While it is argued that use of rubrics and exemplars has the potential to develop students' ability to distinguish quality, make evaluative judgments and take productive action, few studies have directly investigated the latter. To address this gap the current study employed classroom observations, eight focus groups interviews with 18 students and the collection of teaching-learning artefacts to investigate how two teacher educators and their students used rubrics and exemplars. Data analysis yielded two themes. The first theme spoke to a series of inter-connected supports deliberately set in place to foster and utilize students' evaluative and productive knowledge and skill. The second theme highlighted ways in which students compared understandings from in-class experiences with exemplars and rubrics to works-in-progress, bringing the latter closer to the expected standard of achievement. These findings provide an authentic picture of student engagement with rubrics and exemplars and offer insights into ways in which they applied evaluative and productive knowledge and skills to works-in-progress. It was concluded that the ways in which these tools were used not only supported development of students' evaluative and productive knowledge and skill, they played a key role in stimulating task related self-monitoring and self-regulation.