STUDENTS

Welcome to the ASAP Exemplars. This project is a cooperative one involving 12-22 district school boards in Ontario and the York/Seneca Institute for Science, Technology and Education (YSISTE).

For students, the purpose of exemplars in science and technology is to:

• show the characteristics of student work at each of the four levels of achievement in Grades 1-8
  
• demonstrate what is required for their achievement level to increase
  
• increase understanding of the grades received in report cards
  
• motivate students towards improved performance

When you are given clear expectations for learning, clear criteria for assessment, and immediate and helpful feedback, your performance improves. Your performance also improves as you take responsibility for your own achievement and reflect on your own progress.

These exemplars will assist your learning in the following ways:

• You will be introduced to a model of one type of task that will be used to assess your learning, and will discover how rubrics can be used to improve your product or performance on an assessment task
  
• The assessment tasks and the exemplars will help clarify the curriculum expectations for learning
  
• The rubrics and the information given in the tasks themselves will help clarify the assessment criteria
  
• With an increased awareness of the assessment tasks and rubrics, you will be more likely to communicate effectively about your achievement with your teachers and parents, and to ask relevant questions about your own progress
  
• You can use the criteria and the range of student samples to help you see the differences in the levels of achievement. By analysing and discussing these differences, you will gain an understanding of ways in which they can assess their own responses and performances in related assignments and identify the qualities needed to improve your achievement.

Before looking at the exemplars for the first time, it is essential to review the FEATURES of the ASAP Exemplars. It might also be useful to review the BACKGROUND to the ASAP Exemplars, which describes the overall project and how the exemplars were obtained and selected. When you are ready to access the exemplars themselves, return to the EXEMPLARS HOME PAGE.