Exemplars Before Rubrics

The strategy, as published

Exactly as it appears on the card

Part of Clarify Learning Intentions in 02 Formative Assessment, where it sits alongside its neighbouring strategies, the infographic and the thinking for the whole area.

Why you might use it

The problem it may help with

Rubrics describe quality; exemplars demonstrate it. A pupil can read 'uses precise vocabulary' and nod along without any idea what precision looks like in this subject at this level. Put two pieces of work side by side and the difference becomes something they can point at.

There is a second advantage the card names: pupils spot quality in someone else's work more readily than in their own. Judging an exemplar is rehearsal for judging themselves.

What it might look like

One version of it, in a classroom

Before a design evaluation, a technology teacher puts two anonymised evaluations from a previous year under the visualiser, one strong, one mid-standard. Pupils identify the differences in pairs, and those differences become the criteria for their own writing.

Try it

A way to begin

Save two or three anonymised pieces from this year's classes. That is the whole preparation; next year's lesson starts with them.

What to notice

Reading what happens

• The features pupils identify unprompted, and the ones they miss entirely. What they miss is what still needs teaching.
• Whether the qualities they named in the exemplar show up in their own work afterwards.

Things to think about

Before and while you use it

• The card says work at different standards, not just a single model of excellence. The contrast between pieces is where the noticing happens.
• Use work from other classes or previous years where you can. Whether a current pupil's work can be shown, even anonymised, is a judgement for the teacher who knows the class.

Related strategies

Where this connects

• 🤝 Build Success Criteria Together Ask students what excellent looks like before they begin. Their language, not yours, becomes the standard. Criteria they articulate themselves land far more deeply than criteria handed to them. 02 Formative Assessment · Clarify Learning Intentions
• 🔍 Structured Peer Assessment Peer feedback only works when students understand quality. Use exemplars first so students assess against shared criteria. Without shared criteria, peer feedback is opinion, not evidence. 02 Formative Assessment · Students as Learning Resources
• 📜 Sadler's Three Conditions Share the criteria before students begin. Show them how to compare their work against it. Give them time to act on what they find. Without all three steps, feedback cannot function. 03 Feedback · What Feedback Is
• 📏 Judge Against a Standard Zimmerman: self-judgement needs a reference, not a hunch. Give students the mark scheme or an exemplar to compare their work against, so evaluation is anchored to a real standard. 06 Metacognition & Self-Regulation · Self-Reflection & Evaluation

The wider thinking

Where the evidence sits

Sadler argued that pupils can only close a gap in quality they can actually perceive; Berger's work on models of excellence makes the same case from the classroom, with standards caught from real work rather than descriptions of it. The card’s attribution stands as published: Sadler, Berger.

The fuller picture, sources included, is in further reading and evidence for Formative Assessment.