AS 92048 Annotated exemplars

This annotated exemplar is intended for teacher use only. Annotated exemplars consist of student evidence, with commentary, to explain key parts of a standard. These help teachers make assessment judgements at the grade boundaries.

Download all exemplars and commentary [PDF, 468 KB]

Level 1 Social Studies assessment resources (external link) - NCEA.education

For Achieved, the student needs to demonstrate understanding of the findings of a Social Studies inquiry.

This involves describing findings that relate to the focus of inquiry and including relevant evidence from primary and secondary sources in the description.

Fast fashion has been selected as the focus of this inquiry, and the inquiry questions relate to the themes outlined in Explanatory Note 3 of the Achievement Standard.

The response demonstrates an understanding of the inquiry focus, and the depth of description meets the expectations at curriculum level 6. One key finding has been presented in relation to each question. These are typically presented at the start of each paragraph. For example, “consumerism is the main factor of fast fashion” and “the fast fashion industry abuses the human right of working conditions”. These findings have been supported with specific detail and by incorporating some evidence and examples.

Relevant evidence from primary and secondary sources have been used across the report. The student has provided quotes and photographs from a worker in a fast fashion factory, and referenced a range of different articles and websites both directly in the text and via footnotes.

For Merit, the student could have explained their findings in further depth. This would have included explaining the relevance of their selected primary and secondary source evidence by more thoroughly discussing how it supported their findings. For example, where the student discusses the treatment of women in fast fashion factories, they could have explicitly connected the human rights abuses described and how it reveals that “owners only care about making a profit”.

For Merit, the student needs to explain the findings of a Social Studies inquiry.

This involves explaining findings that address the focus of the inquiry and using evidence from primary and secondary sources to support the explanation.

This student has selected social media as the focus of their inquiry, and has provided an inquiry question which relates to themes outlined in Explanatory Note 3. The creation of a single focus question (as opposed to two or three) has enabled the student to report on their inquiry findings with greater depth and meet the requirements of the standard.

Several different findings in relation to the inquiry focus have been identified. These are often used as topic sentences at the beginning of each paragraph. The student has moved beyond a description (as required for Achieved) to an explanation, by considering how social media creates the opportunity for inclusive communities and activism, and then connecting this to the focus question.

Primary and secondary evidence has been used to support the findings. This includes referencing articles and research reports (secondary), as well quotes from an interview with a climate justice activist (primary). These have usually been used to support the explanation of the findings. Often these explanations of evidence begin with statements such as “this shows us” or “this proves”.

To have further secured the Merit, more consistent use of both primary and secondary sources to support key ideas would have been beneficial. For example, the findings could have considered more than one example of an activist who has found support in online communities.

For Excellence, the student could demonstrate evaluation via making judgements and drawing conclusions. They have begun to connect some ideas, through their considerations of how younger people’s familiarity with technology has made them more likely to be involved in online communities. However, this would need to be further developed to meet the requirements for Excellence. Other examples of making a judgement in this context could be demonstrating an understanding of the possible downsides of social media on young people’s self-esteem and identity, and drawing a conclusion around how much the positives may or may not outweigh the negatives.

For Excellence, the student needs to evaluate the findings of a social inquiry.

This involves evaluating findings that examine the focus of the inquiry by drawing well-reasoned conclusions and making judgements that critically connect ideas. Primary and secondary source evidence should be used to develop the explanation.

This student has made judgements throughout their report by connecting their findings to bigger ideas and concepts. Through well-crafted inquiry questions, the concept of consumerism has been used to connect the findings at a deeper level.

Evaluative judgements have been made in the last few sentences of inquiry questions 2 and 3, where the student has considered both the positive and negative impacts of fast fashion for different groups, and by further connecting the findings and ideas of consumerism in fast fashion to globalisation. Having an overarching question tying together the three inquiry questions may have further supported the student to draw conclusions.

Primary and secondary evidence has been extensively used throughout. The evidence has been carefully selected to support the key findings and, in many instances, multiple pieces of evidence have been combined to support the finding that is being examined. These are usually well explained in relation to the inquiry question. For example, the first paragraph of inquiry question 3 uses two different sources (one on Vietnam and one on Bangladesh) to illustrate the treatment of workers in fast fashion environments.