American Eagles - Short Response Samples

In paragraph 2, the writer refers to eagles having “their ups and downs” over the years. According to the article, what were difficult times for eagles? Explain your answer with details and information from the article.

To get a 2, a paper must include the following:

  1. difficult times for eagles
  2. sufficient details from the article

Related information from the article:

Sample Responses

Score of 2 - These responses show a complete understanding of the task. They are accurate and include sufficient support from the article.

The eagle almost didn't make it on the official U.S. seal. The committees that designed it took six years to decide to use the eagle. Ben Franklin wanted the turkey. More recently, eagles were on the endangered species list because of DDT, hunters, and habitat threats.
One of the American eagles hard times was when the committees weren't going to have the bird on the design of the official seal of the United States. Ben Franklin wanted the turkey to be the emblem. But the hardest time of all was when they were heading for extinction because of hunters, DDT, and habitat threats.

Score of 1 - These responses show a partial understanding of the task. They are essentially correct, but they are too limited. Both responses need more specific details from the article.

Difficult times for the eagles was in 1963. They were on the endangered species list. There were only 417 nesting pairs. The most popular bird was almost extinct.
They almost didn't get the approval to be on the official seal. Then they were on the endangered species list.

Score of 0 - In both responses, the student failed to respond to the task. These responses need more information from the article to explain why bears are appearing in residential areas.

The difficult times were in the olden days.
They were being killed because they were such big birds. Humans thought they would attack.

Return to Activities Menu