To examine how skilled and experienced teachers interact with pupils of varying abilities, an observational coding system was developed that focused on reading-oriented and classroom-behavior-oriented interactions. The teacher/child interactions of two experienced teachers who were acknowledged for their success in teaching reading were studied intensively, and the results were compared with the findings of a survey of the dyadic interactions of five randomly chosen second-grade teachers. In the study of the two teachers, there was a trend toward shorter and less frequent interactions between teachers and high achievers than between teachers and low achievers in the subcategories reading-oriented praise and instruction. Compared with the five randomly selected teachers, the teachers noted for their skill and experience were more sensitive to the needs of the individual child and showed more distinct patterns that distinguished between children. Praise was highly correlated with reading achievement: low achievers received frequent praise and higher achievers were praised only for exceptionally well-performed tasks. This was not the finding with the five other teachers, from whom praise was infrequent. (Author/AA)