The current paper examines the discursive practices of one novice English as a Second Language (ESL) teacher "dealing with" learners' unexpected contributions in whole group classroom interactions during teacher- and learner-initiated sequences-of-talk. The study draws from two fields of research: classroom discourse studies investigating teachers addressing learner contributions in classroom interaction, and language teacher education research showing teacher expertise as a factor in the construction of classroom communication. Using conversation analytic methods, two initial practices emerged from the novice teacher's video-recorded data: "glossing over learner contributions" and "assuming the role of information provider." These practices are presented with a focus on the sequential environments in which they occur and the various interactional resources used to construct them. The paper concludes with a discussion of how these findings contribute to both the classroom discourse and language teacher education literatures.