TEACHERS

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 Mathematics, Science and Technology Education (YSIMSTE).

For teachers, 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
  
• promote greater consistency in the assessment of student work across the province
  
• support teachers' feedback to students and communication with parents about ways to improve student performance
  
• provide concrete examples of the use of performance tasks in assessing achievement in science and technology

These exemplars can be used in a variety of ways:

• Use the teaching/learning activities outlined in the assessment tasks
  
• Use the assessment tasks and rubrics in this publication in designing comparable assessment tasks
  
• Use the samples of student work at each level as reference points when assessing student work
  
• Use the rubrics to clarify what is expected of the students and to discuss the criteria and standards for high-quality performance
  
• Review the samples of work with students and discuss how the performances reflect the levels of achievement
  
• Develop other assessment rubrics with colleagues and students
  
• Help students describe their own strengths and weaknesses and plan their next steps for learning
  
• Share student work with colleagues for consensus marking

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.