Book excerpt: This book is a practical guide to implementing assessment strategies that will engage with and support children's learning, improve progress and raise confidence and self-esteem. It explains how formative assessment can be developed as an integral element of good classroom practice by taking the core themes of planning, sharing learning intentions, pupil self-evaluation, feedback and target setting, and placing them in the context of literacy, numeracy and the New Zealand curriculum. It also looks at the use of questioning as a tool for effective teaching, ways to raise pupil's self-esteem and frameworks for monitoring progress.