To gain insight into why students frequently misunderstand their teachers' written responses to compositions, this paper looks in depth at one promising ninth grade student's processing of teacher written comments in a response-rich classroom, considering the larger learning contexts that impinge on the student's interpretations. The various sections of the paper cover: (1) perspectives on the case study method; (2) the teaching philosophy of the teacher; (3) background information on the student; (4) the nature of the writing assignment; (5) the teacher's actual written comments, which are analyzed in terms of discovering shared information between student and teacher and discovering demonstrated student skill; (6) the match or mismatch between the teacher's and student's understandings of the comments; and (7) the value systems that lead to how teacher and student interpreted comments. The paper concludes that the written response round (interaction between responder and recipient through the medium of written comment) invokes a complex problem-solving activity requiring the student to incorporate not only information and skills that ideally match the teacher's, but also a host of values that are formed by a full social and school context. It notes further that there are unsuccessful written response rounds even under good teaching conditions, which indicates that the student's values can be enough out of line with the teacher's to interfere with a close match between their definitions of writing problems and solutions. (SKC)