This article presents a comprehensive model of daily, classroom informal writing assessment that is constantly linked to instruction and the characteristics of proficient writers. Methods for promoting teacher, student, and parent collaboration and their roles in dialoguing, conferencing, and reflection are discussed. Strategies for including struggling writers in this process as peer listeners/questioners and individual self-questioners who regulate their own learning and set future goals are explored. Informal writing assessments such as observations, interest and self-efficacy inventories, checklists, using rubrics to analyze writing samples, and the development and management of electronic portfolios are discussed in the context of a literate classroom writing environment. (Contains 1 figure.)