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New Jersey Alternate Proficiency Assessment
Performance Level Descriptors
Language Arts Literacy

(February 2009)

Grade 3 LAL

Partially Proficient

Students performing at the partially proficient level generally require prompting to demonstrate emerging knowledge and skills of reading strategies, comprehension skills, response to text, writing as a product, and mechanics with an inconsistent level of performance using modified and supported materials.

Partially proficient students are emerging in:

  • Making predictions about a story when given a purpose
  • Identifying context clues for decoding words
  • Choosing appropriate graphic organizers
  • Identifying cause and effect, fact and opinion, main idea
  • Matching information in graphs, charts or diagrams
  • Identifying theme, character, plot and setting
  • Recalling information for descriptive, narrative and nonfiction text
  • Identifying nouns, pronouns, verbs or adjectives
  • Letter/sound recognition

Proficient

Students performing at the proficient level may require prompting to demonstrate basic knowledge and skills of reading strategies, comprehension skills, response to text, writing as a product, and mechanics with a moderate level of performance using modified and supported materials.

Proficient students typically:

  • Answer questions about the purpose of reading
  • Make predictions with supports
  • Identify and use context clues for decoding words
  • Complete graphic organizers
  • Utilize graphic organizers to answer questions
  • Recognize cause and effect, fact and opinion, main ideas and supporting details in text
  • Locate and match information in graphs, charts or diagrams
  • Identify and describe theme, character, plot and setting
  • Outline and organize information to write descriptive, narrative and nonfiction sentences and/or lists
  • Write using correct capitalization, punctuation
  • Identifying nouns, pronouns, verbs and/or adjectives
  • Identify correct spelling of high frequency words
  • Identify words with similar patterns

Advanced Proficient

Students performing at the advanced proficient level generally demonstrate knowledge and skills of reading strategies, comprehension skills, response to text, writing as a product, and mechanics independently with a high level of performance using modified and supported materials.

Advanced proficient students typically:

  • Assess the purpose of reading
  • Make predictions and substantiate conclusions
  • Identify and use context clues for decoding words
  • Create and utilize graphic organizers to answer questions
  • Analyze cause and effect, fact and opinion, main ideas and supporting details in text
  • Interpret information in graphs, charts or diagrams
  • Compare and contrast theme, character, plot and setting
  • Outline and organize information to write descriptive, narrative and nonfiction sentences and/or paragraphs
  • Write using correct spelling, capitalization, punctuation, and subject verb agreement