As part of an ongoing research collaboration with university-based researchers, Nancy and her teaching partner, Meredith, implemented a loosely defined system of portfolios to supplement the other forms of assessment in their classroom. School-based and university-based researchers interviewed children to assess children's perspectives of their growth and progress. Situated within this larger study, the primary focus of this article is to present a sociolinguistic analysis of talk between one English language learner, Unesha, and her ESL teacher, Nancy, as they discuss Unesha's written artifacts collected within her portfolio. Using methods from discourse analysis, the authors focus on a narrow segment of transcript to demonstrate the various discourse strategies Nancy uses to help Unesha explore and articulate her understanding of her growth and progress in relation to written artifacts. The intent of this analysis is to help provide insights for other teachers and researchers who wish to explore how discourse strategies may scaffold a student's reflection and to provide insight into the challenges posed to teachers as they attempt to engage students in self-reflection around their work. Through a close reading of the transcribed interactions, the authors emphasize how the discussion affords an opportunity for the teacher Nancy to listen carefully to the student Unesha in order to discover what Unesha knows and to scaffold Unesha's explorations so that Unesha may talk in meaningful ways about her work. (Contains 1 table.)