English teachers' approaches to the problems of assessment and evaluation have been characterized by uncertainty and confusion, and this uncertainty is communicated to students. It is not simply that students do not know "how" they are being judged; they do not know "when" they are being judged. They soon begin to stop taking risks and fail to articulate their difficulties. These considerations have led to a model of evaluation, to guide teachers in their day-to-day work, that can be applied to individual instructional units, or over a longer time period. In the space of a single unit, the teacher is required to undertake four quite distinct evaluative tasks: (1) monitoring and describing performance, (2) reflecting on progress, (3) appreciating or judging quality, and (4) determining accomplishments and what should be undertaken next. The model demands that teaching be so organized that students know when each of these tasks is or is not in progress. The model urges teachers to recognize that many of the students' experiments and mistakes are a necessary part of the learning process, that such experiences are confidential to the learning process and should not be the basis for judging the quality of the students' work. It reminds teachers that it is not necessary that the product of every unit be judged. It also suggests that an important part of the teacher's role is to encourage the students to develop self-evaluation skills. (HOD)