This study is concerned with possible differences in interaction patterns between teachers and certain groups of students: high and low achievers, and boys and girls. Detailed and comprehensive records of all verbal teacher-student interactions, both public and private, were obtained through videotaping a grade 6 class in three different settings: mathematics, language and science. While there was much consistency in the way the teacher monitored in this study interacted with the different groups, some important differences occurred in the quality and quantity of his interactions with students perceived as ‘best’ and ‘weakest’, and with boys and girls in mathematics classes.