Like many districts across the country, the School District of Philadelphia requires that teachers implement frequent assessments regulated by a district-wide schedule. As a result, particular content and strategies need to be covered at stipulated times. Frequent assessment necessitates mastery by students of subject matter not always familiar to them. While the assessments are a gauge of proficiency of the required language art's elements, students often need many different ways in to the curriculum to which they are being exposed. A central aim articulated in AC's classroom is the bridging of the curriculum with assessment. By drawing on multiple curricular sources to meet state standards and district frameworks, she embeds continual and purposeful talk about assessment in the daily ritual of classroom work. Making sure students understand what they will be assessed on and why is a central thread that runs through AC's teaching.