Teachers possess several strategies to fine-tune their purposive interactions to children's needs. Our study investigates which strategies teachers use in their goal oriented interactions with pupils, whether differentiation is perceptible in the way they interact with children whom they define as "children at risk" as compared to the other children in the classroom. The study is qualitative descriptive, on the base of a multiple-case study design; six teachers were followed at several stages in the educational process. Classroom observations and interviews with the teachers are analysed by means of pattern analysis. In this article, we describe two patterns found, hunting the label and positioning. The results of our study might be useful for estimating the effects of different purposive interactions on a pupil's learning processes. (Contains 1 table, 1 figure and 4 notes.)