* Abbreviation: RIME — : reporter, interpreter, manager, educator “Learner assessment” usually refers to assigning ratings and writing comments on forms at the end of a rotation. Although these are important aspects of assessment, assessment can begin the moment a preceptor meets a learner, and it can set the stage for a meaningful learning experience. Whether the time together is one half-day session or several weeks, preceptors who assess their learners’ competence, knowledge, and interests “in the moment” can help target their teaching to the learners’ goals and needs. This article, which is next in the series by the Council on Medical Student Education in Pediatrics about the skills of great clinical teachers, provides strategies for an for Learning. Assessment encompasses gathering data about a learner’s performance through observation and interactions, providing feedback, recording observations and ratings, and synthesizing data to make summary recommendations about a learner. Assessment for learning, sometimes called formative assessment, includes those aspects of assessment that shape the learner’s abilities.1 Clinical teachers are ideally suited to assess for learning in clinical work environments, beginning in the first moments when meeting a learner.2 The benefits of assessing a learner’s knowledge, abilities, and goals at the beginning of a teaching interaction include the following: 1. Preceptors are better able to … Address correspondence to Janice L. Hanson, PhD, EdS, MH, Washington University in Saint Louis, Room 320, Becker Library, Campus Box 8214, 660 S Euclid Ave, Saint Louis, MO 63110. E-mail: janicehanson{at}wustl.edu