While positive teacher-student relationships are at the heart of teaching and learning, it is no easy task to improve these relationships and cultivate caring classroom communities. This study drew on key elements of improvement science. Three 9th grade language arts teachers and one researcher collaborated to plan, implement, study and revise an instructional routine for improving relationships with and among students. As part of this collaboration, the group created a survey to learn about students' experiences in teachers' classrooms. Through qualitative data collection and analysis, I examined teachers' talk when collectively examining and discussing student survey data. Teachers' talk turned towards and away from deeper investigations of pedagogical practice and the student survey. I describe patterns of teacher talk and analyse two episodes for which teachers collectively investigated their pedagogical practice and the routine as it related to their classroom environment. These episodes revealed that talking about survey results encouraged teachers to assess their classroom communities formatively, led to the creation of a teacher learning environment, influenced teachers' practices, and evoked emotional and personal responses from teachers when looking at data connected to their classroom environments.