A study examined the relationship between teacher's conceptions and practices during writing instruction. A pool of 27 third-, fourth-, and fifth-grade teachers completed structured questionnaires on their conceptions about writing instruction. From the original pool, 10 subjects were chosen because they held the most disparate conceptions about writing instruction. Five teachers were identified with a strong externally focused perspective in which the teacher's role is to inform students about and evaluate students' production of language forms. Five teachers with an internally focused perspective expressed high agreement with the conception that the student informs the teacher about and self-evaluates the function of a written piece. Data were gathered through interviews with the subjects and a four-month classroom observation. Results indicated that significant differences existed between the two groups of teachers in their conceptions of student informancy status, goals, and evaluation during writing instruction. Results also revealed significant differences in the teachers' classroom practices that were positively related to differences in conceptions about writing instruction. (Four tables of data are included; 20 references and 4 appendixes containing a conceptions questionnaire, teacher interview form, observational guidelines, and rating scale analysis are attached.) (KEH)