A study examined one first-grade teacher's use of inquiry pedagogy to maximize literacy learning and teaching in her classroom. The setting for the study was a classroom in the Cleveland, Ohio, School District. In this classroom literacy events build upon students' prior knowledge and experience gleaned from their lives outside the classroom and from what they do within the classroom community. Data were collected through interviews during the first 10 weeks of the school year. Inductive data analysis uncovered tentative categories that were refined through the constant-comparative method. A pattern emerges from analysis of the data, appearing in several variants. Comments in the data indicated segments pertaining to evaluation yielded four domains: observing, listening, assessing, and self-evaluating. The two domains that emerged from analysis of the data relevant to documentation are individual and wholistic. Many data segments demonstrate how information gathered feeds back into the decision making process in both formative and summative ways. Results indicated six significant dimensions of the inquiry pedagogy: (1) prospective/retrospective; (2) molar/molecular; (3) question answering/question asking; (4) planful/in flight; (5) formality/informality; and (6) introspective/enacted. Findings suggest that reciprocity, with the teacher as the learner and the learners as teachers, and both as inquirers, is the essence of inquiry pedagogy. Implications for staff development are that issues of process and affect need to be addressed and the evolving nature of the inquiry pedagogy process needs support. Further research is suggested. (Contains a table of data, 2 figures, and 30 references.) (CR)