Grade 6 B.E.S.T. Writing Sample Test Materials

Grade 6

B.E.S.T. Writing

Sample Test Materials

The purpose of these sample test materials is to orient teachers and students

to the appearance of passages and prompts on paper-based accommodated

B.E.S.T. Writing tests. Each spring, students in grades 4–10 are administered

one text-based writing prompt for the B.E.S.T. Writing test. Students will

respond to either an expository prompt or to an argumentative prompt. An

example of a text-based writing prompt for each grade is available for

practice. To familiarize students with the response formats, teachers may

encourage students to practice with each type of prompt within a grade band.

The following B.E.S.T. Writing sample test materials are available on the

Florida Statewide Assessments Portal as shown below:

Elementary Grade Band

Grade 4 - Expository

Grade 5 - Argumentative

Middle Grade Band

Grade 6 - Expository

Grade 7 - Argumentative

Grade 8 - Expository

High School Grade Band

Grade 9 - Argumentative

Grade 10 - Expository

The sample test materials are not intended to guide classroom instruction.

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To offer students a variety of texts on the B.E.S.T. Writing tests, authentic

and copyrighted stories, poems, and articles appear as they were originally

published, as requested by the publisher and/or author. While these

real-world examples do not always adhere to strict style conventions and/or

grammar rules, inconsistencies among sources should not detract from

students’ ability to understand and answer questions about the texts.

All trademarks and trade names found in this publication are the property

of their respective owners and are not associated with the publishers of this

publication.

Every effort has been made to trace the ownership of all copyrighted

material and to secure the necessary permissions to reprint selections.

Some items are reproduced with permission from Cambium Assessment, Inc.,

as copyright holder or under license from third parties.

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B.E.S.T. Writing Sample Items

Writing Prompt

Write an expository essay about the ways gold has been used

throughout history.

Your expository essay must be based on this prompt and topic, and it

must incorporate ideas and information found in the sources provided.

Use your best writing to complete an essay that

• is focused on your central idea;

• combines evidence from multiple sources with your own

elaboration to develop your ideas;

• is organized and includes transitions within and among ideas;

• provides citations for quoted material and source ideas; and

• demonstrates correct use of grammar and language

appropriate to the task.

Write your multiparagraph essay to an academic audience in the space

provided.

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B.E.S.T. Writing Sample Items

Read the “Gold Throughout History” sources.

Gold Throughout History

Source 1: Gold’s Glittery Rewards

by Sarah Webb

1 Gold is a metal. It conducts electricity, and it can be shaped into

sheets, long wires, or rings. Gold is an element—a substance made of

one kind of atom. As an element, gold has its own square on the

periodic table of chemical elements.

2 Gold also represents beauty and value, and it has done so for

thousands of years. It’s part of our culture and history.

3 Why do we value gold so much? It has a distinctive color. No other

metal is a shiny yellow. It’s also quite rare. . . .

Rare metal

4 Even though gold has many special properties, the main reason for

its value is its rarity.

5 Researchers estimate that the total amount of gold ever mined

would fit into 60 tractor trailers, [researcher Jim] Webster says. This

might seem like a lot—until you compare it with iron. Iron mining and

smelting companies produce six times that amount every year.

6 Because of its value, people have made coins out of gold, and

banks store gold in the form of bars. Some people collect gold coins or

trade gold in international markets. Its current value is more than $600

per ounce.

Electronic gold

7 Most gold that’s mined today still goes into making jewelry. You

also see it in Olympic medals and many other special awards, including

the Oscar statuettes that honor movies.

8 But modern electronics and the journey into space have helped give

gold an important place in the technology that we use every day.

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B.E.S.T. Writing Sample Items

9 Audio and video cables often have gold-coated plugs for two

reasons. Gold conducts electricity better than all but two other metals,

Webster says. And because gold doesn’t corrode,

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the surface on the

plug stays clean.

10 For the same reasons, computer chips also often contain gold, as

do a variety of other electronic components.

11 We’ve also launched gold into space.

12 Gold reflects heat better than any other metal. The visor on an

astronaut’s helmet has an ultrathin layer of gold. The layer is thin

enough to be transparent, so the astronaut can still see through it.

But this thin layer reflects the sun’s heat away from the astronaut.

13 The [American Museum of Natural History’s] gold exhibit includes a

helmet from the Apollo 11 mission, when astronauts first landed on the

moon in 1969.

14 Even after thousands of years, gold remains a precious metal—one

that has long been prized for its glitter and is now more useful than ever.

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corrode: to wear away or decay

Reprinted by permission of Science News for Students via Copyright Clearance Center.

Source 2: Good as Gold

by Meg Moss

15 In 1972, archaeologists in Varna, Bulgaria, dug up some of the

oldest gold objects ever found. The bracelets, necklaces, and

headbands are 6,500 years old. Fresh from the dirt, they looked as if

they’d just been polished. The ancient people who lived in these

settlements didn’t have writing or iron tools. But it’s clear that like us,

they loved gold.

The Lure of Gold

16 Gold is magical stuff. It’s so soft you can cut it with a stone knife.

It’s easy to shape. It can be pounded into sheets thinner than tissue

paper and stretched into slender wire. It’s beautiful. Sometimes you

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B.E.S.T. Writing Sample Items

can find it just lying on the ground. And gold never rusts or tarnishes.

It looks great forever.

17 Gold is born in space, when huge old stars collide. Long ago,

meteorites rained down on the new planet Earth. Those space rocks

scattered gold on Earth’s surface. Today, scientists think that about one

atom in every billion atoms of rock is gold. That’s not much!

18 Gold often collects in quartz rocks. Over time, as the rock is worn

away by wind and water, the gold washes down into rivers. Ancient

gold-hunters soon learned that where they found some gold, more was

likely hiding.

Richest Man Ever?

19 The continent of Africa has always been rich in gold. Ancient

Egyptians worked gold mines throughout their kingdom to supply

royalty with jewelry, ornaments . . . and even sandals.

20 Other African kingdoms also mined gold. They hammered it into

beautiful objects and traded it for goods from far away. In the

14th century, King Mansa Musa of Mali amassed so much gold that he

may have been the richest man in the world, ever. When he made a

pilgrimage to Mecca in 1324, his enormous caravan included

80 camels, each loaded with 300 pounds (136 kg) of gold. He spread

so much gold around that it lost much of its worth. It took 10 years for

gold to become valuable again.

Sweat of the Sun . . .

21 The ancient Inca people of South America also loved gold. They

called it the sweat of the sun. In Mexico, the Aztecs amassed great

collections of gold jewelry, dishware, ornaments, and idols. . . .

Back to Space

22 What do people do with gold today? Most is made into jewelry.

Some is used in cellphones and other electronics. Gold also makes

great heat shields on satellites and space helmets.

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B.E.S.T. Writing Sample Items

23 And NASA’s newest telescope will be gold-plated. The James Webb

Space Telescope has 18 big mirrors coated with a very thin layer of

gold. Gold reflects the dim red light from distant galaxies better than

any other material.

24 The Webb Telescope is aiming to launch in 2020. So some of the

gold that rained down on the baby Earth may soon be back up in

space—maybe snapping pictures of its distant home.

Cricket Media via Copyright Clearance Center.

Source 3: Cash, Charge, or . . . GOLD?

by Rachael Ann Mare

25 Have you ever seen real gold? It’s shiny and tough and is a bold,

bright yellow color. It’s great for wedding rings and other jewelry. Some

people even have gold teeth. But did you know that gold was used as

money for thousands of years?

26 Gold was first used as money around 6,000 years ago in

Mesopotamia (part of modern-day Iraq). Merchants used gold bars to

pay for expensive things. The bars were all different sizes. They had to

be weighed to find out how much they were worth. And they were

heavy. These problems made gold bars hard to use.

27 About 2,600 years ago, the people of Lydia (where Turkey is today)

began to use metal—and, eventually, gold—to make money. They

made coins that were small and all weighed the same amount. People

in nearby countries saw how easy it was to use these coins. Eventually,

people in other parts of the world began to make their own coins.

28 As wealthy people got more and more gold, they wanted a place to

keep it safe. In England, in the late 1600s, people called goldsmith

bankers began offering safekeeping for gold. The goldsmith bankers

gave their customers a note in exchange for their gold. Bank notes

were promises to pay back the gold. In time, people began to use the

bank notes instead of gold to pay for things.

29 Today, gold is important to many people. It seems that this precious

yellow metal will never go out of style.

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B.E.S.T. Writing Sample Items

Amazing Gold Facts

30 Unlike other metals, gold never rusts or tarnishes. . . .

31 One ounce of gold can be stretched into a wire many miles long, or

hammered into 100 square feet of foil.

32 The Apollo 11 astronauts who landed on the Moon in 1969 wore

gold-coated visors to protect their eyes from the intense sunlight.

33 Today, gold is used in computers, cell phones, telescopes, space

shuttles, lasers, eye surgery, arthritis treatment, and much more.

Reprinted by permission of Cricket Media via Copyright Clearance Center.

Source 4: Pages of Gold

by Sarah Novak

34 Glittering crowns, glowing halos, gleaming vines, even glistening

words—all these golden treasures can be found in special book

illustrations. These pictures and decorations are called illuminations.

Illuminate means to light up—and centuries ago, real gold was used on

the pages of books to make them shine and sparkle.

35 Before the printing press was invented, books were made by

hand. . . . Words were written on the parchment by a scribe, using

ink in a pen made from a feather or quill. The scribe left blank spaces

on some pages for illustrations. These included decorated margins,

big initial letters, and detailed pictures.

36 Next the illuminator carefully added gold to the page. First, a sticky

concoction made from clay or sap was painted on specific areas. Then a

very thin piece of gold, called gold leaf, was attached there. The gold

was polished to bring out the shine. To complete the decoration, vivid

colors of paint and ink were added. Finally, the pages were stitched

together inside wooden boards covered with leather or cloth.

37 In the early Middle Ages, most books were made in monasteries. . . .

The scribes’ workshop was called a scriptorium. Later on in the Middle

Ages, the demand for books increased. Books with lavish illuminations

became a status symbol for wealthy people. Workshops for each step of

making a book were established in cities.

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B.E.S.T. Writing Sample Items

Did you know?

38 In medieval France, streets often were named for the craftspeople

who worked there. For instance, Rue des Enlumineurs was “the street

of the illuminators.”

39 Today, most illuminated books are in museums or special libraries.

And their golden pages still shine as they did 1,000 years ago.

of Cricket Media via Copyright Clearance Center.

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B.E.S.T. Writing Sample Items

Write an expository essay about the ways gold has been used

throughout history.

Your expository essay must be based on this prompt and topic, and it

must incorporate ideas and information found in the sources provided.

Use your best writing to complete an essay that

• is focused on your central idea;

• combines evidence from multiple sources with your own

elaboration to develop your ideas;

• is organized and includes transitions within and among ideas;

• provides citations for quoted material and source ideas; and

• demonstrates correct use of grammar and language

appropriate to the task.

Write your multiparagraph essay to an academic audience in the space

provided.

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Writing Prompt

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Office of Assessment

Florida Department of Education, Tallahassee, Florida