This report describes the development of a learning community in a fifth-grade writers' workshop across one school year and two girls' participation in the learning community. The report examines ways in which teacher-researchers' and students' notions and actions regarding collaboration changed; it also describes the curriculum in the writers' workshop in relation to the teacher-researchers' intentions and the way the curriculum was enacted across the year. Using sociolinguistic methodology, the paper analyzes the conversations that took place during October and March group work to understand both the social and academic aspects of talk in relation to the content (what was talked about) and processes (how social relations were achieved and how knowledge was constructed). Ways in which two girls, Nan and Heidi, revised their goals, roles, and actions as collaborators are described. Differences in the learning community in October and March are linked in the paper to differences in the form and substance of the girls' collaboration. The study provides insights into ways more was learned about: (1) when and if students were experiencing the kind of learning community they envisioned; and (2) how to uncover, understand, and explain linkages between the qualities of a learning community and student learning. Nine tables of data and four figures presenting curriculum strands in the writers' workshop, a sample student exercise called an "alphabet page," and two journal entries are included. (Contains 47 references.) (Author/RS)