Teachers' written responses to student writing cover a wide range, and through the kind and amount of response, they convey their values, beliefs, and priorities about language and learning, about the roles of teacher and student, and about the goals of writing. Researchers have found that students respond well to comments on concepts and structure, that the most effective comments are written in-process and focus attention on ideas and communication, and that a variety of responses, including peer responses, can be just as effective. Grammatical labels on final drafts are the most ineffective. Numerous attempts have been made to categorize teachers' responses; and while categories may differ among researchers, they seem to parallel each other in three areas: (1) the deficit model, which sees students as writers in need of remediation; (2) the developmental model, which sees student language as evolving; and (3) the contextual model, which incorporates the developmental model, adding another dimension, the discourse community. In a study of teacher response, 12 teachers at Lorain County Community College (Ohio) were asked to comment on one student essay. Most comments focused on mechanics, grammar, spelling, and organization, and the responses were categorized according to the three models, with the deficit model predominant (6 out of 12). Teachers must adopt a more comprehensive model, and to this end the contextual model is an ideal toward which they might strive. (Twenty-two references are attached; the student composition used in the study is appended.) (HB)