ABSTRACT
There are different views, often passionately held, about how teachers can best assess and record children's progress in English and other lessons across the curriculum. Formative approaches to assessment give a richer picture of a Childs progress. These require careful observation of everyday work and activities and the recognition and recording of significant achievements. This approach is particularly appropriate for assessing progress in important parts of the English curriculum. The learning story is an appropriate way of charting young children's development in the kinds of thinking, feeling and use of language that is the meat and substance of English lessons. The learning story is an appropriate way of charting young children's development in the kinds of thinking, feeling and use of language that is the meat and substance of English lessons. Godwin and Perkins pinpoint the advantages of a format for assessment that keeps planning, assessment and recording together, recognising the part each plays in the cycle of learning.
