Add a one-page 3-3-3 Trace Map to the next draft task and make it worth a visible slice of the grade. Collect it with the draft.
When you mark it explicitly, students re-engage with evidence quality. That is the win. If no grade value is attached, students will optimise for polish instead.
Choice 1: "I included ___ because ___." Choice 2: "I left out ___ because ___." Choice 3: "I changed my wording when I realised ___." Evidence points must come from class learning: an observation, a diagram, a sentence from the booklet.
One page alongside the draft: claim choice, evidence selection (kept and removed, with reasons), one verification move, one uncertainty. Conference the student for two minutes using the Trace Map as the script.
The Trace Map earns marks separately from the draft. Assess the quality of the decisions named, the reasoning given for each, and whether the evidence points are genuinely drawn from class resources. A student who can explain what they rejected and why is demonstrating the thinking that matters.
Use it as a conference script: ask the student to walk you through their three decisions. Two minutes is enough. Hard to fake without understanding.
Have I set the evidence condition clearly — class texts, notes, agreed sources — so the trace is about learning, not internet scavenging?
Keep language consistent across learning areas. Agree a shared cue in team meetings: "We assess the trace, not the tool." This reduces mixed messages for students and whānau.
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