rubric_gradations: 28

This data as json

id	skill_code	dimension	level	level_label	behavioral_description	sample_response	created_at	updated_at	active_version
28	L-FIGURATIVE	autonomy	4	Self-Directed	Student treats figurative language and word nuance as fundamental layers of meaning that are always operating in a text. Without prompting, identifies figures of speech, interprets their function, and evaluates their effectiveness. Notices patterns of figurative language across a text and analyzes how they accumulate to build tone or develop themes. Spontaneously distinguishes between near-synonyms in their own writing and in class discussion. Brings figurative language insights to discussion unprompted and uses them to advance interpretive arguments.	I've been tracking the animal imagery across the whole poem collection and 'the city gnawed at its own bones' fits into a pattern I want to bring up in discussion. In the first poem, the city 'breathes' — a gentle personification. By the third poem it 'stalks' and 'crouches.' Now in this final poem it's gnawing on its own skeleton. The animal metaphors escalate from passive to predatory to self-destructive, and that arc mirrors the poet's shifting relationship to urban life. I also want to point out that 'gnawed' is doing double work — it's animalistic, yes, but it also carries connotations of anxiety. People gnaw their nails, chew their lips. So the city isn't just a predator; it's a nervous creature, consuming itself out of some compulsive need rather than hunger. That makes the decay feel psychological, not just physical, which changes the whole reading of the final stanza.	2026-05-24 00:17:32	2026-05-26 01:43:59	1