Why Teachers Should Create Multiple Exemplars
A what-how-why guide to creating exemplars for assessments
If this year is like most school years, from now until its conclusion I will be overly reflective in considering what has worked and what needs to be changed—including conversations with students on these very questions.
Within this reflective process, however, I also anticipate some moments when I observe something about an ongoing practice or system that I currently take for granted because it has been a staple of my teaching for quite some time.
But I don’t think it’s helpful to take anything for granted. Hence posts like these.
My goal: to deconstruct a what in my classroom, to unpack it with a how and then, of course, include a why.
So without further ado, let’s begin with this one: creating multiple of my own exemplars for assessments.
What: Creating Exemplars (Plural) for Assessments
At this point in my classroom, the “assessment creating” process consists of three major prongs: 1) identify the priority skills/standards of the unit and how they need to be assessed, 2) design what the rubric look like as far as assessing and offering feedback, and 3) based on that rubric, create MULTIPLE samples for students to refer to as they move through the assessment.
Yes, multiple. (More on why later in this post.)
For example, in the image above you will see a brief constructed response quiz that our 10th graders recently took on the RL.6 standard. Along with the skill explanation and rubric, they were offered an exemplar response for both the proficient (3.0/4.0) and proficient-plus (3.5/4.0) scores—side-by-side, too. (There is also a hyperlinked response of what a 4.0/4.0 exceeding score would look like.)
So pretty much across the board at this point in our classroom, if you asked me what students receive as far as tools/guidelines on any assessment, it’s a three-fold answer:
Explanation of the standard/skill being assessed
Rubric explaining criteria/descriptions for each level
Multiple exemplars they can use as guides for their own work
How: Rubric Then Draft…Then Draft Again
Does this take time? Of course it does, and as Jim and I often have talked about on the podcast, there is never enough time. But especially once you have taught a course once and have saved your materials, you can begin expanding the resources you can offer the second time around.
This starts with a well-written rubric—which should include, if you can, working with colleagues to norm on what is expected and how it is described.
I think back to my early years teaching, and this was a step I skipped far too often. Sometimes I would even work backwards from a single exemplar I wrote and create the rubric based on the exemplar. Whoops! (By the way, there were lots of “whoops” moves in those first few years, but we’ll save story time for another day.)
Once you have a rubric that you feel good about, aim for a proficient sample—something that clearly meets the all expectations of the standard. Then after reviewing the sample against the rubric, revise or re-write it to go above the proficient level—and, if you can, add comments/explanations of what that “above-and-beyond” looks like (see image below). Plus, by doing it this way, it also saves you time while creating a “path” from proficient to above-and-beyond for students.
Again, this is the order I follow almost religiously at this point in my classroom for assessments: design rubric, write proficient sample, compare against rubric, write above-proficient (or exceeding) sample, compare against rubric again.
Rinse and repeat.
Why: Modeling, Accountability, Authenticity
I won’t go into the “why” as far as the importance of rubrics and exemplars, as I feel like those are are normed pretty soundly at this point in education—which is a good thing! (and I will add: simple/focused rubrics are usually better than complicated ones.)
Instead, I want to use this space to make the case as to why it is worth it to create not just one but multiple exemplars for assessments:
By offering multiple models for students, the path to growth is much more versatile in meeting students where they are at. In the examples I’ve listed above, not only can a student who did not quite meet the proficient level compare their response to the first exemplar—also, the proficient-scoring student has a path forward to the “next level,” too! Especially when paired with a classroom norm around revisions for continuous growth, these exemplars become critical tools in helping students avoid settling at a fixed point of learning.
There is also a built-in accountability to creating your own samples as a teacher. First and foremost, it helps you understand your own rubrics even more—and sometimes you will realize your own mistakes either with the expectations or rubric itself by putting yourself through the process. Moreover, as a teacher you want to avoid putting an assessment in front of students without understanding it as much as possible. The easiest way to deepen that understanding? Do it yourself.
Finally, I have come to genuinely appreciate the authenticity that comes from going through the exemplar-creating process in a transparent way with students. Even with narrative writing, free-writes, etc., I try to have a sample available that I have created myself. An added benefit from this, too? It is a great opportunity—particularly at the beginning of the year—for me to share parts of my own story with students in a purposeful, academic manner, helping to build a culture of trust and story-telling in our classroom community.
Also, one fun final tip: name all sample essays after your own favorite teachers! There have been many “Samantha Murphy” and “Brian Hanna” samples in classrooms in Oregon and Arkansas at this point, too, along with many others, such as “Kurt Hargett” below.
A cool, quiet way to pay tribute that always makes me smile—especially when students ask, “So who is this Samantha Murphy on all these sample essays?” Talk about paying a positive legacy forward, right!
So Exemplars—Pretty Exciting Stuff, Eh?
I’ll admit, it is often much more fun to celebrate a “peak-level” classroom discussion or to talk about a foundational part of classroom culture in these posts. Going through the nuts-and-bolts of assessment creation doesn’t have the same vibe, at least from the writing perspective.
Yet I also think back on my early years teaching, and how I really would have appreciated more mundane-yet-pragmatic paths to making a strong classroom for students, so I do hope to lean more into this in the coming months here. (And feel free to offer feedback about how you like posts like this as well as other things you’d like Jim and I to focus on!)
Finally, we genuinely appreciate the continued support from our readers and listeners—and especially those who are willing to share what we’re building here at The Broken Copier!
We are only a few more subscribers away from our “Spring Break” goal, too, so never hesitate to forward this out to those you know. The goal is to keep building this community so that we have as many perspectives as possible from educators all over, as we firmly believe that we are better individually as teachers when we are considering as many different perspectives collectively as possible.
Much gratitude on our end, and hope for a strong finish to the year for all of you reading and listening!
—Marcus