change Taffys to Taffy's

D. Remove the quotation marks at the end of the sentence

C Change Taffys to Taffy's - 's shows possession. Here the belly belongs to Taffy (Taffy's __?___)

300

(1) We walked into Minute Maid Park to watch the Houston Astros. (2) We find our seats and quickly sat down to watch all the players warm up. 

How does sentence 2 need to be changed?

A. Change find to found

B. Add a comma after seats

C. Change quickly to quick

D. Change players to player

Run-On

400

(8) The strange noises led us to the backyard. (9) We couldn't believe our eyes because next to a tree we found five puppys! 

How should sentence 9 be changed?

A. Change couldn't to could'nt

B.Change our to are

C. Change a to an

D. Change puppys to puppies

D. Change puppys to puppies - Plurals. When going to plural from singular, if a word ends in -y and there is a vowel before it, you change the -y to -i and add -es.

500

(28) Me and my friend spent the whole week waiting for the day of our field trip. 

What change should be made in sentence 28?

A. Change Me and my friend to My friend and I

B. Change spent to spended 

C. Change whole to hole

D. Change the period to a question mark

A. Change Me and my friend to My friend and I - Whenever you include yourself in a list of people/pets, you will always be at the end AND end with the word "I"

Spelling

100

The car stoped just in time.

Is stoped spelled correctly? What page in the dictionary? How is it spelled?

NO - Page 421 - (s-t-o-p-p-e-d)

200

I hurt my knee playing football.

Is knee spelled correctly? What page in the dictionary? How is it spelled?

YES - Page 238 - (k-n-e-e)

300

The cat climed the tree.

Is climed spelled correctly? What page in the dictionary? How is it spelled?

NO - Page 79 - (c-l-i-m-b-e-d)

400

I do beleive that I have the right answer.

Is beleive spelled correctly? What page in the dictionary? How is it spelled?

NO - Page 38 - (b-e-l-i-e-v-e)

500

He had an acident because he didn't look to see where he was going.

Is acident spelled correctly? What page in the dictionary? How is it spelled?

NO - Page 3 - (a-c-c-i-d-e-n-t)

Composition

100

WRITE about having the chance to meet anyone in the world. What person would you choose to meet?

SAY your lead. (Hint: 4 sentences)

SAMPLE

1. (Turn prompt into question) Would you like to meet someone in the world? 

2. (Funnel) Most of my friends would say James Harden, Jose Altuve, or Lebron James. 

3. (Central Idea) However, I would like to meet JJ Watt. 

4. (General Statement) He's the best.

200

WRITE about having the chance to meet anyone in the world. What person would you choose to meet?

SAY your 1st reason in a complete sentence.

Sample:

I would like to meet _________ because _________.

300

WRITE about having the chance to meet anyone in the world. What person would you choose to meet?

SAY your 2nd reason in a complete sentence.

Sample:

Not only _________ but _________.

400

WRITE about having the chance to meet anyone in the world. What person would you choose to meet?

SAY your 3rd reason in a complete sentence.

Sample:

Most importantly __________.

500

WRITE about having the chance to meet anyone in the world. What person would you choose to meet?

SAY your conclusion. (Hint: 4 sentences)

SAMPLE

1. (Turn Star #1 and Star #2 into question) Do you know someone that never gives up and is a great role model?

2. (Turn Star #3) How about someone that helps the community?

3. (Central Idea) This is why I would like to meet JJ WATT.

4. (General Statement) There's no one else like him.